Agenda item

Report by Director of Finance

The H&S Annual Report is a summary of performance and is part of the corporate governance framework.  It seeks to provide the Committee with assurance that arrangements for managing health safety are suitable and sufficient whilst identifying areas for improvement.

The Committee is asked to note and accept the contents of the Health and Safety (H&S) Annual Report and the work of the H&S Team to support services and improve performance keeping employees and customers safe.

The Committee was presented the Health and Safety Annual Report 2022/23 by the County Health and Safety Manager, Paul Lundy.

The H&S Annual Report was a summary of Health and safety performance over the past year and was part of the corporate governance framework. It seeks to provide the Committee with assurance that arrange for managing Health Safety were suitable and sufficient whilst identifying areas for improvement.

The Committee raised the following points:

• It was surprising that there were no inspections of school play equipment in maintained schools, but for maintained schools, budgets were devolved along with delegated responsibility for repairs and maintenance. Schools valued the importance of outdoor space especially during Covid but in context of general pressures on schools and balancing their budgets and keeping their sites maintained, items such as the maintenance of play equipment sometimes were put to the bottom of the list of priorities. As part of the traded service the Council worked with schools to ensure that play equipment was inspected, and any remedial work was prioritised and carried out by OCC approved contractors. 
• There were high incident rates of threats in relation to lone working and staff safety. It had been a priority for the Council to mitigate the violence and abusive behaviour in recent years. The number of alerts raised by staff on the lone worker system was also viewed as a positive indicator as this showed the app was being used.  Where alerts were raised, these included accidental activation, failure to clock back in or lone worker seeking reassurance.  Whether a genuine alert requiring SOS assistance or accidental, an escalation protocol was followed, and appropriate action taken. Lone working was a key H&S priority and the Council’s lone worker and zero tolerance: abusive and threatening behaviour policies had been strengthened.
• The Officer would respond directly to the Deputy Chair on the point about mitigating the risks to life for firefighters as he was unaware of the specific incident referred to in the meeting.

ACTION: The County H & S Manager to provide a response for the Deputy Chair on the point about mitigating the risk to life for firefighters.

The points raised by the Committee included:

·       Some clarification was given on the diagrams on pages 107-109 of the report to assist in understanding of what they represented.

·       The accidents in school playgrounds had gone down during Covid but had started to increase in 2022/23 as life and activity had returned to normal, this was not a surprise. Generally, most accidents in schools tended to be very minor.

·       With respects to the health and wellbeing of staff, the Council’s Wellbeing Strategy and Action Plan (led by Human Resources as part of the Delivering the Future Programme) set out what was being done as an employer to support employee mental health. There was also an Employee Assistance Programme in place and available to all staff 24/7. 

·       In respect of agile working, under H&S legislation as an employer, the Council had a responsibility for staff and the equipment they were using whether at home or in the office. A new agile working policy was currently being developed by HR and would provide further guidance in this area which was a key priority for the Council. It was important to look after the staff that could face confrontation when they were on their own. The option to work in the office was always given where appropriate according to operational need.

·       It was queried why Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons had not been referenced as they were very hazardous and used on highways.

ACTION: The County H & S Manager to provide a response for the Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons question for Councillor Middleton.

Resolved: that the Committee noted and accepted the contents of the Health and Safety (H&S) Annual Report and the work of the H&S Team to support services and improve performance keeping employees and customers safe.