Agenda and minutes

Any member (which includes councillors and staff representatives) who is substituting for another member should so indicate, together with the name of the relevant absent member.

The following substitution was declared:

Natasha Holdgate substituting for Lance Alexander.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Cliff Waterman and from Lance Alexander, Paul Goodspeed and Gary Quilter. 

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 21 October 2019 (copy attached).

The minutes of the meeting held on 21 October 2019 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Report No: HSS/WS/20/001

The Sub-Committee received and noted Paper No: HSS/WS/20/001, which were the notes of the West Suffolk Health and Safety Group meeting held on 8 January 2020.

Paper No: HSS/WS/20/002

The Sub-Committee received and Paper No: HSS/WS/20/002, which provided statistics relating to accidents/incidents involving West Suffolk Council employees and members of the public for the period from 1 August 2019 to 30 November 2019.

The Service Manager (Health and Safety) drew relevant issues to the attention of the Sub-Committee, including providing details of the types and locations of accidents/incidents of employees and members of the public during the reporting period.  He then reported the amount of days lost due to workplace accidents/incidents covering the same period.

In response to a question raised regarding whether staff were provided with support following violence at work incidents, the Sub-Committee was informed that training and counselling was provided for reception workers and all front-line staff.

Following on from discussions which took place on mental health, Councillor Karen Richardson suggested the Council should consider running a mental health training session for councillors to enable them to be able to react and identify the signs.

The Service Manager (Health and Safety) informed the Sub-Committee that the Council had 16 members of staff who were mental health first aiders.

There being no decision required, the Sub-Committee noted the contents of the report.

The Sub-Committee received a verbal report from the Service Manager (Health and Safety) on the 2019 Christmas Fayre.  He stated that he had not yet had a debrief with the Police, this was due to take place in the last week of February 2020.

It was estimated that over 130,000 people had attended the Christmas Fayre over the three days.

The Council was currently looking for a new location for the operations room and stewards’ room from 2020 onwards, as the Cabedra Library would no longer be available for use. 

He then provided a summary which covered the following areas:

Hostile mitigation; traffic management; Cambridge marquees, the fairground; fireworks display; Buttermarket traders; thefts; timings; parking and ride; PAT testing; car parks; excursion coaches; Abbey Gardens; CCTV; crowd control; Class site; Greene King car park; waste; radios; security and stewards.

St Johns Ambulance dealt with 51 incidents over the Christmas fayre period.  However, only two of those were fayre related.  St Johns Ambulance also deployed mobile units on pushbikes, which work extremely well around the town.

A total of eight children were reported over the event, all were reunited with the parents or guardians within a few minutes.

The Sub-Committee considered the verbal report and suggested there needed to be more publicity around where the toilets were located during the event.

The Sub-Committee also raised concerns about members of the public taking their dogs to the event and asked if officers could look into how this could be discouraged.  In response the Service Manager (Health and Safety) explained that it was a public area but suggested any publicity could say “think about not bringing your pet”.

There being no decision required, the Sub-Committee noted the contents of the verbal report.

The Sub-Committee received a verbal report from the Service Manager (Health and Safety) on health and wellbeing events held during the period September – December 2019 as follows:

September - Know your numbers with Cholesterol checks on the 9 September and Mini Health Checks on the 10 September, and full health checks on 26 September 2019.

October - Mental Health Day 10 October in which we had Realise futures in doing stress testing relaxation (hand massage) also giving out flu vouchers for those who had requested them.

November - Men’s Health was the focus with events at WSH and West Suffolk Operational Hub and Haverhill Depot which covered diabetes, smoking, Metal Health, AF testing with people coming from Workfit, Bury Physio and Realise futures.  The last of this year’s NHS Health Checks.

December- No events due to Christmas.  However, to support the Police Don’t drink campaign we undertook random drug and alcohol tests across the authority.

During 2020, the following events were scheduled:

-      January: Healthy eating

-      February: Love your heart

-      March: Making good use of your free time

-      April: Movement

-      May: Mental health awareness week

-      June: Sun awareness

-      July: Sugar / cholesterol checks

-      August: Menopause

-      September: Cancer awareness

-      October: Stop-tober and flu vouchers

-      November: Men’s health

-      December: Managing your money.

Councillor Karen Richardson was pleased to see the council held wellbeing sessions on the menopause.  She then suggested the Council might wish to contact Tania Watson at MenoHealth who held MenoClasses in Haverhill (contact details: tania.watson@menohealth.co.uk).  MenoClass was the first of its kind in the UK to offer support, education and exercise to help you to take control of menopause.  The Service Manager (Health and Safety) agreed to look into this further.

There being no decision required, the Sub-Committee noted the verbal report.

The Sub-Committee received a verbal report from the Service Manager (Health and Safety) on an internal course being held by the Council on 16-18 March 2020 for line managers or supervisors on IOSH Managing Safely (Institute of Occupational Health and Safety).

There being no decision required, the Sub-Committee noted the verbal report.

The Sub-Committee received a verbal report from the Service Manager (Health and Safety) on two organisations the council belonged to which members and officers might find of interest:

Suffolk and North Essex Occupational Safety Group (SNEOSG)  https://www.sneosg.org.uk

Mid Anglia Environment Safety and Health Group (MESH) https://www.meshgroup.org.uk/index.php

If anyone wished to attend any of the meetings, then please contact a member of the Health and Safety team who would be able to arrange this.

There being no decision required, the Sub-Committee noted the verbal report.

The Sub-Committee received a verbal report from the Service Manager (Health and Safety) on the following health and safety updates:

1)   Key statistics from the Health and Safety Executive: The provisional annual data for work related fatal injuries revealed that 147 workers were fatally injured between April 2018 and March 2019.  New figures showed how fatal injuries were spread across the different industrial sectors:

-      Agriculture, forestry and fishing and construction sectors continued to account for the largest share of fatal injuries to works (32 and 30 deaths respectively in 2018-2019).

-      The new figures continued to highlight the risk to older works.  25% of fatal injuries in 2018-2019 were to workers aged 60 or over, even though such workers made up only 10% of the workforce.

2)   St John Ambulance: A free first aid app for mobile phones had been developed by the St John Ambulance.  All that was required was to sign up to the site to get access to the free e-learning on various first aid topics.

3)   Waste Industry Safety and Health Forum:  A draft set of copyright free questions had been developed to help assess an employee’s engagement with their company on health and safety issues. 

4)   Drones: The worlds first ISO approved drone safety standards had been announced for commercial use.  The new standards include protocols on quality, safety, security and overall “etiquette” for the operation of commercial air drones, which would help shape future regulation and legislation.

5)   Glasgow City Council: The Council had failed in its bid to reclaim the £1m in damages it was forced to pay to the families of those who lost their lives in a bin lorry crash in 2014.  Six people were killed and 15 injured when the refuse driver lost consciousness behind the wheel of his bin lorry and crashed into shoppers in the city centre.

6)   Hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS):  Dacorum Borough Council reported seven cases of hand, arm, vibration syndrome (HAVS) between May 2015 and June 2016.  All the effected employees were part of the council’s grounds maintenance and street care team looking after the public spaces in Hertfordshire.  The Health and Safety Executive found the council had not adequately planned its working methods or trained/informed employees on the risks to their health.  Furthermore, the council did not limit the duration or magnitude of exposure to vibration and failed to put in place suitable health surveillance to identify problems at an early stage.

The Sub-Committee considered the verbal report and did not raise any issues.

The Sub-Committee considered the verbal update and did not raise any issues.