Agenda for Health and Safety Sub-Committee on Monday 13 February 2023, 4.00 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Facilitated by MS Teams Virtual Meeting Platform

Contact: Christine Brain: Democratic Services Officer  Email: democratic.services@westsuffolk.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

119.

Substitutes

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.

Minutes:

The following substitution was declared:

 

Natasha Holdgate substituting for Sylvia Bayford (staff representative).

120.

Apologies for absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Sylvia Bayford and Nigel Dulieu (staff representatives).

 

Apologies for absence were also received from Councillor Carol Bull, Cabinet Member for Governance.

 

Councillor James Lay and Lance Alexander (staff representative) were also unable to attend the meeting.

 

121.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 103 KB

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 10 October 2022 (copy attached.)

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 10 October 2022 were confirmed as a correct record by the Chair.

122.

Declarations of interest

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary or local non pecuniary interest which they have in any item of business on the agenda, no later than when that item is reached and, when appropriate, to leave the meeting prior to discussion and voting on the item.

Minutes:

Members’ declarations of interest are recorded under the item to which the declaration relates.

123.

Minutes of the meeting of West Suffolk Health and Safety Group: 4 January 2023 pdf icon PDF 134 KB

Paper number: HSS/WS/23/001

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee received and noted paper number: HSS/WS/23/001, which were the minutes of the West Suffolk Health and Safety Group meeting held on 4 January 2023.

124.

Employee and members of the public incidents pdf icon PDF 121 KB

Report number: HSS/WS/23/002

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee received and noted report number: HSS/WS/23/002, which provided statistics relating to accidents/incidents involving West Suffolk Council employees and members of the public from 1 April 2022 to 30 November 2022.

 

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 and compared them with statistics from the past three years.

 

The Sub-Committee discussed the report and asked questions to which responses were provided.  In particular detailed discussions were held on the injury involving a member of staff grazing their leg on a heating pipe.  The Service Manager (Health and Safety) advised that back in 2011 when the council took over the building this was highlighted as a hazard.  At the time solutions were looked into, however no feasible solution could be found to eliminate the hazard. 

 

The Sub-Committee suggested that a review should be carried out on how the council could better protect staff from injury from these heating pipes and that it looks again at possible new solutions with a report of the review being presented to the Sub-Committee’s next meeting in June 2023.   In response the Service Manager (Health and Safety) agreed to progress this request with Property Services.

125.

Legislative Update - Verbal

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee was informed that there were no legislative updates to report at the present time and nothing expected in the near future. 

 

However, the Protect Duty, otherwise know as “Martyn’s Law” was going through Parliament and further details would be released in the coming months.

 

126.

Health and Safety Training - Verbal

Minutes:

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

 

1)   Drug and alcohol safe chain of custody training.

 

2)   IOSH Managing Safely: 29 to 31 March 2023.

 

3)   Ongoing first aid training; annual refreshers and 3-yearly requalification.

 

In response to a question raised as to whether Verse custodians were first aid trained, the Sub-Committee was informed that all Verse custodians must be first aid trained as they provide the main cover for all West Suffolk Council buildings.

 

There being no decision required, the Sub-Committee noted the health and safety training update.

 

 

127.

Health and Safety Corporate Update (including Wellbeing) - Verbal

Minutes:

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

 

-      Occupational health – mini health checks

-      NHS health checks

-      Men’s health events

-      Atrial fibrillation testing

-      Flu vaccination vouchers

-      Intranet articles

-      Organisational engagement sessions

-      Webinars on – sleep; menopause; woman’s and men’s health

-      CPR training

-      Fire risk assessments/Audits: 25 out of 32 planned audits had been completed and 22 out of 23 fire risk assessments completed and informal visits providing advice.

 

The Health and Safety team is a small team of 3.  Unfortunately, the Senior Health and Safety Adviser had found another job and left the Council last week.  Moving forward the Service Manager (Health and Safety) would be prioritising work according to risk until a suitable replacement was found.  Also, the Service Manager (Health and Safety) had decided to leave the Council and retire with his last day being 6 April 2023. 

 

The Sub-Committee considered and noted the verbal update, including Service Manager’s news that he was retiring on 6 April 2023.

128.

Health and Safety Lessons Learnt (Local Authority Specific) - Verbal

Minutes:

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

 

1)   Newcastle City Council: Fined over a 6-year-olds death from a falling tree.  The young girl was hit by a falling tree at Gosforth Park First School on 25 September 2020, and subsequently died the following morning in hospital.

 

The tree had become an “accident waiting to happen” after the council failed to properly investigate its condition following an inspection in February 2018 which identified the need for another detailed look at it within six months.

 

Newcastle City Council pleaded guilty on 10 January 2023 under Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and were fined £280,000 and ordered to pay costs of £8,020.

 

2)   BUPA: On 8 January 2021 a girl was out for an evening jog with her father.  As she was running on a pavement outside the entrance to the care home, a lime tree fell on her.  She suffered serious crush injuries and her leg had to be amputated.  It was subsequently found that the tree was diseased with a common fungus and had likely been rotting for several years prior to the accident.

 

Bupa Care Homes pleaded guilty to a breach of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and received a fine of £400,000. The company was also ordered to pay costs of £3,275 and an undisclosed victim surcharge.

 

3)   Stress: Absence from work resulting from stress continues to be the highest cause of sickness absence and increasingly employers were introducing or consolidating steps to address both work related and non-work related stress.

 

Th estimated number of workers in Great Britain suffering a work-related illness was 1.8 million with stress, depression, and anxiety making up around half of cases, new figures showed.

 

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) had published its annual statistics on work-related ill health and workplace injuries.  The figures from Great Britain’s workplace regulator showed there was an estimated 914,000 cases of work-related stress, depression, or anxiety in 2021/22.

 

An estimated 17 million working days were lost due to work-related stress, depression, or anxiety in 2021/22. This is over half of all working days lost due to work-related ill health.

 

The HSE Stress Working Group which will identify its priorities within this work strand going forward.

 

The Sub-Committee considered the lessons learnt and asked questions to which responses were provided. 

 

In particular detailed discussions were held tree inspections, and whether the council was confident that its own trees had been inspected and were safe.  The Sub-Committee was advised that all trees owned by the council were inspected and logged on an electronic system called Arbi-trace.  Tree inspections were generated, and any defects were recorded and put into a scheduled of works.

 

In response to a question raised about trees and parish councils, the Sub-Committee was informed that the council’s tree officers worked with parish councils but did not have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 128.

129.

Dates of future meetings

The following future meetings of the Health and Safety Sub-Committee are listed below – dates yet to be confirmed, but will be held on Mondays starting at 4pm:

 

·         June 2023

·         October 2023

·         February 2024

Minutes:

The Service Manager (Health and Safety) informed the Sub-Committee that the calendar of meeting dates for 2023 to 2024 would be approved by Council at its meeting on 21 February 2023.

 

There being no decision required, the Sub-Committee noted the following future meetings, as listed below. All dates were Mondays starting at 4pm and would be held as indicated:

 

·         June 2023 (Virtual meeting)

·         October 2023 (Virtual meeting)

·         February 2024 (Virtual meeting)

 

Prior to closing the meeting, the Chair on behalf of the Sub-Committee wished the Service Manager (Health and Safety) all the best in his retirement as this would be his last meeting.

 

 

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