Latest News from Griffin Safety Training

We are currently taking bookings for the above course, which we will be running via ‘Zoom’ on 31 March 2021.

If you wish to undertake this course, please contact us and we will take your booking.

In light of the ever-increasing demand for virtual health and safety training courses, we are happy to say that we can now oblige.

All of our training courses, from 90-minute health and safety law updates to 10-day NEBOSH Certificates can now be taught virtually, online. If you prefer, we can still visit your workplace, but here are some of the main reasons to ‘go virtual’:

• Covid secure. All learners can attend remotely, even if they are shielding or self-isolating
• Cheaper. We don’t have to travel (and neither do you), so we’ve passed the savings on to you
• Flexible. Learners can be at home or at work – in fact anywhere where there is a reliable internet connection
• You’ll get the same standard of tutor input, just as if you were face-to-face in a traditional training room
• You’ll still be able to do breakout sessions and group exercises, but without the need to worry about social distancing.

There’s never been a better time to get your staff trained, so get in touch today to arrange your virtual health and safety training courses with Griffin.

The 18th of January. Not a very special date; it’s in the middle of the first month of the year and isn’t particularly remarkable, apart from being renowned as the year’s most depressing day – Blue Monday.

‘Blue Monday’ as this third Monday in January has become known is so-called because it falls a couple of weeks after most people have returned to work after the Christmas break, yet is still just under 2 weeks from most people’s payday. Having probably spent a bit too much over the Christmas period, many people are feeling a bit of financial strain and may be in some debt – it’s a case of “Too much month at the end of their money.” The weather is dull and dismal; nights are long, days are short. Many people go to work and return home in the dark, never seeing the sun’s rays. Opportunities for outdoor exercise are limited.

On top of all that, we are in the grip of a global pandemic that has caused worry for millions – loved ones may be at risk, the effects of social isolation and reduced income all play their part in adding to the stresses that people may feel.

Taken together, all of these factors add up to making this time of year a time when mental health problems may be noticed more acutely and when people who have just about been able to cope really can show more obvious signs of poor mental health. This is true of any year, but is even more relevant this year with the added ‘Covid factor.’

It’s therefore all the more important to look after one’s own mental health, as well as looking out for that of colleagues, friends and family. 

So here are our 5 top tips to think about using to try and help manage your mental health, not just tomorrow but throughout the rest of these winter months and beyond:

1. If you are one of those people who goes to work and returns home in the dark, try and use your breaks to get outside, even for just a few minutes. Doing so can help to lift your mood.
2. While you’re outside, why not partake of a little physical activity? This releases ‘happy hormones’ that again help to make you feel just a little better. It doesn’t have to be much – we’re not talking press-ups here; just a short walk is enough. Ok, you can go for a jog if you fancy it.
3. Try meditating. This can help to calm your mind and give you greater focus. There are loads of apps, some free, plus online tutorials which you can download to help.
4. Try not to take work home. Relax at home. Don’t drink excessive amounts of alcohol (home measures are almost always larger than pub measures), but do take time to read, play with the kids/dog/both. Put your laptop and mobile phone away too – they stimulate the brain in a way that can hamper your ability to get to sleep.
5. Get a good night’s sleep. Turn in at a reasonable hour and try and get 7 hours of good quality sleep.

As the great Dr Frasier Craine always said at the end of his radio programme, “Here’s wishing you all good mental health.”

The current global pandemic has had a huge impact on organisations of all types. As a result, more and more employers will need training in how to assess the risks of Coronavirus. To help with this, and to help employers to meet their general duties to control risks from all hazardous substances, we have launched our new one-day CoSHH Assessment course.

Our one-day ‘CoSHH Assessment‘ course is designed to cover the essential requirements of these important Regulations in an accessible, jargon-free way. It is suitable for anybody who may be exposed to chemical or biological agents in the workplace.

Is it for me?

Anyone who might be responsible for ensuring that workers are not harmed by chemicals or biological agents (including coronavirus) will benefit from attending this course. You will cover:

• Forms and classification of chemical and biological agents;
• Routes of entry;
• Health hazards associated with agents in your particular place of work;
• Where to find helpful information;
• Airborne monitoring and the relevance of Workplace Exposure Limits;
• Principles of exposure control;
• The role of health surveillance;
• CoSHH assessment exercise.

Why not contact us today to make a booking? Have questions? Call us and we’ll be happy to answer.

We have had a lot of enquiries about running a course on the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, and we’re happy to oblige!

Our one-day ‘CDM Awareness‘ course is designed to cover the essential requirements of these important Regulations in an accessible, jargon-free style. It is suitable for any organisation that is planning to build or demolish a structure, or to alter it, repair it, redecorate or maintain it.

Is it for me?

Anyone who will be taking on the role of client, client representative, designer or contractor will benefit from attending this course. You will cover:

• The background to CDM and the scope of ‘Construction work’
• Roles of key players – the commercial client, principal designer, designers, principal contractor, and contractors
• Notification requirements
• Pre-construction information
• The Construction Phase Health and Safety Plan
• The Health and Safety File
• CDM Part 4.

Why not contact us today to make a booking? Have questions? Call us and we’ll be happy to answer.

The subject of Personal Protective Equipment (‘PPE’) has rarely been off our TV screens in the past few weeks. The apparent problems with supplying the right amount of suitable PPE to protect NHS staff and others from the Covid-19 virus have been causing much debate, some of which has been ill-informed. This brief article explains the facts about PPE.

Provision

Firstly, it’s worth remembering that the use of PPE is seen as a last resort and should only be considered where it is not practical to control risks in other, more effective, ways. 

The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 require employers (such as NHS Trusts) to provide suitable PPE to those who may be exposed to risks to their health or safety while at work (a similar duty applies to the self-employed, who need to ensure they give themselves the right equipment too). Employers must not charge employees for PPE.

‘Suitable PPE’ is that which:

• is appropriate for the risks and conditions in the workplace;
• takes account of ergonomic requirements;
• takes account of the state of health of the user;
• is capable of fitting correctly;
• is effective in controlling risk without increasing the overall risk to the wearer, and
• complies with relevant laws on design and manufacture.

An assessment must therefore be made so that the right equipment is provided.

Provide PPE to deal with expected use and foreseeable risks

If PPE is considered necessary, the employer will have to make sure that there is enough to go around. They will also need to have spares for replacement when PPE is damaged or wears out. However, risk assessments need only consider reasonably foreseeable risks. 

As I understand it, the current crisis with Covid-19 was unforeseen; nobody will have stockpiled PPE “just in case”. Besides, PPE has a shelf life so there would be a lot of wastage if items were kept in stock unnecessarily. There was probably enough PPE in stock at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak to cater for normal requirements, which is all that is required. Of course, if an employer failed to have enough PPE for normal use then they will have been committing an offence.

Compatibility

Where several items of PPE need to be worn together, they must be compatible with each other. For example, respiratory protection and eye protection need to be compatible; one item must not conflict with the other in such a way as to make it ineffective. The employer will need to take care to purchase items that work together and don’t conflict.

Assessment

Employers (and self-employed people) need to make an assessment to check that PPE will be suitable; this must be done before choosing what to provide. 

Reference to ‘appropriate PPE’ in a general risk assessment is unlikely to be enough. The employer will need to show that they gave proper consideration to exactly what PPE would be suitable for the risk and the working environment. This means specifying exactly what is to be provided so that there can be no confusion when PPE is purchased.

Maintenance and Replacement

Employers need to make sure that PPE is maintained, replaced and cleaned as appropriate. For non-disposable items, the user can do simple maintenance, such as cleaning. The employer still needs to ensure that this gets done.

Accommodation

Employers need to provide suitable storage for PPE when it’s not in use. This helps to protect PPE from damage and reduces the chances of cross-contamination. ‘Suitable storage’ might be a bag, a box or a locker; it won’t be good enough to simply hang the PPE up where it may be contaminated when not being worn.

Information, Instruction and Training

Employers need to ensure that their employees know:

• the risks that the PPE will protect them against (and those it won’t protect against);
• why the PPE is to be used;
• how to use it; and
• what the employee needs to do to keep their PPE in good condition.

Use of PPE

Use of PPE Employers need to take ‘reasonable steps’ to check that PPE is properly used.

Employees must:

• use their PPE in the way that they have been trained and instructed;
• store it properly when not in use; and
• report loss or defects with PPE to their employer.

So there you have it. The rules on PPE aren’t difficult or complicated. If you do need help completing your risk assessment, or if your staff need some training, why not contact us – we’ll be happy to help.

There’s been an incident in your organisation, so what do you do?  You could ignore it, but this probably won’t stop it from happening again, maybe with more serious consequences next time. Instead, you decide to conduct an investigation, but how would you do that? Our new NEBOSH HSE Introduction to Incident Investigation course shows you what to do and how to use the ‘PEACE’ model to get reliable information from your witnesses.

‘PEACE’ stands for:

Planning and Preparation – choose the right location, plan your interview and interview one person at a time.

Engage and Explain – set out the reasons for the interview and establish a rapport with the interviewee.

Account, clarification and challenge – clarify any inconsistencies or misunderstandings; challenge any contradictions.

Closure – summarise, record the findings and explain the next steps.

Evaluation – look back at the information received during the interview; reflect on your performance as an interviewer – look to see where you can improve next time.

Following this model will help you to get the best out of an interviewee, which should translate to better investigation findings.

Of course, interviewing is just one aspect of incident investigation. Once all the information has been gathered you may feel like you have 1200 pieces for a 1000 piece puzzle, so you’ll need to have a means of analysing the information and sorting out what is important from what is not. After that, you’ll need to come up with suggestions for corrective action and then put together an action plan that ensures that these suggestions get implemented.

Want to know more? We’ve just launched the brand new ‘NEBOSH HSE Introduction to Incident Investigation’ course and would be delighted to accept your booking. Dates are currently available at our venue in Liverpool, so contact us today to book your place.

I often get asked about the terminology used in the world of health and safety at work – there’s a lot of it, and it can be confusing! We at Griffin Safety Training Limited like to think we can explain things in simple terms that all our delegates can understand. A good example is where there is confusion between ‘Incident’, ‘Accident’ and ‘Near Miss’. Here’s our interpretation.

The term ‘Incident’ is possibly the most commonly misunderstood; in some people’s eyes it’s simply another word for ‘Near Miss’, or it might refer to a chain of events.

Imagine the phone rings. The caller tells you “There’s been an incident”. Your blood runs cold. “What on earth has happened? Has someone been hurt”? “Is it something that could have been more serious but we got away with it, this time?” A dozen possibilities run through your mind, none of them good. At that stage, you just don’t know. All you know for sure is that something unwanted has happened. Therefore, we can say that an ‘Incident’ is a term used to denote any type of unplanned, uncontrolled event, whatever the final outcome. It’s not just another way of saying ‘Near miss’.

Incidents might result in a loss, or they might not. The idea of ‘Loss’ is what decides whether the incident will be referred to as an ‘Accident’, or a ‘Near miss’.

An ‘Accident’ may be defined as an unplanned event that has resulted in some form of loss. When I say ‘Loss’, I mean an injury or property damage. Like standing on the screw in the photo and suffering a foot injury – definitely an accident.

A ‘Near miss’ is an unplanned event that could have resulted in a loss, but on this occasion did not. Perhaps the worker in the photo noticed the screw just in the nick of time and avoided it – a classic case of a ‘Near miss’. Note that the screw itself is a ‘Hazard’ (I know, more terminology). Don’t confuse your hazards with your near misses. Hazards are things; near misses are events.

So, what is the difference between an ‘Accident’ and a ‘Near miss’? Well, put simply, if there’s been a loss, it’s an accident; no loss, it’s a near miss.

Get this wrong and you’ll mislead yourself, with potentially serious financial implications.

Think about a car accident where nobody is injured, yet the car has sustained £3000 worth of damage – would you really call this a ‘Near miss’ and just write it off? Of course not.

Another point worthy of mention is that any near miss could have resulted in a loss. Put another way, under slightly different circumstances this ‘Near miss’ could have been an ‘Accident’. Therefore, near misses should be taken seriously and investigated so as to help to avoid a more serious outcome in the future.

Here’s a little diagram to summarise:

And there we have it – all accidents and near misses are ‘Incidents’ – it just depends on whether there was a loss!

Want to find out more? Why not book on to our new NEBOSH/HSE ‘Introduction to Incident Investigation’ course? This interactive one-day course covers the basics of incident investigation and culminates in an assessment based on three incident investigation interviews. We can run this at your premises for groups of up to 15 delegates, or you might want to try one of our open courses, details of which will appear on our website very soon.

Don’t forget, we have a transparent pricing policy, with no hidden extras. What we quote is what you pay. So contact us today for a competitive quote and let’s help you get your safety journey started!

 

 

Coming soon – the confusion between ‘Hazard’ and ‘Risk’, aka ‘Why many risk assessments aren’t up to scratch’.

It’s now just over 10 years since the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (The 2007 Act) became law. Despite the fact that over 13,000 work-related deaths are recorded annually in the UK (mostly due to ill health), there have so far been only 26 convictions of companies under the 2007 Act. But is this figure set to rise?

The regulatory impact assessment for the 2007 Act estimated that “…the proposals would lead to a possible 10-13 extra prosecutions per year for corporate manslaughter”. It is therefore surprising that conviction rates have been so low. This may be partly because the 2007 Act is not retrospective – it can only be used in cases where (1) the harm resulting in the death took place on or after 6 April 2008, and (2) anything done or omitted must also take place after that date.

As time passes there will be less doubt over whether the above two conditions apply, so an increase in the rate of prosecutions is foreseeable.

One case that may be in the pipeline arises out of the Grenfell Tower disaster in which over 70 people lost their lives. While no firm decision to prosecute has yet been taken, press coverage suggests that organisations like the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Kensington and Chelsea Tenancy Management Organisation could face charges. It is for this type of tragic event, involving large organisations, that the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act was created. To date, there have been no prosecutions of large organisations under the 2007 Act, so any prosecution that may be taken will likely be the largest so far and could yield a record fine.

The Offence

An organisation can be found guilty under the 2007 Act if the way in which its activities are managed or organised is the cause of a person’s death and amounts to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care. In addition, “an organisation is guilty of an offence […] only if the way in which its activities are managed or organised by its senior management is a substantial element of the breach…”

Some important points to note:

1. The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act applies only to organisations; there is no individual liability.
2. The ‘Relevant duty of care’ includes such things as the duty of an employer to its employees, the duties of occupiers to visitors and a duty owed in connection with the supply of goods or services or any other commercial activity.
3. A ‘gross breach’ is a breach that falls far below the standard to be expected in the circumstances. If this cannot be shown then a prosecution under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 is still possible; this can still result in an unlimited fine.
4. In the ‘senior management’ test, it is not necessary to identify specific individuals. However, if those individuals can be identified, and they are considered blameworthy, then they may be prosecuted for manslaughter contrary to the common law.

Sentencing

Guidelines introduced in 2016 require the courts to consider a number of factors when deciding on an appropriate level of fine. The guidelines envisage fines of up to £20 Million, with a starting point of £7.5 Million for large organisations with a high level of culpability. Even for very small organisations (turnover/revenue less than £2 Million) with a relatively low level of culpability, the fine can still be up to £540,000 with a starting point for consideration of £300,000.

After a long period of relatively static fines, cases decided since the introduction of the sentencing guidelines (e.g. Martinisation, who were fined £1.2 Million in May 2017 for the death of two workers in a fall from height) suggest a marked increase. With the sentencing guidelines providing greater clarity, it is considered likely that fines for this offence will continue to increase.

A fine is not the only penalty available to the courts. Also available are remedial orders, which require the defendant organisation to rectify the problem that caused the death, and, most notably, a publicity order. The court can order a convicted company to publicise (e.g. in the press, trade journals etc):

• the fact that it has been convicted,
• specific particulars of the offence,
• the amount of any fine imposed, and
• the terms of any remedial order made.

Since most organisations rely on their reputation for future business, the effect of such an order on their long-term prospects cannot be under-estimated.

Summary

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act sits alongside existing Health and Safety legislation to provide another string to the prosecutor’s bow in cases where a death arises and an organisation is thought to be responsible. In the event of such a tragedy, organisations will need to show evidence that their activities were managed or organised to an appropriate standard so that there can be less chance of any allegation of a breach of a relevant duty of care. Organisations will benefit from having in place robust safety management arrangements as well as from knowing what juries are asked to consider when deciding on their verdict.

Our 2-hour training course, led by former barrister Andrew Ashford, will help your organisation understand the issues raised by the 2007 Act and will help you to plan to improve your arrangements for managing safely so as to help avoid prosecution. Contact us for further details.