Agenda item

The Executive Director Core Services will submit a report which was submitted to Cabinet on the 6^th September, 2017 presenting issues raised in the 2016/17 Health, Safety and Emergency Resilience Report and providing a comprehensive overview of health, safety and emergency resilience activities and performance within the Authority.

The Executive Director Core Services submitted a report which was submitted to Cabinet on the 6^th September, 2017 presenting issues raised in the 2016/17 Health, Safety and Emergency Resilience Report and providing a comprehensive overview of health, safety and emergency resilience activities and performance within the Authority.

The report, which was presented by Mr S Dobby Head of Corporate Health, Safety and Emergency Resilience was submitted in accordance with the recently revised Audit Committee Terms of Reference and Work Programme.

The report indicated that 2016/17 had seen improvements in the Council’s health, safety and emergency resilience performance and the implications of challenges faced in delivery of these services and maintenance of this performance.  In particular, positive indicators (with comparisons to the previous year) showed:

·         There had been a decrease in the number of reported accidents , 151 compared to the previous year of 159 accompanied by an increase in the reporting rate to around 100%

·         There had been a decrease in specified major injuries 0 (2)

·         96% of audits showed a satisfactory level of compliance with the governance arrangements for health and safety

·         There had been a decrease in days lost due to accidents 323 (721)

·         There had been a reduction in recordable accidents under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013and these were favourable when compared to national statistics:

o   14 (27)

o   14 (25) – over three day injuries

o   7 (20) over seven day injuries

o   0 (2) major injuries

·         An improvement in compliance with requirements to develop risk assessments to 74% (66%) which was 77% corporately and 69% for schools

·         A decrease in the number of employer’s liability claims to 23 (33) with 11 (14) related to accidents and 12 (19) to work related ill health

There were some negative indicators:

·         An increase in reports of violence and aggression reported to 205 (200)

·         An under reporting of near miss accidents

The report then went on to outline

·         a number of opportunities for improvement together with proposals of how these would be addressed

·         the current context of the service provision of the Health, Safety and Emergency Resilience Service

·         an overview of the content of the Health, Safety and Emergency Resilience Report for 2016/17

In the ensuing discussion, the following matters were raised:

·         the use of volunteers and the difficulties associated with this were outlined.  Arising out of this, reference was made to the mutual aid arrangements in place from other South Yorkshire authorities and from authorities from a wider area in the event of larger scale emergency incidents

·         it was noted that violence was prevalent and an increasing issue within schools and additional information on the various types of violence could be reported in future.  It was important to note, however, that some schools were better than others at reporting incidents.  The problems of gathering information in relation to academies was outlined

·         the difficulties of assessing ‘near miss incidents’ was highlighted.  It was reported, however, that for an authority the size of Barnsley, statistically, 2,500 near miss incidents could be anticipated.  The Service was working hard on tackling under reporting via training and the dissemination of information

·         in relation to accident analysis, reference was made to the reduction in staffing as a consequence of the Future Council initiative and the calculation of incident rates.  Information on this could be provided if required

·         additional more detailed information and proposed actions in response to incidents raised was included within the Service work programme and further information could be included in future reports.  The Chief Executive reported that performance management reports were submitted to Senior Management Team on a quarterly basis and that Cabinet had oversight of these issues

·         it was noted that information on Work related Ill-health was only available from 1993 when such information had started to be collected

RESOLVED that the Authority’s Health, Safety and Emergency Resilience performance report for 2016/17 be noted and that Mr S Dobby, Head of Service, be thanked for attending the meeting and for answering members questions.