As part of the Council’s policy review programme, the Health and Safety Service has published updated policies on the Health and Safety Internet site.

The following policies were reviewed:

• Manual Handling (supporting Guidance available)
• Volunteer
• Fire Safety in the Workplace (supporting Guidance available)
• Work Equipment (supporting Guidance available)
• Young Workers

Not all the policies will apply to every service as they are subject specific.

For the Manual Handling Policy there were no significant changes to the requirements of the policy but the references to Rapid Access to Physio services were removed. Manual handling training links were added for the  virtual course on Blackboard.

Our Volunteer Policy references the F14 Driver Risk Assessment form for volunteers.

The review of the Fire Safety in the Workplace Policy ensured the appropriate identification of relevant primary legislation for fire compliance e.g., The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. In accordance with statutory requirements, additional responsibilities for Responsible Persons were added. This related to the where two or more persons share or have duties in respect of premises. The policy incorporated appropriate responsibilities for the Council’s Housing Services which were not captured in the former Somerset County Council policy. The policy has been split so that the policy and guidance information are now contained on two separate documents. The associated suite of F10 fire forms will be completed soon and published on the Policies and Guidance page.

There were no significant changes to the requirements of the Work Equipment Policy. The review included a minor amendment to the guidance, recognising the need to consider possible individual employee protected characteristics in the selection and use of work equipment. The Work Equipment F-document will also be updated.

Finally, for the Young Workers Policy there were no significant changes to the requirements. There were minor additions to responsibilities in the policy, for instance, the need for responsible managers to notify the school/college/parents/carers of any accidents to the young person and follow the Council’s process for reporting accidents. The review incorporated guidance as an appendix item, and includes additional information pertaining to risk assessments, safe systems of work, and capability assessments.

Where the policies apply to your area, managers and employees are asked to review their responsibilities stated in the policies to ensure services are operating in a compliant manner.

All of the above are available on the Health and Safety internet page.