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:

• Risk Assessment Policy (supporting Guidance available)
• Responsibilities Policy
• Reporting and Investigating Health and Safety Incidents (supporting Guidance available)
• Hazardous Substances Policy (supporting Guidance available)

The Risk Assessment Policy was scheduled a review, and a separate Guidance document was written.

Terms of reference have been added to clarify some existing roles within the Responsibilities Policy. The frequency of reports to the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) from the Health and Safety Champion was amended in wording from “annual” to “regularly” to allow for greater flexibility of report delivery. Triggers for directors were added to receive reports following Health and Safety Board meetings to encourage sharing of information and to ensure directors are kept up to date.

The review of the Reporting and Investigating Health and Safety Incidents Policy led to an amalgamation of two policies namely the ‘Reporting H&S Incidents’ policy and ‘Investigating H&S Incidents’ policy. The policies were merged owing to their inherently similar nature. Schools are encouraged to report significant incidents, accidents and near-misses on the EEC website and the EEC Accident Report – Data Collection Form can be printed and filled in quickly before transferring the information onto the EEC accident reporting area.

Finally, the Hazardous Substances Policy has been updated to include references to the updated F08 COSHH Risk Assessment word document along with links to training courses on Blackboard, new frequently asked questions and useful HSE links.

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.