02 Health, Safety &Welfare

Health, Safety & Welfare Policy

SECTION 1 - STATEMENT OF INTENT

1.1 In line with the requirements of the Health and Safety at Work [etc] Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, the following policy has been prepared. The purpose of the policy is to enable the cafe to meet its duties under the Health and Safety at work Act 1974 and provide a safe place of work for volunteers. The policy will also reduce the risk to others that may be affected by the activities of the cafe. This policy includes within the risk assessment section suitable arrangements to ensure Safeguarding. These are contained in a separate Safeguarding policy. Although all those working in the café are volunteers, it is considered prudent to apply the general health and safety rules required of employers and employees as though volunteers were employees in the context of the operation of the café.

1.2 The Cafe is committed to managing cafe activities in such a way as to protect staff, residents, visitors, and contractors and provide them with a healthy and safe place of work and residence. All staff and contractors engaged on the cafe’s business are encouraged and expected to contribute to making the policy work through co-operating with the Cafe. Regular consultation will take place with relevant stakeholders to ensure all health, safety and welfare issues are addressed as soon as practicably possible.

1.3 The policy comprises this statement of intent, details of the health and safety organisation of the cafe and the arrangements in place to ensure the policy is put into practice.

1.4 Suitable and sufficient risk assessments will be completed when required, designed to identify any hazards associated with the activities of the cafe and put in place adequate control measures to eliminate or reduce the risks from those hazards to acceptable levels.

1.5 Information regarding health and safety will be made readily available in the form of this policy, statutory notices and sufficient training to ensure all volunteers are aware of the policy and the arrangements contained within.

1.6 This policy will be kept up to date. To ensure this, advice will be sought and taken from professional persons and bodies as and when it is necessary.

1.7 This document sets out the responsibilities of the Salisbury Repair Café [the cafe] with regards to safety matters associated with routine repair and maintenance of the above premises.

1.8 The document provides a brief overview of the relevant legislation and explanation of health and safety relevance to the cafe management committee so they are aware of their statutory and moral responsibilities regarding health and safety. The document also contains a number of appendices comprising example risk assessments for each of the activities known or anticipated to be carried out in carrying out necessary works.

The Cafe is committed to this policy and will ensure the arrangements contained within are carried out and the policy is regularly reviewed to ensure it continues to meet the needs of the Cafe, its volunteers and contractors.

1.10 Health and Safety drivers

1.11 There are three key Health and safety drivers [or good reasons for ensuring health safety and welfare are ensured];

a. Legal

b. Economic and

c. Moral

1.12 The legal driver relates to the statutory requirements placed on organisations and individuals to comply with the law at the risk of fines or imprisonment for failing to do so. Failing to comply with health and safety legislation is a criminal offence and can result in imprisonment and/or fines.

1.13 Related to this is the economic aspect. Although ensuring Health & Safety will have a financial cost in terms of providing equipment and training this will be balanced by the reduced risk of legal challenges from persons injured as a result of H & S failings or fines from convictions. Civil claims for personal injury or loss can be extremely expensive, especially where it can be proven that persons had acted negligently [such as failing to properly risk asses an activity and apply appropriate control measures.]

1.14 To help protect the cafe against awards of damages imposed by courts, it is critical that up to date employers and public liability insurance cover for suitable amounts is maintained.

1.15 Perhaps the strongest driver should be the moral necessity of ensuring Health and Safety is managed to save the distress and pain caused through work accidents.

The bottom line is, there is no excuse.

1.16 The following acts and regulations cover the main relevant legislation and particularly important sections and clauses. [For all references to employers take this to mean the management committee of the cafe.]

1.17 Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974

1.18 Requires employers to;

• Have a written health and safety policy

• Ensure their activities do not cause risk to Health and Safety to others.

• Employers to provide suitable and sufficient information, instruction, training and supervision.

• To provide appropriate work equipment and Personal Protective Equipment [PPE].

1.19 Volunteers [also read contractors here] have a duty to cooperate with their employer over anything put in place to ensure their health and safety. This will include working within organisation procedures policy and guidelines.

1.20 Failure to comply with the Act and associated regulations will render persons liable to a fine, imprisonment or both. For the purposes of this policy for ‘employers’ read ‘the management committee’.

1.21 Important sections:-

1.22. 2, Employers are to ensure so far as reasonably practicable the health & safety and welfare of volunteers.

1.23. 3, Employers to conduct activities to ensure people not employed by them are not exposed to risks to their health and safety.

1.24. 7, Volunteers [this can be taken to mean contractors engaged by the cafe] are required to take reasonable care of their own safety and co-operate with employers’ health and safety measures.

1.25 It is important that you understand and can put sections 2, 3 and 7 of the Act into context and relate it to the cafe working environment. Remember that the legislation provides a framework in which organisations and people need to operate, they never set out precise instruction on how to achieve safety.

1.26 Who goes to jail? People who do not comply with the law. Ignorance of the law is never an excuse and won’t be accepted by the courts.

1.27 Do what is required of you. Consider post incident enquiries which can happen sometime after the event. Your decisions and actions may well be questioned. In the event of injury or worse to others, the management and control of risk will be a key question. Your defence will depend on the quality of your risk assessments and the control and supervision you exercise over the persons you engage to carry out work.

1.28 What is the HSE‘s view?

1.29. The HSE recognises that whilst duties under the Act and regulations, codes of practice and guidance documents are absolute they are qualified by the ‘what is reasonably practicable’ test. Therefore the act does not require that all risks are eliminated and the HSE recognises that even when all reasonably practicable precautions have been taken to deal with foreseeable risks, harm could still occur.

This is a defence, but not an excuse for not managing risk!

1.30 Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999

1.31 These regulations, made under powers contained within the HASAWA stipulate the need to manage health and safety through the completion and continuous review of risk assessment. The significant findings of these assessments must be recorded and written down where 5 or more volunteers are at work. Irrespective of numbers employed, the recording of risk assessments is a good idea especially where work is pre-planned and there is time to carry out a detailed analysis of risk as it will provide evidence of how we meet our duty of care, and more importantly, identify the hazards and risks that we need to control.

1.32 Regulation 3 requires employers to make suitable and sufficient assessment of risks to ensure the health & safety of volunteers, members of the public and contractors.

1.33 Regulation 5 requires planning, organising controlling and monitoring of risks.

1.34 Regulation 10 requires provision of relevant and comprehensible information on health and safety.

1.35 Regulation 11 requires cooperation with other employers in a shared workplace.

1.36 So 3, is why it is done, 5 should go through all levels of an organisation to ensure risk is controlled at appropriate levels, 10 can be exampled through sharing of risk assessment outcomes to all volunteers or contractors working on the cafe’s behalf and 11 is especially relevant in shared work environments. With all these regulations, there are shared and individual responsibilities; it is not acceptable to assume safety management is the sole responsibility of the employer or voluntary organisation management.

1.37 Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act 2007

1.38 This legislation is designed to ensure that high levels of managers in an organisation cannot escape their responsibilities for health and safety by using the excuse that other people at lower levels in an organisation failed to carry out what was required of them.

1.39 The legislation is there to ensure that executives not only put in place appropriate arrangements and logistics to enable them to happen, but also exercise the correct levels of supervision and accountability.

1.40 Once again, this is criminal legislation and can result in severe fines and or lengthy prison sentences for those found guilty of an offence under the legislation.

1.41 Other Regulations

1.42 The following summarises the other key legislation that may be relevant during various maintenance activities carried out by the cafe. There may be others that apply form time to time for specific activities. All these regulations will have been made under powers for the Secretary of State to make regulations contained within the parent 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act.

1.43 Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations. [PUWER]

Applies to equipment necessary and provided to complete a particular task or range of activities. This will include the need to assess the suitability of such equipment for the intended task and suitable testing, maintenance and training in equipment use.

1.44 Working at Height Regulations

Applies to work where there is a danger of falling off of or down something. There is NO minimum height stipulation within the regulations. Once again requires an assessment of the task and the person carrying out the task to be completed. This would allow for example working off a ladder but ONLY for a short duration low reach task.

1.45 Manual Handling Regulations

Applies to any situation where a person is required to move a load using bodily force. It does not only apply to lifting. It will include pushing pulling or lowering an object. Risk assessment is the key control.

1.46 Control of Substance Hazardous to Health regulations [COSHH]

These regulations are designed to control the use of hazardous substances and require for example the provision of safety data sheets to users. Ideally a planned risk assessment may be able to identify other less hazardous substances that could be substituted for the work. If hazardous substances are required, then proper care and control of them must be exercised.

1.47 Personal Protective Equipment regulations [PPE]

This applies to safety work wear that needs to be provided to persons carrying out work. Risk assessment of the task may identify the need for such PPE, in which case it must be provided and instruction given on its correct use. This could be for example, providing someone with safety glasses of the correct type and ensuring they read and understand the safety instructions supplied.

SECTION 2 – ORGANISATION

2.1 Salisbury Repair Cafe is a small voluntary repair cafe located in Salisbury with the purpose of providing a voluntary repair service for members of the public. The cafe is under the immediate control of its management committee. The responsibility for implementing health and safety matters will remain with the committee and will include;

• Production, monitoring and review of the Health and Safety Policy.

• Provision of physical, financial and human resources to ensure the health and safety policy can be implemented.

• Actively promoting and encouraging volunteers to adopt a positive attitude to health and safety in all their work practices.

• Regular audits of the effectiveness of the policy.

2.2 Ensuring appropriate arrangements are made for the following after carrying out any necessary risk assessments to identify appropriate control measures.

• Staffing and running the repair areas.

• Staffing the café and kitchen.

• Ensuring materials and equipment used in the café are safe and fit for purpose.

• Ensuring checks on competence of those volunteers carrying out repairs.

• Premises fire risk assessment compliance

• Electrical inspection and testing

• Use of ladders and step ladders.

• First aid

• Fire safety

2.3 Where appropriate some of the functions above may be delegated to the other persons or consultants where they have the necessary competence, although responsibility will remain with the management committee.

2.4 This policy will be brought to the attention of all stakeholders who will:

• Carry out work in accordance with the policy requirements.

• Use the correct equipment and methods of work for the task.

• Keep equipment in good condition.

• Report any defects in the equipment or workplace.

• Work in a safe manner at all times.

SECTION 3 - ARRANGEMENTS

3.1. This section details the specific arrangements made for the effective implementation of this policy. The key method of ensuring health and safety is the use of risk assessment.

3.2 Risk assessments will be carried out in accordance with the following protocol:

• Identify and consider hazards

• Identify and consider risks resulting from those hazards

• Identify who may be affected by the above

• Put in place adequate control measures to reduce the risk to acceptable levels.

• Continually monitor the resulting working environment.

3.3 A hazard is something that has the potential to cause harm, a risk is the likelihood of that harm occurring.

3.4 The management committee have responsibility for implementing the policy on a daily basis. They will ensure that suitable and sufficient risk assessments are carried out and the significant findings and control measures are recorded and notified to stakeholders and relevant persons. Any necessary assessments will be completed by suitably competent people qualified to undertake the task.

3.5 Accidents and Dangerous Occurrences (near misses)

An accident or near miss is any unplanned, uncontrolled event that has, or could have, resulted in injury to persons or damage to property.

3.6 All incidents will be recorded and investigated to ensure that a similar event does not take place again. Investigation will be carried out by the management committee or their delegate and will look at the following:

• The immediate causes of the accident.

• Any underlying causes that may have contributed to the immediate cause.

• Actions that can be taken to reduce the likelihood of such an incident occurring again (e.g. staff training).

3.7 Monitoring

Active monitoring of all events will help to indicate any trends that may be developing and enable the cafe to put in place extra control measures to ensure future similar events are avoided.

3.8 Reportable Accidents (RIDDOR)

The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations [RIDDOR] require certain classes of diseases and accidents to be reported to the Health and Safety Executive. In the event of any reportable incident the management committee or their delegate will telephone the HSE as soon as possible to report the incident and comply with any instruction given relating to the incident.

3.9 Reportable incidents under these regulations are:

• Deaths;

• Major injuries;

• Over 7 day injuries – where an employee or self-employed person is away from work or unable to perform their normal work duties for more than 7 consecutive days;

• Injuries to members of the public or people not at work where they are taken from the scene of an accident to hospital;

• Some work-related diseases;

• Dangerous occurrences – where something happens that does not result in an injury, but could have done;

3.10 A written report on the accident, disease or incident must be completed and forwarded within seven days of the initial telephone notification to the HSE. The risk of reportable accidents occurring is considered to be low.

3.11 Electrical Equipment Safety

All electrical equipment used within the cafe will be tested and maintained in accordance with the current edition of the Institute of Electrical Engineers [IEE] regulations. The cafe will ensure that all work undertaken on electrical installations or equipment is undertaken in accordance with those regulations and in line with the recommendations contained in Guidance Note 3 to the current IEE regulations which state a minimum inspection and test frequency of no more than 5 years. For the building electrical circuitry the café will work in collaboration with the building owners to ensure this is taking place.

3.12 First Aid

The risk of accidents to persons working on behalf of the cafe will be the responsibility of the café and the management committee will ensure that suitably qualified and competent volunteers are available at all times the café is open.

3.13 Fire Safety

Fire safety is managed through the completion and review of a regular fire risk assessment in accordance with The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005. This is the responsibility of the building owners to complete, and the Café will comply with the findings of that assessment.

3.14 Instruction, Training and Consultation

The management committee will be responsible for giving instruction to all volunteers on all the safety arrangements required and the findings of all method statements and risk assessments as appropriate prior to work commencing.

3.15 Monitoring and Review of the Policy

The management committee will monitor health and safety continually. All risk assessments [other than the fire risk assessment] forming part of the policy will be reviewed annually or when a significant change takes place in the work practice covered by the assessment to make a review necessary.

3.17 Audit

The management committee will arrange for a regular audit of this policy to be carried out. The results of the audit will be promulgated to all stakeholders. The safety statement will be updated each year at the time of the annual audit.

SECTION 4 – RISK ASSESSMENTS

4.1 Risk assessments

4.2 The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 set out the requirement to carry out assessment. There are five stages to any risk assessment.

• Identifying hazards [something that may cause harm]

• Identifying risk [The likelihood of that harm occurring]

• Identifying who is at risk

• Putting in place suitable control measures.

• Continuous review.

4.3 An example is the building fire risk assessment carried out as required by the Regulatory Reform [Fire Safety] Order 2005. Risk assessments are a bit like car MOT’s. They may have been fine on the day of the test, but after a while the brakes will be subject to wear and tear and need replacement.

4.4 The following documents which form the appendices to this policy contain risk assessments for activities associated with the café routine work. All volunteers will work within the controls stipulated in these assessments.

• COSHH

• Electricity

• Fire safety [See premises risk assessment]

• First Aid

• Food hygiene

• Hot work

• Manual handling

• PUWER

• Safeguarding [policy]

The individual risk assessment documents can be accessed here.