BLACKBURN WITH DARWEN BOROUGH COUNCIL WITH DARWEN BOROUGH COUNCIL ... The contributions made by the health and safety service plan to the Council’s corporate plan ... Service plan

Annual Health and Safety Service Plan 2015-2016

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BLACKBURN WITH DARWEN

BOROUGH COUNCIL PUBLIC PROTECTION SERVICE

ANNUAL HEALTH AND SAFETY SERVICE PLAN

APRIL 2016 – MARCH 2017


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Introduction

Local authorities are required to publish plans detailing the work they do in relation to health and safety at work in the local authority enforced sector. .

The plan seeks to focus our Health and Safety work and to provide clarity on what we do and why we do it.


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Contents

1. General

2. Aims and Objectives

3. Health and Safety Service Aims and Objectives and review of 2013/14

4. Service quality considerations Appendix 1 - Targets and Performance Indicators Appendix 2 - Inspections Appendix 3 – Enforcement action 2014/15


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Chapter 1 General 1.1 Local Authority Profile

Blackburn with Darwen lies on the boundary between the Lancashire countryside and the Greater Manchester conurbation.

The central urban areas of the Borough have many problems more often associated with inner cities – high population density and many people from disadvantaged or vulnerable groups.

1.2 Population

The early 2011 Census statistics show a number of key changes to our population have occurred since 2001, predominantly:

population has increased from 137,400 in 2001 to 147,500 in 2011 - 7.3% increase

30.8% of the borough’s population are from Black and Minority Ethnic groups.

Blackburn with Darwen was the 17th most deprived on the 2007 and 2010 Indices of Multiple Deprivation

The people of Blackburn with Darwen face exceptional challenges to their health and wellbeing. These challenges are associated with a number of factors including relatively low educational attainment, low income, high unemployment, and poor and often overcrowded housing. Life expectancy data from the early 1990s onwards has shown that in Blackburn with Darwen resident’s average life expectancy has been below that of the England and Wales and North West averages. Generally life expectancy for males and females in the borough has seen a gradual increase, although this increase has not been to the same rate as in England and Wales as a whole.

1.3 Arrangements for Enforcing Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974

Health and safety at work enforcement in local authority enforced premises is undertaken by the Public Protection Service. This service also contains enforcement functions for food safety, infectious diseases, pollution control, trading standards and licensing e.g. taxis and private hire vehicles, sale of alcohol and provision of regulated entertainment. The Business Compliance team delivers the council’s health and safety at work enforcement program. The team comprises 5.6 FTE officers (including team leader and admin support) working some of their time on Health and Safety issues.

The Council enforces health and safety at work in excess of 2500 workplaces. The types

of premises include:


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Retail shops

Wholesale premises

Offices

Catering premises restaurants and bars

Hotels and short stay accommodation

Residential care homes

Leisure and cultural services

Consumer services

Other premises 1.4 External Links

The Service works with neighboring local authorities via the health and safety subgroup of Environmental Health Lancashire group and with the HSE to support national campaigns on particular workplace issues to achieve national targets.

Chapter 2 Aims and Objectives 2.1 Council aims and objectives

The Council’s framework for setting policies and delivering services is set out below.


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Corporate Plan 2012–2015 The Corporate Plan sets out the 6 priority objectives. These are informed by what residents have told the council, focussing on what the authority needs to achieve locally over the period of the plan. The six priority objectives to shape the way the Council provides services aimed at realizing this vision are:

1. Creating more jobs and supporting business growth 2. Improving housing quality and building more houses 3. Improving health and well-being; 4. Improving outcomes for our young people – education and skills 5. Supporting and helping the most vulnerable people 6. Making your money go further – supporting households in difficult financial times

through efficient and effective use of council tax. Service Plan The Public Protection Service in turn draws up an annual Service plan - this Health and Safety service delivery plan is aligned to it. Each individual member of staff, through the annual appraisal process, is set work objectives to ensure the overall achievement of these plans. The contributions made by the health and safety service plan to the Council’s corporate plan are set out in the table below:

Improving health and well-being Supporting and helping the most vulnerable people

Creating more jobs and supporting business growth

Improving outcomes for our young people – education and skills

Health & Safety Enforcement and Advice

Smoke free England enforcement

Safety of sports grounds enforcement

Business Enforcement, advice and support

Licensing and advice on community events

Highlighting to employers the health and safety needs of young people within the workplace.

Making your money go further – supporting households in difficult financial times through efficient and effective use of


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council tax

Ensuring staff engaged in health and safety enforcement have relevant training

Chapter 3 Health and Safety Service Aims and Objectives and review of 2015/16 3.1 Key Aim To seek to continually improve the health and safety and reduce health inequalities of all individuals working in and visiting places of work within the Borough. The Health and Safety Service aims and objectives have been set by considering:

The HSE’s National Local Authority Enforcement Code – including the list of higher risk activities in specific sectors suitable for proactive inspection

Supplementary Guidance Section 18 Guidance from the HSE - LAC 67/2 (rev4.1) (Annex G) HELA Strategy Corporate strategic objectives Service plan requirements Major enforcement issues locally targeted via intelligence sources (RIDDOR, HSE statistics)

3.2 Objectives 3.2.1 To continue to raise standards of health and safety in the local authority enforcement

sector using a risk-based enforcement strategy. This year we are continuing to use the scoring system for H&S premises in which there are 4 risk bandings - A, B1, B2 and C[AD1].

Inspections or other interventions will be carried out in those businesses presenting the highest risk i.e. within the banding A and those that fall within the definitions of high risk sectors and with high risk activities as taken from the HSE National Code for Local Authority Enforcement (See appendix 2 for more details). These are:

Open Farms/Animal Visitor Attractions where there is a lack of suitable

micro‐organism control measures

http://www.hse.gov.uk/lau/supplementary-guidance.pdf


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Tyre fitters and motor vehicle repairers where they are part of a vehicle sales

premises and where there is the use of two‐post vehicle lifts or they use Isocyanate paints or generate noise and dust

High volume Warehousing/Distribution and Industrial retail/wholesale premises e.g. steel stockholders, builders/timber merchants where workplace transport/work at height/cutting machinery /lifting equipment are involved.

Commercial catering premises using solid fuel cooking equipment where there is a lack of suitable ventilation and/or unsafe appliances

Premises with vulnerable working conditions (lone/night working/cash handling

e.g. betting shops/off‐licences/care settings) and where intelligence indicates that risks are not being effectively managed and they lack suitable security measures/procedures

Interventions can comprise audit based partial inspections, partnerships, motivating senior managers, supply chain, design and supply, sector and industry-wide initiatives, working with those at risk, education and awareness, intermediaries, best practice, recognising good performance, incident and ill health investigation, dealing with issues of concern and complaints and any other interventions will be carried out in any premises where we have either intelligence led information concerning a particular issue or where officers on the premises notice a particular issue or problem or danger being presented .

3.2.2 Reduce number of incidents of exposure of 2nd hand smoke to employees in the

Borough by enforcement of the Smoke free England Regulations in all premises to which they apply. The current major concern in this area is in the shisha premises. A multi-agency approach to enforcement will be the primary aim.

3.2.3 Continue our arrangements to license or register those premises that make an application to undertake skin piercing and the sale of petroleum. We will actively search for businesses that require to be licensed or to be given permissions.

3.2.4 To continue to deal with all accident notifications, service requests and enquiries concerning matters of health and safety on a risk based approach. In 2015/16 85 accident notifications were received. 20 were fully investigated. Also 80 substantive service requests were dealt with. Not all accidents / dangerous occurrences will be investigated but all will be assessed using the “Whether to Investigate an Accident – Decision Checklist QCD 147” and the reasons for non-investigation will be recorded.

3.2.5 To continue to develop support initiatives for small to medium sized businesses

providing information and assistance on health and safety legislation. 3.2.7 To continue to effectively manage the resources of Business Compliance unit to

provide a cost effective high quality service. We will evaluate customer feedback and use the information as intelligence to make improvements to the service. We will act swiftly where that is possible and within the boundaries of our resources. We will also collect evidence from other sources to justify changes to the service.


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3.2.8 In 2015/16 we continued our link to the RIAMS quality system. 3.2.9 To continue to improve the standards of safety at sports grounds through partnership

working. In 2015/16 we chaired the Safety Advisory Group and worked in partnership with Blackburn Rovers to ensure the highest standards of safety were maintained. In conjunction with the Football Licensing Authority and the Fire Authority we audited Blackburn Rovers arrangements with regard to their safety certificate and fire arrangements.

3.2.10 In 2015/16 a significant part of the resource available to deal with health and safety

issues within Blackburn with Darwen was used to deal with a number of incidents and accidents reported to the local authority. Work also continued on dealing with shisha lounges in the Borough. A multi-agency approach has been taken to try to deal with issues of blatant disregard for the ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces. The current number of active shisha bars is 6.

As a result of this diversion of resource some of the other locally based project work

set as a priority for 15/16 has suffered. In 2015/16 progress was made as follows[AD2]:

a.) 2 petting farms have been inspected. b.) 3 high risk rated petroleum sites were inspected.

3.2.11 See Appendix 1 for more details on the work completed in 2015/16. Appendix 3 lists

the formal enforcement actions taken in 2015/16. 3.3 Crossing Service Boundaries

We will seek to reduce the burden on local businesses by combining the information gathering exercises carried on with those conducted for Trading Standards and other Environmental Health enforcement services.

We will also again use other environmental health enforcement services to ensure compliance with health and safety requirements e.g. licensing (alcohol, street trading, taxis and private hire, outdoor entertainment, safety of sports grounds, Smokefree England).

3.4 Local Enforcement Issues/projects for 2016/17

In 2016/17 the initiatives listed below will be the focus of attention for the resource available for health and safety:


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Inspect visitor attractions/open farms where there is a risk of infection with micro-organisms .

Complete the inspection programme of licensed petroleum sites

Follow accident notifications in areas of priority within the National Code. + major injuries and fatalities.

Ewood Park work – 1 non-event inspection and 3 during match inspections

Carbon monoxide poisoning in shisha lounges + solid fuel cooking in catering premises – in conjunction with food hygiene inspections.

Duty to manage asbestos leaflets to be left at all visits to premises

Skin piercers - all premises to be inspected


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Chapter 4 Service quality considerations 4.1 Consistency

The Service seeks consistency between officers and then between local authorities.

We will continue to be an active member of the Lancashire Health and Safety Officers Group. We are committed to developing the group’s training, peer review, benchmarking and consistency processes. We will use the outputs from these processes to review and develop our service.

4.2 Transparency

We seek to be transparent in all our actions.

We will use the website and our partnerships to publish details of why we do things. This plan will be published on the council’s website.

We will report to elected members of the council and senior managers the key performance indicators for this service on a quarterly basis for the financial year 2016/17.

4.3 Targeting and Proportionality

We seek to target our actions to the highest risk and to the most important local issues. We will take action in proportion to risk and compliance, addressing the most serious risks where the hazards are less well controlled -as set out in the national code.

We will use principles contained in the Enforcement Management Model.

We will train officers to be consistent, operate transparently, target their work and take proportionate action. This will normally be by discussion and coaching, using team meetings as the mechanism for such activities together with individual performance appraisal.

4.4 Accountability (making it clear who is responsible)

We will encourage higher expectations in the workplace and make sure that employers and employees understand their respective health and safety responsibilities. We will discuss the findings of every inspection with the employee representative (where there is one).


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Internally, officers are responsible for managing and completing their own work programs and for compliance with the RIAMS system. Completed activities are reviewed and verified by a Principle Officer.

4.5 Competency and Training

HSE’s national code requires officers to be competent and that there is a training programme to maintain competencies and develop staff.

The Service uses the RDNA competency assessment tool. This is used to ensure officers are both competent and properly authorized[AD3].

4.6 Data Capture and Record Keeping

The Service uses the Civica APP expert computer system for Public Protection. The health and safety intervention programme is generated from the commercial database within this system. Additionally, most premises-specific information is held within the system.

Health and Safety officers input details of interventions, accidents, service requests etc. Administration officers create, change and delete premises records.

4.7 Sustainability

We will ensure that our actions, and the results of our actions, are sustainable, not just in environmental terms but also in economic and health terms.

All officers can take advantage of being able to use council IT systems whilst “working from home”.

4.8 Resources to Provide the Service

The service is normally delivered Monday to Friday 9:00am to 5.00pm. Where circumstances require immediate, urgent action or out-of-hours work, officers provide that service. The Council’s Emergency contact for out of hours use is 01254 51098. The Public protection service has had a reduction in staffing resources in recent years. To try to maintain service provision working practices have been revised. For instance, health and safety interventions may be delivered at the same time as a food hygiene inspection.


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The business compliance team currently comprises 5.6 FTE officers (including team leader and admin support) with a proportion of their time given over to health and safety duties. It is estimated that this equates to 1 FTE on health and safety compliance activity plus additional management and administrative support.

4.9 Equipment

We have provided all staff with the IT equipment necessary to undertake their duties. Each officer has a networked laptop connected to the internet as well as to the Council’s network. There are networked printers, fax and scanner facilities

We have undertaken risk assessments which are reviewed periodically and when activities change. We have provided personal protective equipment to those individuals who need such equipment. We provide and maintain the equipment officers require for their duties e.g. light meters, thermometers, noise level meters, volt sticks, personal protective equipment and maintain a budget for purchase and calibration of equipment.

4.10 Finances

The annual budget for Business Compliance in 16/17 is:

£

Staffing 224,400

Travel and subsistence 7,400

Equipment 2,400

Total 234,200

The trend in resourcing is one of reductions in budgetary and FTE. Health and safety compliance work has been part of a wider, multifunctional Business Compliance Team where officers deal with all of the following: Food Hygiene Food Standards Health and Safety at Work Infectious Diseases Safety of Sports Grounds Smokefree England Recipe 4 Health Initiative


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Appendix 1 Targets and Performance Indicators

TARGET (and text reference)

PERFORMANCE INDICATOR

Meeting the inspection programme for A rated premises

We currently have no category A premises

Incorporating National targets into the work programme

Number of interventions made for each area indicated in the national guide - 47 Number of premises given advice in each area - 47

Investigating accidents according to our priority scheme

Number of accidents investigated - 20

Responding to priority service requests and complaints but resolving significant requests and complaints in line with available resources

Number of service requests responded to and resolved within service parameters - 80

Enforcing Safety of Sports Grounds legislation at Blackburn Rovers, issuing the new safety certificate as required

Number of inspections - 3 Issue of Safety Certificate – Ver 5.1

Inspect and license petroleum licensed premises in accordance with the legislation and on a risk assessed basis

Number of licenses issued – 11 and inspections carried out - 3

Devise run and measure at least 2 educational or enforcement projects per FTE officer

Numbers of businesses targeted - 47 Number of projects undertaken - 1

Maintaining staff competency Number of staff competent in all areas in which they are required to be competent – 4.6

Providing advice and education in all sectors of business, to both employers and employees in line with available resources

Number of elements of advice and education provided - 166

Maintaining the FLARE database Changes and additions to database Number of closed premises contacted and changes to the closed premises database - 171

Improving partnership working Number of partners - 3

Surveying customer satisfaction and act on the results

Number satisfied with service - 85 Changes made to service as a result of surveys - 0

Working with Lancashire to provide coordinated health and safety activities

Completion of EHL work-plan


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throughout Lancashire

Providing publicity campaigns and promotional activities

Number of campaigns and activities - 0

Supplying accurate and timely information to stakeholders, internal management and customers

Full information published on time and to quality demanded – when requested Yes

Seeking service improvements (in areas not outlined above)

Number of improvements to service

Providing advice on planning and building control and Licensing applications where there are significant developments

Number of customer contacts giving advice 2


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Appendix 2 Inspections

The purpose of inspections is to undertake a suitably comprehensive examination of an employer's activity in relation to the duties and requirements of the HSW Act and related legislation. The National Code Health and Safety inspection programme for 2015 – 2016 is set out below this lists the activities/sectors for proactive inspection by LAs – only these activities falling within these sectors or types of organisation will be subject to proactive inspection.

No Hazards High Risk Sectors High Risk Activities

1 Legionella infection Premises with cooling towers/evaporative condensers

Lack of suitable legionella control measures

2 Explosion caused by leaking LPG

Premises (including caravan parks) with buried metal LPG pipework

Buried metal LPG pipe work (For caravan parks to communal/amenity blocks only)

3 e.coli/cryptosporidium infection esp. in children

Open Farms/Animal Visitor Attractions

Lack of suitable micro‐organism control measures

4 Fatalities/injuries resulting from being struck by vehicles

Tyre fitters*/ MVR* (as part of Car Sales) High volume Warehousing/Distribution

Use of two‐post vehicle lifts Workplace transport

5 Fatalities/injuries resulting from falls from height/ amputation and crushing injuries

Industrial retail/wholesale premises e.g. steel stockholders, builders/timber merchants

Workplace transport/work at height/cutting machinery /lifting equipment

6 Industrial diseases (occupational asthma/deafness)

MVR*(as part of Car Sales) Industrial retail/wholesale premises e.g. steel stockholders, builders/timber merchants

Use of Isocyanate paints Noise and dust

7 Falls from height High volume Warehousing/Distribution

Work at height

8 Crowd control & injuries/fatalities to the public

Large scale public events/sports/leisure facilities e.g. motorised leisure pursuits including

Inadequate consideration of public safety e.g. poor organisation and/or supervision of high speed


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off road vehicles and track days

or off‐road vehicle movements

9 Carbon monoxide poisoning

Commercial catering premises using solid fuel cooking equipment

Lack of suitable ventilation and/or unsafe appliances

10 Violence at work Premises with vulnerable working conditions (lone/night working/cash handling e.g. betting shops/off‐licences/care settings) and where intelligence indicates that risks are not being effectively managed

Lack of suitable security measures/procedures


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Appendix 3 – Enforcement actions 2015/16

Improvement Notices Issued 4

Prohibition Notices Issued 7

Formal Cautions issued 0

Prosecutions Taken 0

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BLACKBURN WITH DARWEN BOROUGH COUNCIL WITH DARWEN BOROUGH COUNCIL ... The contributions made by the health and safety service plan to the Council’s corporate plan ... Service plan