Agenda item

This matter is the responsibility of Cllr Benet Allen.

Report Authors: 

Kate Lusty – Health & Safety Specialist

Dan Webb – Health & Safety Improvement Programme Manager (temp)

The purpose of this report is to provide the Audit and Governance committee with:

A)  a progress update on the Health & Safety Performance Framework

B)  a progress update against delivery of the H & S Management System (HSMS) Improvement Programme.

Sean Papworth, Assistant Director for Corporate, provided an introduction to the report:   

·        The report was in the same format as previous reports to the Committee with the addition of a scorecard in Appendix A.  

·        Some of the key areas to highlight from the scorecard were that more incidents were now being reported which would allow more work to be done to prevent future incidents.  

·        There had been an increase in incidents involving vehicles, so training was being reviewed.  

·        The contractor management process would also be shared more widely across the organisation, as would details around site security.  

·        Additional staff members had joined the Health and Safety Committee which made up part of the governance process for health and safety.  

·        SWAP would be undertaking a further audit in Quarter Two to review progress to date on health and safety.  

·        The Corporate Health and Safety Policy was being worked on and would be shared shortly.  

·        Risk Management was a key aspect of the improvement plan for Health and Safety. The highest risk activities and areas of the Council were being prioritised for having risk assessments reviewed and updated.  

·        A training programme was being created. There was a focus on compliance training being completed and the right records on training completion being stored centrally.  

·        Improvements still needed to be made but the progress to date was significant.  

Councillor Smith-Roberts left the meeting at 20:04 

The Director for Housing and Communities provided a further introduction to the report:  

·        Excellent progress had been made on health and safety.  

·        The organisation was now data led in its arrangements around health and safety.  

·        Progress the Council had made was being fed into the local government reorganisation programme as Somerset West and Taunton was currently likely in a better position than other local authorities in Somerset. As part of this, a new software system for health and safety was being considered.  

During the debate the following points were raised:  

·        It was asked how it would be ensured that risk assessments would be completed by March 2023. Officers responded that they were working on the highest areas of risk first, in terms of timescales they would seek to provide a response to members after the meeting. Risk assessments did already exist, the work was about reviewing and assessing the risk assessments in place to ensure they were appropriate.  

Cllr Fran Smith left the meeting 20:09 

·        It was raised that delivery dates for courses for members on health and safety had been listed as being scheduled for June 2022 but had not yet been scheduled. An update on this was requested. Officers responded that some aspects of work around health and safety improvements had taken longer than initially been hoped. The relevant policies were now in place and plans for member training were in progress. A more specific update on timings would be provided after the meeting.  

The Committee resolved to approve the recommendations in the report:  

2.1 The committee is asked to note and endorse:  

A) the H & S Performance Scorecard data, together with the observations/recommendations/conclusive summary (appendix A)  

B) the HSMS Improvement Programme progress update (detailed in section 4.4.3)