Health And Safety Guide For Councillors Launched
A new guide that highlights the health and safety responsibilities of local councillors entitled, 'Think about health and safety – What elected members of local authorities need to know' is being launched on Monday 2 February.
Developed by members of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) Public Services Group, the guide is intended to help elected members make decisions that help keep council employees, and the public, safe and healthy.
Nattasha Freeman, the President of IOSH, said:
"Health and safety in the public sector often gets a bit of a bashing, but our guide is about getting a sensible approach to health and safety. Nine times out of ten local authorities get health and safety judgements right. ‘Conkers bonkers’ stories detract from the 19 deaths and 6,500 major injuries to public service employees highlighted in our guide.
"Elected members have a much bigger responsibility for health and safety than they probably realise. They decide on the budgets, strategies and policies, so they have a major impact on the health and safety resourcing and culture at their authority. They might even be considered in a court of law to be the ‘directing mind’ of the organisation."
The new guide will be distributed free of charge to every leader and chief executive of councils in England, Scotland and Wales. A further guide is being developed for local authorities in Ireland. A presentation will also be available to download free of charge, which will allow local authority health and safety staff to deliver training to their elected members.
Bruce Phillips, the Chair of the IOSH Public Services Group, added:
"This guide is the culmination of many years’ thought and hard work from a group of volunteer members who wish to promote the benefits of occupational safety and health to society and who share a plethora of experience in this sector. The guide is designed to open elected members' eyes to health and safety.
"This is not about scaring elected members, either from making decisions or from standing for election in the first place. The guide is there to help and advise them on what is a massively important subject for public sector bodies. It tells you about the cost of workplace accidents and ill-health to local authorities, and why the public sector must do more to prevent them from happening. We must do better and, with elected members' help, we can do better."
Source: IOSH