Health and Safety Policy

Health and Safety Policy

Oldham Enterprise Trust CIO, c/o Oldham Council, Civic Centre, West Street, Oldham OL1 1UT

General statement of policy

Oldham Enterprise Trust CIO has a comprehensive Health and Safety Policy and is bound to abide by the Health and Safety at Work Act. This lays down certain duties on all staff and volunteers. The duties are to take care of their own safety and that of other staff, volunteers, clients and visitors and to co-operate with the Trustee Board and its officers to enable it to carry out its responsibilities.

Staff and volunteers have a duty to:

• work safely, efficiently and without endangering the health and safety of themselves, their colleagues or any other person who has a right of access to the organisation’s premises at any time
• adhere to safety procedures laid down by Oldham Enterprise Trust from time to time, and conform to all instructions given by those with a responsibility for health and safety
• record all accidents, near miss occurrences and hazardous situations in the Health and Safety/Accident book and report to the next staff meeting
• meet their other statutory safety obligations including that laid down in Section 8 of the Act, which states that “no person shall intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse anything provided in the interests of health, safety or welfare in pursuance of any of the relevant statutory provisions”.

1. Organisation and responsibilities

1.1          Trustee Board

Overall and final health and safety responsibility within the organisation lies with the Trustee Board. The Trustee Board shall appoint one person (the Oldham Enterprise Trust Manager) who will take the responsibility for drawing to the attention of the Trustee Board, staff and office volunteers any health and safety matters that need to be discussed and/or acted upon.

1.2          Delegated responsibilities

The Oldham Enterprise Trust Manager shall be given delegated responsibility for ensuring that the Health and Safety policy is carried out within the organisation. They will be given delegated responsibility for:

• carrying out regular safety inspections in the offices utilised by Oldham Enterprise Trust
  • ensuring that staff are provided with suitable seating and appropriate computer workstations
  • ensuring that floors and aisles are kept clear, as far as reasonably

practical, of trailing wires, equipment, stationery, etc.

• ensuring that the general fabric of the offices (including office items & equipment used by staff) is maintained

• investigating and reporting accidents
• ensuring that a Health and Safety Workplace poster on “Health and Safety Law” is displayed
• making staff and volunteers aware of the specific fire escapes and fire extinguishers within the building
• ensuring staff and volunteers are given a copy of this Policy and understand its contents; ensuring that staff and volunteers are made familiar with the alarm systems within the building and action to be taken in the event of a fire
• drawing to the attention of the Trustee Board, and staff any new legislation on health and safety relevant to the work of Oldham Enterprise Trust
• drawing to the Trustee Board’s attention any matters with which they are unable to deal.

1.3          Staff and office volunteers

All staff and volunteers have a responsibility to:

• read and fully understand the Oldham Enterprise Trust’s Policy statement and the procedures to be carried out in the event of an emergency. If there is any doubt about the meaning, staff must seek clarification from the Oldham Enterprise Trust Manager
• co-operate with the Trustee Board and the, Oldham Enterprise Trust Manager as appropriate, to achieve a healthy and safe workplace and to take reasonable care of themselves and others
• report to the Oldham Enterprise Trust Manager within 24 hours any accident occurring:
• on the premises
• off the premises whilst acting on behalf of Oldham Enterprise Trust
• bring to the notice of the Oldham Enterprise Trust Manager any potentially dangerous circumstances that the employee is unable to put right.

1.4          Review

The Oldham Enterprise Trust Manager in conjunction with the Chair, will keep this Policy under constant review to reflect any changes in legislation. The Policy will be fully reviewed at least annually and will be subject to approval by the Trustee Board.

2. General arrangements

2.1          Accidents, near-miss occurrences, and hazardous situations

Oldham Enterprise Trust has a Health and Safety Accident Book located in a locked filing cabinet and all incidents, no matter how small, must be recorded as soon as possible after the incident. The incident should also be reported to the Oldham Enterprise Trust Manager. In addition to reporting accidents, it is equally important to report near misses and potential hazards so as to enable preventative action to be taken before it is too late. Once an incident has been recorded in the Accident Book the Sheet must be removed and stored separately, e.g., in the personnel file.

It is the responsibility of the Oldham Enterprise Trust Manager to ensure that any necessary follow up action is taken to reduce the risk of the accident or near accident reoccurring.

The Oldham Enterprise Trust Manager is responsible for ensuring the reporting of incidents which come within the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases & Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR), to the Health and Safety Executive. RIDDOR covers the following incidents:

(a)          fatal accidents

(b)          major injury accidents/conditions

(c)           dangerous occurrences

(d)          accidents causing more than 7 days incapacity for work

(e)          certain work-related diseases.

A First Aid kit is available in Room 310 Oldham Civic Centre.

2.2          General fire safety

The Oldham Council are responsible for the maintenance of the firefighting equipment and the arrangement of regular fire safety checks and fire drills. The Oldham Council also undertakes a Fire Risk Assessment for the building.

All staff must also read and understand the Fire Procedure. A fire notice is located in Room 310 Oldham Civic Centre.

3. Personal safety

3.1          Staff or volunteers who are working on their own should not allow access to casual visitors who have no appointment.

3.2          All windows and entry doors will be lockable.

3.3          Staff who are going to be away on Oldham Enterprise Trust business should make it clear to other staff (and put in diary) where they will be, how long for and how they can be contacted.

3.4          Staff should inform the office who they wish to be contacted in the event of an emergency giving contact details.

3.5          Staff who carry money for Oldham Enterprise Trust have the right to be accompanied by another person.

3.6          Visits to the bank should not be at a regular time.

3.7          Staff should not put themselves at risk on account of Oldham Enterprise Trust’s property.

3.8          All incidents of aggression or violence and any threat to personal safety should be reported to the Manager and recorded in the accident book.

3.9          Staff should be vigilant with regards to terrorist incident warnings – e.g. unattended bags.

4. Stress management

4.1          Stress at work is a serious issue: workers can suffer severe medical problems, which can result in under-performance at work, and cause major disruptions to the organisation.

The responsibility for reducing stress at work lies both with employer and employee. Employees should become aware of the causes of stress and ensure that they do not work in a way which could cause them to suffer an increase in stress, nor cause an increase in stress on others.

If an employee is suffering from stress at work, they should discuss this with the Oldham Enterprise Trust Manager at the first opportunity. Where practicable and reasonable, Oldham Enterprise Trust will seek to provide assistance to the employee.

Oldham Enterprise Trust will do all it can to eradicate problems relating to stress at work.