Knowledge is the key to success in every walk of life, regardless of your chosen industry, and health and safety is no different. Our health and safety blog provides insights, guidance and essential information on improving your business’s health and safety practices, and keeps you up to date with vital news.
<p>There is a wildly held assumption that by using subcontractors a business is also outsourcing the risks associated with that work as well as the work its self. This is of course not true.</p><p>The business, the owner or the occupier of the land (the client), is also responsible for ensuring that a safe working environment is provided for contractors. Contractors too have similar responsibilities to their client and to their staff. The boundaries however often become obscured.</p><p>Many relationships with contractors are longstanding and close working. This can foster an environment where asking for evidence of compliance can be more difficult. It may be embarrassing or implies criticism of a close trading partner to request copies of safety policies or assessments.</p><p>Everyone needs to understand the part they need to play in ensuring health and safety. You will need to satisfy yourself that the contractor you choose can do the job safely and without risks to health. This means making enquiries about the competence of the contractor – do they have the right combination of skills? experience and knowledge? The degree of competence required will depend on the work. Similarly, the level of enquiries you make should be determined by the level of risks and the complexity of the job.</p><h4>Examples of questions you could ask potential contractors include:</h4><ul><li>What arrangements do they have for managing the work? For example, who will be responsible, how will the work be supervised, what checks do they make on equipment and materials etc?</li><li>Will you they be using subcontractors and if so how will they check their competency? The level of competence for subcontractors will depend on the risk and the complexity of the work.</li><li>What is their recent health and safety performance? For example, how many accidents and cases of ill health have you had, has HSE taken any action taken against you?</li><li>Do they have a written health and safety policy? (This is only a requirement if five or more people are employed.)</li><li>Can they provide existing risk assessments done for similar jobs? Again, written risk assessments are only required by law if five or more people are employed.</li><li>What qualifications, skills and experience do they have in this type of work</li><li>What health and safety information and training do they provide for their workers?</li><li>Do they have Employers’ Liability Compulsory Insurance?</li></ul><p><br></p>
<p>Creating an effective and positive safety culture is a never-ending but satisfying process. It takes a large commitment on behalf of the entire organisation, but it has great benefits. Here are my 8 top tips to get you started on building a positive and strong safety culture at your organisation:</p><ol><li>Define safety responsibilities: Do this for each level within your organization. This should include policies, goals and plans for the safety culture.</li><li>Share your safety vision: Everyone should be in the same boat when establishing goals and objectives for their safety culture.</li><li>Enforce accountability: Create a process that holds everyone accountable for being visibly involved, especially managers and supervisors. They are the leaders for a positive change.</li><li>Provide multiple options: Provide different options for employees to bring their concerns or issues. There should be a chain of command to make sure supervisors are held accountable for being responsive.</li><li>Report, report, report: Educate employees on the importance of reporting injuries, first aids and near misses. Prepare for an increase in incidents if currently there is under-reporting. It will level off eventually.</li><li>Rebuild the investigation system: Evaluating the incident investigation system is critical to make sure investigations are conducted in an effective manner. This should help get to the root cause of accidents and incidents.</li><li>Build trust: When things start to change in the workplace, it is important to keep the water calm. Building trust will help everyone work together to see improvements.</li><li>Celebrate success: Make your efforts public to keep everyone motivated and updated throughout the process.</li></ol><p><br></p>
<p>Extraction fans are found in most residences and many commercial properties to help prevent steamed up mirrors, damp walls, and fogged windows along with removing odours. However, these fans, over time, build up lint which insulates the motor, exacerbating the heat build-up; the lint provides an easy-to-ignite fuel source which in turn ignites nearby combustible building materials.</p><p>These fans are not designed to last forever and many are original installs. Older extractor fans are not thermally protected. Thermal protection causes the motor to shut off should they seize and overheat. If you have a bathroom extraction fan in your home, clean it twice a year. If it starts to make noises or smells odd, it’s time to replace it.</p><h4>Five action steps you can take to prevent an extraction fan fire:</h4><ol><li>Inspect and clean all bathroom exhaust fans as necessary and per the manufacturer’s recommendations, be sure to place on a regular cleaning schedule.</li><li>When cleaning, remove the fan cover to clean and remove lint from around the motor, paying careful attention to all air-flow areas.</li><li>Wash the fan cover in warm soapy water to remove all lint. If there is any mould growing, add bleach to the cleaning mixture. Make sure the cover is completely dry before putting it back up.</li><li>If some fans are not easily accessible for regular cleaning, or appear to have evidence of heat damage, or do not turn freely, they should be replaced with thermally protected units.</li><li>Please remember that bathroom fans should only be used for brief periods of time, such as during a shower. Many people run them excessively or even forget that they are on. Consider installing a timer switch instead of a manual switch to limit the unnecessary use of the fan. Turn off all fans as soon as they have done the job.</li></ol><p><br></p>
