Association of Colleges

AoC National Health & Safety Conference 2005

This year’s event was held in the Royal Moathouse Hotel, Nottingham. Over 170 delegates, from a range of College functions, plus all of the LSC’s National and Regional Safety Managers, attended.

Chair for the day was David Kissman OBE, who welcomed delegates and set the scene for the day, noting some of the important aspects of Health & Safety from his perspective. David is Chair of the AoC/CEL Governance Advisory Group and Broxtowe College.

First speaker for the day was Stephen Green, Health & Safety Consultant, Association of Colleges who addressed the theme of “Joined-up Health & Safety”, in which the boundaries between H&S and other areas, including estates and human resources, were becoming blurred because of the cross-disciplinary nature of issues such as the environment and inclusivity.

 

 

 

 


Steve also summarised the work of AoC’s H&S support for members, both reactive (such as the most popular topics for helpline calls) and proactive (including representing member Colleges’ interests in negotiations and consultations with government departments and LSC).

Steve’s other main topic was the intention to raise the profile of the good work being carried out by Colleges. The new “College Health & Safety Champion” award was highlighted as an example of this.

Steve was followed by a joint presentation by Jon Cowlan and Paul Murray, of Turner & Townsend, on Disability Discrimination and Fire Safety. 

Jon discussed the meanings of “reasonable adjustments” and some strategies for compliance. He stressed the importance of having good support systems and effective training.

Paul stated that fire safety legislation is being reformed - with approximately 100 pieces of legislation being repealed, including the Fire Precautions Act 1971 and the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997. The new system is set to go 'live' in April 2006. It will remove the requirement for fire certificates, but will place great emphasis on risk assessment.

Responsibility for fire safety will rest with the person who is responsible for the premises. This person must ensure that a thorough fire risk assessment has been undertaken, that identifies fire hazards and has measures in place to reduce these hazards. Fire precautions must be implemented so as to protect people from remaining risks. Fire Authorities will enforce the regulations through targeting resources at places where there is a greater risk of fire (hotels, schools, colleges etc.). They will check the measures in place, with enforcement action taken in cases where the measures are deemed to be inadequate.

The Tea/Coffee interval gave delegates the chance to mix and network with each other and with the exhibitors, who included Croner, Deaf Alerter, Evac Chair and HSE.

After the interval, the next speaker was Sara Macey, Research Fellow, Resource Efficiency, Nottingham Trent University, who spoke about Environmental Management Systems (EMS), in particular Ecocampus.

EcoCampus is an environmental management system (EMS) and award scheme for the further and higher education sectors. The scheme allows colleges and universities to be recognised for addressing key issues of environmental sustainability.

Once funding is received for further development, the scheme would be open to all institutions committed to a programme of continuous improvement in their environmental sustainability performance.

The key aspects of EcoCampus are that it offers a modular, phased, incremental approach to developing an EMS, that is particularly appropriate for HE and FE institutions where resources are limited and /or inexperienced. Sara described the benefits of EcoCampus, which include:

• Identifying financial savings through, for example, improved resource productivity and a reduction in energy consumption and landfill costs.
• Helping to establish compliance with environmental legislation, so reducing the risk of incurring penalties for unlawful activity
• Enhancing learner recruitment potential by providing evidence of responsible practice
• Improving external perception of the College
• Enhancing research and consultancy opportunities
• Actively involving staff and students in the College’s activities and helping to create a sense of community and ownership
• Curriculum development.

David Kissman then invited delegates to move to their chosen workshop session. Delegates had a choice of two from the following four workshops:

"Assessing The Workplace And Employer” training tool
Led by Tony Abbott of Effective Training Solutions.


This workshop described the features of LSC’s new AWETT software which would soon be available to Colleges

 

 

 

 

CoSHH Essentials
Led by Louise Jones, Policy Officer, Health & Safety Executive

Louise (HSE COSHH Promotion) showcased the HSE’s interactive, on-line COSHH risk assessment system, with the promise that “it's free, quick and easy”. She explained that doing a COSHH risk assessment through eCOSHH, and following its free advice, can help Colleges to reduce exposure to hazardous substances at work. Louise said, "Using a real example, I demonstrated how eCOSHH carries out a full risk assessment step-by-step, based on information you put in about the task and from the Safety Data Sheet; we saw the relevant advice sheets (pdf for display/download) and the full risk assessment summary which can be shown to an inspector. Some workshop participants who had carried out full risk assessments confirmed that the site is easy to use, with an average 7 -10 minutes max. from start to finish. To follow COSHH good practice for common tasks and course content, we explored an example of tasks associated with the "beauty" sector through the "direct" route (Option "NEW" on the website); here 70 free advice sheets are found e.g. hairdressing, woodworking, cleaning. Risk assessments on eCOSHH are completely anonymous.”

Louise went on to encourage delegates, "Even if you're not sure that eCOSHH is relevant to your job, please visit the site and test out what it could do for you - you won't break it and there are over 100 free advice sheets - 70 "direct". You can get also help with the site by clicking on the "Feedback" button on the eCOSHH home page. Let us know how you get on!"

Encouragingly, and mainly as a result of the workshops, over 72 participants "signed up" as Partners with HSE, for a free eCOSHH presenter's pack to cascade through their own regional AoC networks, and to help young learners become more aware of the health risks of hazardous substances - before they join the workforce.

The resources can be found here: www.coshh-essentials.org.uk

Accident Reporting with AIMS - Graphical Reports and new Basic User Guide
Led by David Mogg, Health, Safety & Environment Officer at Wigan & Leigh College


This workshop focussed on the experience gained from the introduction, in September 2004, of AoC’s Accident and Information Management System (AIMS) at Wigan & Leigh College. David gave a brief overview of the type of information and data that must be collected when investigating accidents and incidents. The potential of AIMS to generate information compared with existing paper based systems was demonstrated through various tables and graphs generated through the use of Access and Excel/ Word. The workshop was very interactive and a range of discussion points arose. Some were of a technical nature addressed by the new Basic User Guide (BUG).

Key issues concerned accident ratios, benchmarking and the need to separate out learners from employed staff, contractors and members of the public. Another area of discussion was the need for the system to be able to identify accidents to learners arising out of, or in connection with, ‘work’ (and so may be reportable to LSC and HSE) from those occurring in corridors, entrances, paths car parks etc. Further refinement of the AIMS is possible to meet these challenges.

The Kirklees Healthy College Standard
Led by Dr. Kate Birch, Healthy College Co-ordinator, Huddersfield New College.


Kate described experiences in the development and piloting of the Kirklees Healthy College Standard which was produced in partnership with the Kirklees Healthy Schools Team. The standard is on the same lines as the National Healthy Schools Standard but appropriate to the older age group. Kate described the Healthy College network, which has also been established. This group meets each term to share good practice and monitor progress of the pilot in both FE and Sixth Form colleges. Discussions indicated that there was support in colleges for a framework such as the KHCS and that this needed recognition at a national level.
Positive results were immediate - as a result of Kate’s workshops, a further 22 members were added to the network.

The busy morning session was followed by lunch. Many contributors to the FEH-S discussion forum were able to put “names to faces”!

Immediately after lunch, delegates attended their second chosen workshop.

Then David Kissman started the second session of presentations by introducing Smita Jamdar, a Partner at Martineau Johnson Solicitors, who presented a law update.


Smita’s session covered the legal consequences of a fatality on campus under the current law, as well as considering the implications of the proposed new offence of corporate manslaughter. Recent cases were reviewed to demonstrate to delegates how the Courts had dismissed some of the more common “defences” to health and safety prosecutions such as:


an accident caused by an employee “on a frolic of his own”
a failure by lower level management to implement centrally approved health and safety standards
an accident caused by a contractor’s failure to manage health and safety

Key risk areas for FE were suggested, as were some of the common pitfalls in health and safety management which might render Colleges more vulnerable to prosecution and conviction.

Smita was followed by Anthony Smythe, Head of Governance at AoC who spoke on the topic of “Leadership in Health & Safety”.

Anthony gave a summary of the contribution made by governors to the success of a College, the responsibilities of governors and how inspections will evaluate leadership and management.

Rossina Harris, Head of the Trade Union Studies Centre, Lewisham College then spoke about the 2004/5 College Safety Champion Winning Project “Body Mapping”.

Details of this initiative are available via the AoC H&S website, here.

The day’s final presentation was from Marilyn MacFarlane, National Health & Safety Manager, Learning & Skills Council.

The importance of Marilyn’s address was underlined by the impressive “full house” of delegates who were keen to hear her speak about LSC Approach to Promoting Learner Health & Safety.

After the presentations had completed, a short question and answer session took place before David Kissman, whose energy and valuable summaries had kept the event moving at a good pace all day, drew matters to a close, thanked delegates for attending and contributing to a valuable day, and wished everyone a safe journey home.

The AoC team personally wish to thank delegates for their active participation and other contributions and suggestions. We hope to see even more colleagues next year at what we hope will be an even bigger and better event!

Post-event comments from David Kissman:

“I was impressed by the "community spirit" that existed amongst the delegates. I have chaired a number of AoC events and this one was undoubtedly the most socially and professionally cohesive.
“My strongest learning from this event was the chasm that exists between the depth of knowledge amongst attendees compared with the relative ignorance that occurs around the table at governing body meetings on key Health and Safety issues. Of course I can only speak from my own experiences as a Chair of Governors but I have spoken to a few colleagues from other colleges since my return from the event and they would seem to bear out my view.
“The challenge is there for those attending the event to take back to their colleges the critical messages and ensure that they are taken up and acted upon by other senior managers and governors.
“Congratulations on a very informative and worthwhile event”

---