EHJ November 2002, pages 324-327 The HELA strategic plan reflects the Health and Safety Commission's desire that local authority activity in the area of health and safety should support the revitalising agenda. Alan Craft looks at some of the work being done across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to better deliver health and safety programmes

When the Government and the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) jointly launched the consultation on revitalising health and safety back in July 1999, some 47,000 copies of the main document and summary were sent out, eliciting nearly 1,500 responses from a range of stakeholders. In general, the responses indicated that the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 had stood the test of time and provided goal setting legislation with a reasonable practicability test, within a framework to secure decent standards. Given this general support for the existing regime, the HSC strategy tends to adopt ideas that "add value, without threatening the overall balance".

In July 2001, the Health and Safety Executive and Local Authority Enforcement Liaison Committee (HELA) strategic plan 2001-2004 was published. This strategy reflects the HSC's desire that the focus of local authority activity should support the revitalising health and safety agenda. The main driver for this is a set of defined targets:

• reducing working days lost through workplace accidents by 30 per cent by 2010; - reducing fatal and major accidents by 10 per cent by 2010;
• reducing work-related ill health by 20 per cent by 2010; and
• achieving half the improvement under each target by 2004.

These targets are to be delivered through a ten-point strategy, supported by an action plan containing 44 action points:

• promotion of better working environments;
• promotion of "happy, healthy and here" workforces;
• improve occupational health;
• positively engage small firms;
• motivate employers to improve performance;
• culture of self regulation;
• promotion of the partnership approach;
• the Government to lead by example;
• education at all levels; and
• design in health and safety.
  

For local authorities the principal link between the revitalising targets, strategy and action plan is the HELA strategic plan. The HSC S18 guidance, published in September 2001, makes it clear that local authorities must have regard to the HELA strategic plan, by stating that: "Local authorities should establish and maintain a planned inspection programme...using risk-based priority planning systems and taking into account the HELA strategy and HELA guidance to local authorities."

This is reinforced within the strategy itself, in statements such as: "This strategy reflects the desire of the HSC that the focus should be the revitalising agenda." Other statements, such as "local authorities should use it to inform their own health and safety enforcement objectives and priorities," make it clear that ignoring the HELA strategy is not an option.

The HELA strategy is based around five priority programmes: slips and trips; workplace transport; musculoskeletal disorders; stress; and falls from heights. Other, more specific priorities include:

• asbestos (management in buildings and stripping operations);
• health and safety in catering;
• steel stockholders;
• the Royal Mail;
• fairground rides;
• and the supply of defective work equipment.

There are indications, however, that the priority programmes identified above are likely to be reiterated in the next edition of the plan. As indicated, the HSC requires that local authorities establish and maintain a planned inspection programme using risk-based priority planning systems. Thus, it would be useful if clear and unambiguous advice were given with regard to the periodicity of inspections based on the HELA guidance (HELA LAC 67/1 revised).

Oddly, despite the range of guidance, local authorities are on the one hand claiming a lack of resources, while at the same time sending out staff to undertake in-depth inspections of low risk premises. If we, as local authorities, are to play our part in delivering on the accident/ill health reduction targets, we need to concentrate resources into areas where we can make most gains. An inspection programme based on risk, coupled with the strategy priority programmes, will direct interventions towards areas where the most gains can be made.

While some officers display a good grasp of the reasons and need for targeted work programmes, regrettably, many show a lack of this understanding and appear to be supervised by managers who are happy to expend resources to carry out "general inspections" against numerical performance indicators, with no consideration of the effectiveness of this approach.

A number of strands of work, some across the local region and some within the council, have proved effective in delivering improvements. A sub-group of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Health and Safety Advisory Committee was formed when the last HELA strategy was published in 1998. This group included representation from those involved with the health improvement agenda and the health education service of the local health authority (now the primary care trust).

The remit of this HELA sub-group is to co-ordinate activity to assist local authorities in delivering the strategy. Early work to establish what officers wanted from the group established that training was a high priority. For this reason, much of the work has focused on the provision of training to increase the knowledge set and confidence of officers carrying out health and safety duties.

Much of the focus has been in the areas of "softer" health and safety, such as mental wellbeing, where many officers confessed to unease about the issues. When the current HELA strategy was published, a self-audit checklist (see information box at the end) was produced enabling local authorities to compare
the strategy against what activity they are undertaking and the support available from the sub-group. It became clear that much of the work already being undertaken supported the updated strategy. The checklist was sent directly to chief environmental health officers and has formed the basis for developing appropriate activities both at individual authority level and across the Hampshire and Isle of Wight region.

Part of the work of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight chief EHOs' benchmarking group has been looking at the cost and quality of services provided. One outcome of this has been a further exercise to determine the level of consistency in risk rating scoring following health and safety inspections. This exercise produced some evidence that authorities that provide a "well rounded" health and safety service, including a reasonable level of promotion, have in general lower risk rating scores for similar types of premises.

Is this the answer to that age-old question - education or enforcement? As part of the benchmarking process, inter-authority auditing of health and safety services seeks to identify "best practice", which is then fed back to all authorities. Examples of best practice identified have included small business support material that has been shared and adopted by a number of authorities, clear inspection aid memoirs and risk category C premises strategies.

The Basingstoke and Deane local business partnership (LBP) has been held by the Cabinet Office and small business service to be "a model of excellence", and involves all of the locally-based regulators and representatives of a wide range of businesses. This provides a useful vehicle to ascertain business needs and opinion.

Surveys to ascertain business attitude towards enforcement have clearly shown a willingness to comply with health and safety legislation, but a lack of information on how to achieve this. A number of initiatives have been pursued including:

• small business packs, including a self-audit checklist, that break the basic requirements into digestible chunks. This approach allows officers to concentrate on the HELA priorities during visits, while upholding the principle of self-regulation; and
• sector-specific events targeting warehouses and workplace transport issues, manual handling, and slips and trips in a manner targeted to the audience. This approach has led to the formation of a warehouse safety forum, which has become almost self sufficient, with members providing venues and speakers and the council acting as the secretariat. Having been awarded a commendation in the recent HELA innovations awards, this approach is currently being extended to the care home sector.

These projects have improved standards across a wide range of businesses with minimal input from officers. Within Basingstoke and Deane BC, the approach to inspections has been changed and the principle focus is the appropriate priority programmes. Officers concentrate on these and can normally make a balanced judgement about the safety management culture of the organisation being visited. Where such a judgement cannot be made, or the officer has concerns about the organisation, the more traditional approach may be adopted. The HSE, through the local authority unit, is tailoring the HSE field operations division's approach to "topic based inspections" and a pack to assist officers in this approach will be available shortly.

If local authority health and safety enforcement staff are going to "make a difference" and contribute to reducing the toll of workplace accidents and ill health in this country, efforts need to be focused on what works. The way in which interventions are carried out in this country needs to be examined to ensure that scarce resources are directed towards work activities that cause accidents and ill health, in premises and sectors that are high risk, and in a way that maximises results.

Alan Craft is environmental health manager at Basingstoke and Deane BC, a health and safety consultant/trainer and NVQ assessor. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of his employers.

	HELA strategic plan 2001 - 2004 Self audit checklist The HELA strategic plan for 2001-2004 was published in July 2001; it is orientated on the achievement of long-term aims set out by the Government and the HSC's revitalising health and safety strategy statement. The HELA subgroup of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight CIEH Health and Safety Advisory Committee was set up to assist local authorities in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in implementing the previous strategic plan. This work has focused on providing training on mainly occupational health topics to help officers working in the more health orientated areas of health and safety enforcement. This document (see below) picks out the areas of work identified in the 2001-2004 plan identified for local authority action and gives an indication of the activity the HELA subgroup will undertake to support those programmes. An additional column is provided for local authorities to individually consider what action they will undertake in support of the HSC's aims. The principle role that has been given to local authorities is to lead the HSC priority programme on slips and trips. For other priority programme areas, local authorities should: prioritise their inspection effort to tackle these issues; concentrate on segregation of vehicles and pedestrians in workplace transport scenarios; and consider the role of other local authority enforcement functions (eg building control and planning) in improving health and safety in the construction industry.

	No Programme HELA sub group activity Local Authority activity 1 Slips and trips during routine inspections, accident investigations and other interventions Possible workshop focusing on risk assessment and accident investigation in relation to slips and trips? Could be based on LAU roadshow (the slips roadshow). Completed early 2003   2 Slips and trip sin food and drink premises See 1   3 Workplace transport - segregation of pedestrians and vehicles Possible workshop. Informal discussion at advisory committee late 2001   4 Musculoskeletal disorders - focus on WRULDS and manual handling Back and manual handling operations training arranged for December 2001 and annually thereafter   5 Manual handling in the food/drinks processing and delivery See 4   6 Patient handling in residential care homes Possible training session on patient handling techniques and risk reduction strategies (NHS input?) especially when new HSE guidance published   7 Work-related stress profile raising Second training sessions being held in September 2001. Audit tool being developed for trial late 2001. Audit tool trailed and finalised for late 2002. Health improvement manager BDBC completing thesis on officers' acceptance, competence and confidence of role in this area.   8 Prevention of falls from heights - scaffolding     9 Asbestos management in buildings - new duty to be introduced. Will act as focal point to facilitate conferences and seminars sponsored by HSE. New duty awareness training for inspectors programmed but waiting date from HSE   10 Asbestos stripping Video training package from HSL due 2001, training session based around this will be carried out   11 Health and safety in catering - raising standards. This area could form the basis for a Hampshire wide campaign. Presentation to food advisory committee completed early 2002   12 Handling and storage of steel stock - raising standards     13 Royal Mail - consistency