Agenda item

To present the report of the Head of Service (Regulation and Economic Development).

The report of the Director of Place and Community Well-being incorporating the Corporate Health and Safety Annual Report for 2018/19 was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The report followed the format and guidance developed by the Welsh Local Government Association which provide a series of headings for reporting health and safety performance which should  assist in identifying the commitment, ability and direction of the management of occupational health and safety.

The report included data on all accidents and incidents reported in 2018/19 classified into minor, serious and RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) which are incidents which meet specific criteria that require reporting to the Health and Safety Executive. The table at page 7 of the report provides an analysis of incidents by type broken down further into sub-categories for certain incidents. The tabular format allows comparison with the data for the previous three years.

The Committee was informed that the data shows that violence and aggression and falls appear to be the most significant type of incident. With regard to violence and aggression (total number of incidents – 287compared with 237 in 2017/18), the highest number of incidents are those involving challenging behaviour where the intent to harm may not be present (106).  Abuse from members of the public is also a significant figure (103 incidents compared with 53 in 2017/18). Whilst the majority of these involve telephone calls some include face to face incidents. The increase may be attributable to a combination of factors including societal pressures, the economic climate and increased demand for the services provided by the Council. Falls incidents relate mainly to school pupils and clients in homes with the majority not being due to supervision issues or issues with the environment. The “Another Kind of Accident” category also shows a high number of incidents (135) and includes awareness reports of situations such as “hoarding” in housing stock; possible safeguarding issues and information provided by external agencies which may impact on the Council’s duty of care. This will be reviewed to establish whether these incidents may be recorded as near miss incidents or whether an additional method of recording is required.

In discussing the report, the Committee raised the following matters –

•           The Committee sought clarification of what determines whether an incident is reported as a RIDDOR incident, whether all such incidents are very serious and whether the Council benchmarks its performance in this respect against other authorities. The Corporate Health and Safety Advisor clarified that there are specific criteria which determine whether an incident is reportable as RIDDOR and he gave examples of incidents that meet the RIDDOR definition e.g. injuries to workers which result in their incapacitation for over 7 days. Occasionally, an incident will be serious but will not be reportable to RIDDOR but would be subject to a more in-depth internal investigation. Investigating RIDDOR incidents is one of the Service’s performance targets. Under RIDDOR, injuries to non-Council workers which results in them being taken directly to hospital (be they serious or not) must also be reported. The Officer confirmed that currently the Council does not undertake any benchmarking against other authorities with regard to health and safety but in the past when comparisons were being made, its performance in respect of RIDDOR reporting (used as a benchmark because its standards are consistent to all councils) was generally on a par with that of the other North Wales Authorities. The North Wales Corporate Health and Safety Group has not met for some years although there has been a request for it to be reinstated.

•           The Committee sought clarification of who is responsible for Councillors’ personal safety especially in a climate where they may be at increased risk because of the nature of their duties and the interactions they have with the public. The Corporate Health and Safety Advisor advised that the Council is responsible for Councillor safety when they are carrying out duties on its behalf. The Officer said that he had been asked to contribute to training for councillors on personal safety and to that end he was working on a presentation. The Committee requested that the training be expedited.

•           The Committee was concerned about the increase in violent incidents highlighting 8 incidents where an employee had been struck, and it also noted the rise in the number of violent incidents where a member of the public had been verbally abusive to staff members which had almost doubled from 53 to 103.The Committee sought clarification of whether violent incidents were being reported to the Police, whether in the interest of safeguarding staff, there should be a clear notice in the Council’s main reception area that violent behaviour against staff will be reported to the Police and whether the Authority is satisfied that staff are getting the support they need when they have been subjected to violence or abuse when carrying out their work.  The Committee noted additionally that it would be helpful if the data could be broken down further into incidents by service since abuse by housing tenants for example could potentially be a breach of their tenancy which could be countered by positive action.  The Corporate Health and Safety Advisor clarified that the majority of violent incidents take place within the school environment potentially pupil on pupil but that he was not aware of their being reported to the Police. Although the majority of physical assault incidents relate to challenging behaviour where there are mental capacity issues and where it could not be established that there was intent to harm, the number of general physical assaults where no mental capacity issues have been identified have also risen. The Officer said that although he was not aware of any resulting prosecutions, there were 2 incidents in which the Police had been involved. Signage highlighting that violence and aggression will not be tolerated is displayed in Cyswllt Môn (the Council’s public reception area); the inclusion of a reference to the Police is a matter for discussion. For staff who have suffered abuse in the course of their work there is support and awareness at Line Manager level in addition to which resulting revisions to the Managing Contact – Unacceptable Actions by Customers Policy and the Risk of Violence Marker Policy and Procedure have been made.

The Chief Executive confirmed that staff have the right to terminate a telephone call if the caller is being abusive and to report such calls to the Head of Service. If this happens repeatedly then the Risk of Violence Marker Policy allows for the caller to be flagged up as one who is abusive/ threatening.

It was resolved that the Audit and Governance Committee accepts the Corporate Health and Safety Annual Report and recommends that the report be considered by the Authority and the Development Plan implemented.

NO ADDITIONAL PROPOSAL WAS MADE