Agenda item

To consider the report of the Director of Neighbourhood Services and Communities (copy enclosed).

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Neighbourhood Services and Communities that provided an update on Health and Safety statistics and activity during Quarter 3 (Q3) (1 October to 31 December 2025). The Chairperson introduced the report and deferred to the Director of Neighbourhood Services and Communities and Corporate Health and Safety Manager to present the detail.

The Director took the Committee through the report advising on the numbers of accidents / incidents, near misses and unacceptable behaviour which were relatively low and dealt with according to Council policies with no particular trends identified during this period. It was noted that the number of accidents and near misses reported demonstrated that Officers continued to follow the correct procedure. The report provided further update in respect of the following areas:

·                Health and Safety Actions – the report detailed a number of actions along with an update on the progress of each.

·                Health and Safety Groups – Reported incidents were scrutinised through the monthly Health and Safety Managers’ Group along with compliance in other areas and monthly performance updates were provided to the Senior Leadership Team.

·                System resources – Work continued and resources for health and safety improvement had been agreed in principle with the Director of Finance.

·                Fire Risk Assessments

·                Policies and procedures – work was continuing to review and update all corporate policies and procedures.

·                Health and Safety inspections – the annual mini-audit of the Council depots had been completed along with an inspection of the Blackwater Leisure Centre.

·                Legionella – routine worked continued.

·                Training – a number of training events had been undertaken during this quarter, including phase 1 of the driver safety (classroom) sessions for those who drove on council business and manage telephone aggression for those in customer services, housing, waste and environmental health teams. Further training courses to support the training programme has been scheduled.

·                Accident-near miss reporting

·                Health and Safety Audit – Most actions had been completed and a table within the report highlighted those still outstanding.

The Chairperson proposed that the recommendations as set out in the report be agreed and this proposal was duly seconded.

During the discussion that followed and in response to questions raised, the following information was provided:

·                The new door entry system would provide a record of who was in the Council building and this information would be accessible for fire marshals during any fire evacuation. In response to a question regarding how the software recorded this information, the Corporate Health and Safety Manager advised he would have to defer this to the IT department.

·                The Director of Neighbourhood Services and Communities drew Members’ attention to the systems the Council had in place to support reception staff, should they feel threatened at any point, this included an alert being sent through the Police, CCTV and proactive management. It was noted should a situation result in an incident staff are supported, with appropriate action being taken. The Corporate Health and Safety Manager advised Members of a new device that the Council had recently procured which could be work behind a badge and should any member of staff feel they need assistance a button could be active and this system was monitored on a 24 hour basis.

It was requested that it be communicated to staff that Members deplored any incidents of abuse and assault and supported any actions which supported staff.

The Chairperson then moved the recommendations which were duly agreed. 

RESOLVED

(i)             That Members considered the accident and incident statistics and incidences of unacceptable behaviour reported;

(ii)            That Members considered progress of key health and safety themes (as set out in section 3.2 of the report).