Last year, the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals
(CVCP) issued a code of practice on University Safety Management,
revising a code of practice previously issued in 1974. It is
based on recent thinking on health and safety, which concentrates
on the importance of having an effective system to organise, plan
for, and monitor health and safety.
New Safety Policy
In the revised Safety Policy, the responsibility of Heads of
Departments to see that risk assessment is carried out to a
reasonable and consistent standards has been emphasised.
Departmental Safety Officers have been renamed Departmental
Safety Coordinators to make their role clearer, and new guidance
has been issued on the responsibilities of Heads of Departments
and the duties of Departmental Safety Coordinators.
Fieldwork and Personal Safety
A new CVCP Code on fieldwork safety has been adopted by the
University. It has implications outside the traditional fieldwork
disciplines, because it applies to any work in places which are
not under University control but where the University is
responsible for its staff or students. Thus it applies to areas
such as social survey or community visiting work. The new code
requires that risks are assessed and, where appropriate,
precautions such as personal alarms or visiting in pairs are
adopted. Above all, if people are working alone they must now
give a colleague or the departmental office details of where they
are going.
Good Health is Good Business
'Good health is good business' is the theme which the Health and
Safety Executive have been promoting for European Health and
Safety Week (7-13 October). This slogan is firmly based on the
evidence that the cost to employers of work-related ill health
in Britain is currently £9 billion per year, and that
investment in healthier working conditions can pay ample
dividends in reduced absence from work.
Measures to protect health include avoiding dangerous lifting,
which causes back injury, and avoiding poor working conditions
at computers, which can cause upper limb disorders. A system of
careful assessment and individual awareness is cost-effective
both for the employer and the employee.
One important way of protecting our health is to assess all uses
of substances hazardous to health, as required by the COSHH
Regulations. Earlier this year, new guidance on COSHH assessment
was issued as a University Safety Circular, together with a
revised, simplified code on carcinogens, teratogens and
embryotoxins. In relation to COSHH assessment and in other ways,
good health is good business; this is a message not just for
European Health and Safety Week, but for all the year round.
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