September edition of tsas Times - the newsletter of tsas - the safety expert that cares about your business

1. Issue
02 The tsas Times
September
2011
The Latest
News & Updates from tsas
News From The
Hello and welcome to the second edition of The tsas Times.
HSE As August finishes, and together with it a less than spectacular
British summer, I trust that you have all had a very good holiday
Employers will no longer have to season—free from injuries to you and your families.
report over-three day injuries to In this edition.
August is traditionally a quiet time for British businesses as people
the authorities from next year, take the opportunity for a break and to recharge their batteries. For Page 1
following the HSE’s decision to myself the last month has been very busy working with existing
recommend an extension to the HSE propose
clients and even more busy working to develop partnerships with
reporting threshold to ministers. changes to
new clients. If you are a new contact for me this month then thanks RIDDOR proto-
to you for extending the opportunity to work together. cols
The absence period that triggers One new organization that I a working with is Skills Bridge in New-
an accident report to the HSE or Why do I need
castle. They are an organization focused on linking together volun- Risk Assess-
local authority under the Re- tary organisations with experts in the private sector. Through Skills
porting of Injuries, Diseases and
ments?
Bridge I will be carrying out a Business Safety Survey for the New-
Dangerous Occurrences Regula- Page 2
castle United Foundation organization—helping them to improve
tions (RIDDOR) will rise from three
the health and safety arrangements for their work in the communi- Independent
to seven days.
ty activities. Very much looking forwards to it. Expert Safety
Surveys
The HSE board agreed to recom- tsas Times this month looks at two of the key safety management
mend the change at its 17 Aug tools—Risk Assessment and Safety Surveys . Risk Assessment is the Simple Training
meeting, accepting the results of a method that businesses use to identify hazards and risks in their
In Court,
public consultation which found a work practices whilst periodic surveys by independent assessors—
2/3 majority in favour of putting internal or external verify that safeguards are followed and work. In The News
back the absence threshold.
I hope you find the newsletter informative and useful, and thank
you for all the helpful comments from last month edition.
The extension was first recom-
mended by Lord Young is his re-
port “Common Sense, Common
Safety”, published last October, Why do I need Risk Assessments?
and the HSE board agreed to the
public consultation in December. Probably the most common phrase associated with Health and Safety management is Risk
Assessment. The phrase has come to be perceived as a tedious and longwinded part of
The exercise, which ran from Janu- ‘Elf and Safety’ that gets in the way of people doing what they want to do. In reality Risk
ary to April, prompted 776 re- Assessment is the key to recognising the hazards associated with work activities and eval-
sponses, 67% of them in favour of uating the level of risk resulting. Workplace hazards are things that can cause harm to
the proposed change according to individuals—workers and non workers together. Risk is a measure of the probability that
the HSE the hazard will cause harm together with the potential consequence—the worst reasona-
bly foreseeable injury—that could result when the hazard results in injury. There are
A paper prepared by HSE officials many many different formulae for calculating risk dependent on the nature of the busi-
recommending the change to the ness and risk assessment systems employed. Ultimately all risk assess-
board noted that respondents in ments seek to quantify risk between negligible, acceptable and unac-
favour of the extension believed it ceptable—businesses should seek to reduce risk to the lowest level rea-
would be beneficial to align the sonably practicable by implementing control strategies. By following this
time before an accident needed approach companies will reduce accidents and damage incidents.
reporting with the time off before
All companies are legally required to carry out risk assessments & if they
an employee must go to their GP
employ 5 persons or more all the significant findings of the risk assess-
for a MED3 fitnote.
ments must be recorded. The HSE provide a 5 step guide for doing this.

2. Independent expert safety surveys.
All businesses have different safety arrangements to suit their business
and their operating styles. These arrangements provide day to day con-
In Court trols over the hazards arising from the work activities of the business and
In the News
include such things as safe work practices, employee training, equipment
Lincolnshire timber
inspections, supervision, guarding and personal protective equipment.
company fined after Scaffold collapse at
a worker suffers Understanding how effective these arrangements are is key to under- school in Shropshire
hand injury using a standing how safe the business is with respect to managing risks. Safety led to 5 workers be-
circular saw. surveys are a means to checking that the current arrangements are ap- ing taken to hospital.
A 20-yr-old had part propriate and are being followed. Safety surveys or audits can be carried
out in house by the company if a suitably independent agent is available The academy was
of his left thumb sev-
or can be carried out by an independent expert. being refurbished
ered while using a
tsas offers two levels of safety survey for during the school
circular saw.
your business. The Business Safety Review holidays when the
The employer was
is for companies who feel that their arrange- collapse occurred.
fined £6,700 with
costs of £4,117. ments are satisfactory and are looking for Four ambulances and
The employee was expert reassurances and piece of mind. the local air ambu-
using a table mount- The Business Safety Survey is for businesses lance were involved
ed circular saw when looking for help and advice to improve their arrangements. Two recent in getting the injured
his hand was caught clients said of the Business Safety Survey:- to hospital .
in the blade. It was Owen Watters of Mainteam ‘Martin was able to identify aspects of our Many jobs need-
standard practice to arrangements that we were missing and easily improved’ scaffolding—make
remove the guard as sure that yours is
the height adjust- Chris Moody of Advanced Handling ‘Thorough, helpful with easy to un-
derstand reports’ done expertly
ment mechanism on
the saw was broken. If your business would benefit from an Independent Safety Survey find
Read more:- out more on the tsas website http://www.ts-as.com Read more ……...
The tsas Simple Training Services—NEW On Line Train-
ing Facility
Many businesses find it difficult to release employees and staff to attend essential safety courses. It
may be awkward to release large groups of workers at the same time or a company simply may not
have sufficient people to warrant holding a full course. In order to help our clients tsas have joined
forces with the well established on line training provider iHasco to allow tsas clients to take ad-
vantage of the many available titles at a very competitive price.
The subjects currently available are:-
Contact Martin Taylor to learn more and to
 Manual Handling book a course for your team.
 VDU safety and risk assessment
 Fire Safety Awareness
 Fire Warden Awareness
 Slips and Trips (coming soon)
Contact Details:- Martin Taylor, 2 Bilsdale Road, Stockton On Tees, County Durham TS19 0RY
Tel: +44(0)1642 883973 Mob: 0750 584 3955 email: martintaylorhs@gmail.com web: http://www.ts-as.com
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