Health and Safety

Back-pain help for workers urged

Employers need to do more to help people with back and joint pain stay in work, experts stay in work, experts say. In a new charter, the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance called for a range of measures and rights to tackle the issue, which costs society an estimated £7bn a year.  Read more...

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Good news for safer Court working

At Napo's 2009 AGM, a motion was passed deploring the 'poor relation' status of probation staff in courts and the concomitant lack of access to proper and safe facilities.  This matter has been under discussion within the National Health and Safety Forum for many months.  Finally, towards the end of last year, we had a breakthrough, and in December a Memorandum of Understanding between NOMS (Probation) and HM Courts Service (HMCS) was finally signed off at the Forum.  The Memorandum will now pass to HMCS for sign-off and it will then be forwarded to all probation areas and courts to be implemented.  Branches and local Health and Safety Reps are urged to ensure that this significant document is observed locally to the betterment of our members.

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Fire Risk Assessments and Office Inspections - Checklists

Arising from a recent Napo H&S Training Day, here are some useful NPS and CAFCASS checklists:

Fire Risk Assessment - currently called "Fire Protection" - NPS H&S Manual - HS 11

CAFCASS Fire Risk Assessment - SP12 - Risk Assessment and CAFCASS Fire Risk Assessment SP12 Appendix B with Assessment Form

Workplace Inspection - CAFCASS  and Workplace Inspection - NPS (from H&S Manual section on Measuring and Reviewing Performance

The current Probation Fire Risk Assessment section of the NPS H&S Policy Manual is under review.  A new draft assessment has been produced, consisting of FRA Guidance, FRA Emergency Action Plan, FRA Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans and FRA Guidance on the HSE's '5-Steps' approach. Even though it has yet to be finally signed off, it is worthy of dissemination in its current draft form, being a substantial improvement on the existing arrangement.

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Useful Health & Safety Info Links

TUC (Trade Union Congress):  http://www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/index.cfm

The TUC website carries extensive info on Health & Safety as a topic and how attention to H&S  can help unions organise.

This link: http://www.tuc.org.uk/newsroom/register.cfm      will take you to the TUC’s Registration page. From this link you can sign up to receive H&S alerts and general news. There is a choice of many other topics such as the economy; law at work; organisation & recruitment; job vacancies in unions, and news from specific regions.

All Napo H&S Reps are encouraged to consider doing the H&S Stage 1 qualification to help them carry out their role.  This link: http://www.tuc.org.uk/h_and_s/index.cfm?mins=34  gives training info and links to UnionLearn for details of the courses, which can be done at local Further Education colleges around the UK, or online.

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HSE (Health & Safety Executive):  http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/index.htm

The HSE website gives a large amount of very useful info on the full range of H&S topics – this link takes you to their infoline contact number

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The Hazards Campaign:  http://www.hazardscampaign.org.uk/

The Hazards Campaign is a network of resource centres and campaigners on health and safety at work

Hazards magazine is published quarterly and this link will take you to the latest issue and back copies.  The magazine is sent out to all Napo Health & Safety Reps

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The British Safety Council: http://www.britishsafetycouncil.co.uk/about/index.aspx

The BSC is one of the worlds leading occupational health, safety, and environmental organisation. Its mission is to support a healthier, safer and more sustainable society.

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Are you sitting comfortably? - HSE guidance on IT setups

Attention to good IT setups at work and at home  can help prevent problems with wrists, backs, necks, eyesight and work-related upper limb disorders (WRULD’s). The HSE (Health & Safety Executive)http://www.hse.gov.uk has useful advice, photographs of correct setups, and free leaflets, via http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg36.pdf  and http://www.hse.gov.uk/msd/dse/guidance.htm