Speedy response to stricken car

Receiving a call from the police on a Sunday morning to say that there’s a car stuck in your scaffold is not what anyone wants, but that is exactly what happened to Ben Clarke, Director of Cheltenham & Gloucester Scaffolding Limited, when a motorist reversed into their scaffold on Tewkesbury High Street.

Ben explains: “I was in Oxford – 50 miles away –when I received the call, but we managed to get a team there really quickly and had the structure safe and the road ready to re-open within two hours. The structure has seen off Storm Eunice and Storm Franklin, and now this! It’s built solid – I’m proud of my guys’ work.”

Images show the team working while the road was closed.

HSE publishes work-related ill-health, injury and enforcement statistics

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published statistics for the 2020/21 period that cover workrelated ill health, non-fatal workplace injuries and enforcement action taken by HSE.

Scaffolding contractor fined after worker sustains multiple injuries in fall

Zendrill Ltd of Kent pleaded guilty at Brighton Magistrates Court to breaching Regulations 4 (1) (a) and 6 (3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005. The company was fined £16,667 and ordered to pay costs of £6,767 and a victim surcharge of £170.

Darren Barnett was dismantling temporary over-roof scaffolding when he fell through the scaffolding, landing on the roof of the property below, before rolling down and on to the ground. Mr Barnett fell approximately eight meters in total and sustained two brain haemorrhages, six vertebra fractures, a fractured shoulder blade and multiple rib fractures.

The sessions have been a huge success, as two of LFI’s Sales Administrators explain: “Yoga Nidra is a great little escape from the desk and makes me feel refreshed for the remainder of the day. It’s not something I had done before but after attending every session I do highly recommend it,” said Kieran Brady.

Honore Hayward added: “As someone who suffers from periods of anxiety, having a moment of guided respite during the work week helps ground me, and I often come out of the sessions feeling more relaxed and ready to face the rest of the day.”

Candice aims to expand the wellbeing initiatives at LFI: “Along with Yoga Nidra, plan to raise funds for a ‘Thought Garden’ – a quite place for all colleagues to use, whenever they want or need peace, to gather their thoughts and re-set.”

Read more: www.britishladders. co.uk/news/wellnessatwork

BLCCS achieve Health & Safety ISO 45001

BLCCS, who are Associate Members of the Scaffolding Association, has successfully achieved certification to Health and Safety ISO 45001.By doing so, BLCCS continues to demonstrate its organisational resilience through proactive risk prevention, innovation and continual improvement.

David Eveleigh, Managing Director, commented:

“By achieving this standard, we continue to demonstrate our company’s ongoing legal and regulatory compliance, whilst achieving the highest safety standards and supporting our business functions. ISO 45001 also requires us to prove active employee engagement with health and safety and leadership commitment. This fantastic achievement confirms our ‘safety consciousness’, ‘one team’ approach and confirms a safety culture that is embedded within business objectives and strategic aims’. ISO 45001 aligns with other key international standards BLCCS has achieved such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 for quality management and environmental management, respectively.”

Find out more: www.blccs.co.uk

1.7 million workers suffered from a work-related illness (new or long standing) in 2020/21, with just under 50% of these (800,000 people) feeling the effects of stress, depression or anxiety. In addition, 28% of workers (500,000 people) suffered from musculoskeletal disorders.

It is not known whether some people reporting a coronavirus-related ill health condition would also have developed it in pre-pandemic working conditions – it is therefore not possible to isolate the scale of work-related ill health from the effects of the pandemic.

Data collection and the study of trends has been problematic during the pandemic so there are no accurate figures on total working days lost and the associated economic cost for 2021. However, two new estimates have been developed by HSE to measure the impact of the coronavirus pandemic:

• 93,000 workers self-reported catching COVID-19 at work

• 645,000 workers said that their work-related illness was caused or made worse by the coronavirus pandemic and 70% of these were cases of stress, depression or anxiety.

To help spot the signs of stress, depression and anxiety, the HSE recently launched the Working Minds campaign, in partnership with a number of key organisations, to help employers make recognising the signs of work-related stress routine.

HSE’s Chief Executive, Sarah Albon, commented: “These annual statistics are important to give us a clear picture of the health and safety risks faced by workers in Great Britain and help to inform the measures HSE, employers, policy-makers and workers themselves need to take to ensure everyone can go home from work safe and well.

“There have been significant impacts on the labour market, which is reflected in our reporting. We worked differently too in responding to the challenges posed by the pandemic, advising across Government, helping to shape guidance for businesses and implementing our Covid Spot Check programme to ensure workplaces were kept as safe as possible. The latest figures on work-related stress reinforce our previous concerns around the scale of this issue in workplaces.

“HSE continues to act as a proportionate and enabling regulator taking the most appropriate actions to achieve the best and quickest result. However, where employers fall short of expected standards, HSE will not hesitate to hold those responsible to account.”

A total of 185 cases were prosecuted in 2020/21 by HSE (or, in Scotland, referred to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service for prosecution) and resulted in a conviction, down from 325 the previous year. This reduction could be attributed to disruption in the court system during this period. The amount taken in fines fell to £26.9 million in 2020/21, although the average fine per case issued was higher compared to 2019/20. Due to COVID-19 the number of enforcement notices issued by Local Authorities is not available for 2020/21. However, HSE issued 2,929 enforcement notices in 2020/21, a decrease of 58% from the previous year.

Read more: www.press.hse.gov.uk

A HSE investigation found Zendrill Ltd had failed to properly plan the temporary over roof dismantling. Furthermore, Mr Barnett was only provided with an unsuitable single lanyard harness, rather than a twin lanyard harness. HSE inspector Ross Carter said: “The case highlights the importance of following industry guidance. If a suitable safe system of work had been in place, the life changing injuries sustained by Mr Barnett would have been prevented.”

Read more: www.press.hse.gov.uk

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