Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Local authority circulars
To: Directors of Environmental Health/ Chief Environmental Health Officers of London, Metropolitan, District and Unitary Authorities and Chief Executives of County Councils.
For the attention of: Environmental Services/Trading Standards/Fire Authorities/Other
This circular gives advice to local authority enforcement officers
The attached operational circular SIM /2002/32 is equally relevant to both HSE/LA enforcement officers.
| Health and Safety Executive | Sector Information Minute |
| Field Operations Directorate | |
| Services Sector | SIM /2002/32 |
| Care Standards in Health and Social Care |
| Cancellation Date | For FOD SIU use | Open Government Status | Fully Open |
|---|---|---|---|
| Version No & Date | For FOD SIU use | Author Unit/Section | Health Services and CALGER Unit |
To
All HSE/LA Inspectors, Nominated Open Government Inspectors, Divisional Support Managers, Complaints Officers,
Workplace Contact Officers, Working Time Officers, B5 FOIA, Disclosure Officers.
1 The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between HSE, the Local Government Association (LGA) on behalf of English Local Authorities, and the National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) has been published. It is being made available to the public via the relevant websites.
2 This SIM provides further guidance and advice on the principles of the understanding agreed, and should be read in conjunction with the MoU, which sets out the background and remit of the NCSC responsibilities for inspecting independent healthcare and social care premises.
3 The Sector is also developing similar working arrangements with the Care Services Inspectorate for Wales and Scottish Social Care Commission. We hope to be able to finalise details shortly.
4 For consistency within the SIM, the term 'care services' includes all references to care services and independent health care services. All references to 'enforcement officers' includes HSE/ LA inspectors.
5 This SIM is being sent to all visiting officers within HSE who it is believed may have contact with care homes, independent health care establishments, or other premises falling within the NCSCs remit.
6 Staff dealing with complaints will need to be aware of para 13. Staff dealing with release of information will need to be familiar with paras 15 - 19, which explain the arrangements between HSE and NCSC on the exchange of information and data.
7 The MoU sets out the roles, function and regulatory responsibilities of the organisations involved with regulating health and safety within health and social care premises, and how they will work together. It provides a framework which will enable mechanisms to be established, or further developed, to facilitate effective communications, particularly where the regulatory roles overlap or complement one another.
8 The MoU is designed to avoid confusion or misunderstanding over the function or enforcement role of the NCSC, particularly in instances where there may be overlap of regulatory responsibility, or the boundaries are not clear.
9 The position with regard to the allocation of care homes under the Health and Safety (Enforcing Authority) Regs 1988 has not changed.
10 The primary function of the NCSC is to focus on the service user and the levels of care to be delivered by the provider. The NCSC carry out regular inspections of services and have powers of enforcement to ensure that services meet national care standards.
11 It has been agreed that, as a general principle, the NCSC, will have responsibility for primary inspection with regard to risks to service users. HSE and LAs will retain the enforcement role under health and safety legislation, and reserve the right to become involved in incidents of serious and imminent danger, or where the risk of serious or imminent danger to members of the public, including service users, is identified. HSE and LAs will continue to have primary responsibility for the health and safety of employees or those at work.
12 It is recognised, however, that there may be circumstances where HSE and LAs judge they have to take enforcement action, even where the primary enforcement responsibility rests with the NCSC. In other circumstances, HSE and LAs might judge it appropriate to report a potential health and safety hazard to the NCSC for action. The MoU contains an annex which illustrates the demarcation of enforcement responsibilities and arrangements for how the HSE, LAs and the NCSC will work together.
13 Complaints Officers will need to be aware of the arrangements, as they may receive complaints from members of the public who may not be aware of NCSC's remit concerning care homes. All complaints received relating to service users should be redirected to the local NCSC office (contact details are given in the MoU) and are also available from the NCSC website.
14 Scenarios where an enforcement officer might become involved, even though the NCSC have the designated lead for service user (S3) issues (as described in the MOU), include:
15 The MoU sets out the principles on the exchange of information and data between HSE and NCSC. The underlying assumption is that there should be as free exchange as possible, to facilitate effective working between the inspection bodies, and to help ensure the health and safety of employees, service users and others, subject to any legal constraints. However, it is not intended that the MoU covers the provision of all categories of information.
16 Exchange of information can be divided into two main areas:
17 FOD FSU advises that information so obtained can be disclosed to NCSC because it does, for practical purposes, serve a health and safety purpose. This is because HSE has chosen, by virtue of the MoU, not to be directly involved in securing health and safety in certain areas where it could apply HSWA legislation, but is instead helping another body that is so charged with doing so. Further guidance can be obtained from local NOGIs in the first instance.
18 Care providers are required to notify the NCSC of "adverse incidents" (to either workers, services users and any others) under the Care Standards Act and associated Regulations - see Annex 1 for further definition. As this is in addition to the duty to notify under RIDDOR, it has not been considered necessary to set-up aa arrangement to share copies of F2508s in respect of incidents for which the NCSC has a designated lead (ie, service user health and safety), as they will have been furnished with the relevant details separately. The NCSC and LA are also in discussions concerning their arrangements for the exhange of information.
19 In addition to the above, FOD inspectors may disclose information using the OG Code. Disclosure officers and FOI B5s are able to provide further assistance with OG requests.
21 At a local level, it is expected that enforcement officers will build on existing liaision arrangements with the local NCSC inspectors, and develop ways of working, in accordance with the MoU. This might include joint visits/investigations, especially so for HSE operational staff with NCSC personnel, as part of the HSC's Health Services Priority Programme 2002/2003 .
22 At a national level, the Services Sector intends to establish a Communications Forum, with membership from the Care Standards Bodies in England, Scotland, Wales, and the Local Government Associations to liaise on cross-cutting policy and operational issues. Enforcement officers will be kept informed of developments.
23 The Sector is involved in a number of work activities that will have an impact on the MoU, including development of similar working arrangements with the Scottish and Welsh care body counterparts. A summary is provided below for information:
23 The Sector would welcome feedback from operational colleagues on the implementation of the MoU to help inform the review process.
24 Give your feedback by using the feedback facility on the Local Authority Unit's Website or ring the general enquiry line on 020 7717 6442.
Reg 37 Notification of death, illness and other events
(1) The registered person shall give notice to the Commission without delay of the occurrence of -
(2) Any notification made in accordance with this regulation which is given orally shall be confirmed in writing.
Reg 28 Notification of Events
(1) The registered person shall give notice to the Commission of -
(2) Notice under paragraph (1) shall be given within the period of 24 hours beginning with the event in question and, if given orally, shall be confirmed in writing as soon as practicable.