Health and Safety Executive/Local Authorities Enforcement Liaison Committee (HELA)

To: Local Authority Health & Safety Enforcement Officers in the Midlands
FOD Inspectors and HSAOs in the Midlands

This Circular provides information to Local Authority Officers, FOD Inspectors and Health and Safety Awareness Officers (HSAOs) participating in a Midlands project to reduce slip/ trip accidents caused by floor cleaning. This work forms part of the planned delivery of the HSC/E Fit3 Strategic Delivery Programme.

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Reducing slip and trip accidents caused by floor cleaning.
Joint HSE/LAS Midlands project 2006/07

Background and justification

Cleaning is a key factor in the control of slips and trips because it affects the surface properties of the floor, the safety of pedestrians (including the cleaners themselves) and the control of contamination and obstacles. Cleaning removes the contamination and obstacles, but it can also introduce them. For example a smooth floor that is left mop wet will be extremely slippery. Cleaning is undertaken in all premises, and by targeting cleaning we are impacting on accidents both to cleaners and to other personnel who work in the zone where cleaning is taking place.

During 2004-06, the slips and trips programme and HSE’s Commercial and Consumer Services, Transportation and Utilities Sector (CACTUS) have been raising the profile of slips and trips within the cleaning industry. An HSE information sheet, ‘Slips and trips: the importance of floor cleaning’ was produced in time for the Watch Your Step campaign. See http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/web/slips02.pdf [459KB]. This guidance was based on Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) research on the efficacy of cleaning regimes. See report on https://extranet.hse.gov.uk/C5/HELA20/default.aspx (login required).

A slips and trips inspection project was run within HSE’s Field Operations Directorate (FOD) in 2005/06, which involved the screening of slip and trip accidents by Band 5 staff to identify those where there was a significant risk gap. These were then investigated by an inspector. This project has been modified for 2006/07 to target accidents that have resulted from cleaning activities, so as to gain a gearing effect with the work with stakeholders and use of the information sheet. See project results and evaluation in OM 2006/05 (http://www.hse.gov.uk/foi/internalops/fod/om/2006/05.pdf [90KB]).

Aim of project

The aim of this project is to reduce slips and trips associated with floor cleaning activities at premises in the manufacturing and services sectors and in selected LA-enforced sectors. On the basis of accident data, retail, hotel and restaurant and office premises should be considered, but the final selection will be agreed with the participating LAs. The project will demonstrate to the cleaning industry that we are targeting slips and trips associated with cleaning. If successful, the project will be rolled out in other regions in the following year.

Objectives

The project objectives are:

• To target staff resources at slip and trip accidents in those premises where we can have the greatest impact and thereby raise the standards of cleaning at such premises.
• Where cleaning is contracted out, to influence cleaning companies to improve their cleaning regimes through, for example, better liaison with their clients.
• To improve inspector and HSAO knowledge of the standards expected for cleaning.
• To advise and enforce according to the enforcement management model.
• To identify areas where further guidance and research on cleaning is required.

Contribution to PSA targets

Cleaning is undertaken in all the target industries included in Watch Your Step and cleaners/domestics had the third highest number of slips and trips major accidents at 483 in 2003/4. For LA-enforced premises, sales and retail assistants had the highest number of slip and trip major accidents at 609; within many retail premises staff undertake the cleaning. There were also 992 and 1351 over-three-day slips and trips injuries respectively in these occupational groups. A significant outcome of the project should be a reduction in the accident rate for people who enter an area after or during cleaning who are not cleaners. A further outcome should be a reduction in the number of slip and trip accidents sustained by cleaners, which is more measurable at present.

Action by Inspectors and HSAOs

Field teams will undertake the activities below:

Organise joint HSE/LA workshop(s) for contract cleaning companies to promote the messages in the cleaning information sheet and to describe the inspection initiative. Focus on cooperation and communication between client and contractor and use of safer techniques and equipment. The British Cleaning Council has offered support in publicising the workshops.

Where a cleaning company is part of a large organisation such as Mitie, OCS or Rentokil/ Initial, field staff should check with HSE Midlands whether HSE/LAs have been previously involved with the company. CB Richard Ellis, a property management company, undertook several cleaning projects during Watch Your Step. See newsletter in https://extranet.hse.gov.uk/C5/HELA20/default.aspx (login required).

Select premises for inspection. Preferably, these should be companies with the potential for a large number of staff to be affected by the cleaning operations. There will be a mixture of companies with in-house cleaning and contracted-out cleaning. One way of selecting companies is to follow up recent over-3-day and major RIDDORs where a slip has occurred during or as a result of poor cleaning practice. Arrangements should be made for staff to view the incoming RIDDORs to identify accidents in kinds 0610, 0620, 0680 and 0690 where a poor cleaning regime appears to be a factor. This is likely to require enquiries by phone to the duty holder. The accident will provide a ‘way in’ to discussing the management of cleaning operations. Accidents to contract cleaners themselves are normally recorded under SIC 7470 – industrial cleaning, or 7032 – management of real estate, but may sometimes appear under other SICs.

Inspectors should arrange to have use of a Surtronic Duo surface roughness meter during the project, for use with the Slips Assessment Tool. See http://www.hsesat.info/

Apply the guidance in the information sheet which details the standard HSE/LAs require in relation to cleaning. Inspectors should assess whether this standard has been met and, if not, take measures to ensure improvements. Advise and enforce as per the revised enforcement guidance for Watch Your Step at

https://extranet.hse.gov.uk/C5/HELA20/Lists/Resources/AllItems.aspx (login required).

Where an accident merits investigation, and it involved the work of contract cleaners, it may be necessary to arrange to meet the cleaning company, preferably at the premises where the accident happened.

Briefing for participating staff

At the start of the project the Slips and Trips Programme Team will hold a briefing session for HSE/LA staff involved.

Action by the Slips and Trips Programme Team

The Team will continue to:

• Give presentations at cleaning seminars and workshops where it increases our engagement with stakeholders.
• Use key stakeholders to publicise the information sheet. About 30,000 have already been distributed.
• Use the stakeholders to promote good practice in the areas where they have influence. In particular the aim is that it becomes industry standard for people not to have access to floors left wet after cleaning.
• Work with the stakeholders to identify other areas where the provision of information could help raise standards or further research is required, e.g. use of matting.

Coordination between HSE/ LAs

The involvement of Midlands LAs in this project is very important to its overall success. LA staff have great experience in dealing with slips and trips and it is envisaged that they will contribute significantly to this project. Contract cleaners in particular will move between HSE and LA enforced premises without much awareness of enforcement demarcation arrangements. The impact of the project is likely to be much greater if LAs and HSE ensure that they take proactive steps to liaise over cleaning contractors identified and targeted for either the workshops or inspection. It is hoped that LAs can also provide details of known working practices and this will be used to help identify benchmarks. A briefing seminar for the HSE/LA staff involved was held on May 3rd at HSE Birmingham.

Resources required

Resource provision for this project is:

• HSE Band 3 – 1.5 staff years.
• HSAO – about 0.2 staff years.
• Local authorities – to be agreed

Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) regional scientists and personnel from HSL’s Pedestrian Safety Section will be available on a reactive basis to advise on safe cleaning methods and to provide forensic support during investigations and enforcement. The Slips and Trips Programme team may be able to contribute to promotional activity.

Timescales and milestones

The milestones for the project are given below:

• 3 May 06 Briefing for participating inspectors and HSAOs to kick off the project.
• Sept. 06 Hold workshops for cleaning companies
• October 06 Review by project manager of first five months activity.
• Feedback to LAs and FOD Heads of Operations in Midlands
• March 07 Complete field work.
• July 07 Evaluation of project and report.

Recording and reporting of interventions – use of keyword

In HSE it is planned that the associated visit, investigation and any enforcement reports will be retrievable from the COIN database. Staff should use the keyword ‘ cleaning6’. HSAOs should follow the FOD guidance on COIN reporting, being sure to record fully, i.e. wherever slips and trips are discussed the activity and category on COIN should be completed, e.g. activity (advice) and category ‘SLTR’ (slips and trips). Recording and reporting arrangements by LAs for this project will be agreed at the project briefing.

Evaluation

The project will be evaluated by assessing the information returned from the LAs in terms of accident causation, action taken and improvements achieved. Evaluators from HSE’s Social Science Unit will also conduct a small number of evaluation interviews with inspectors involved in the project and – if possible – others (such as employers, cleaner contractors). The aim of these interviews would be test how well the project worked and to look for ways to improve it if it is repeated. This approach was successfully adopted for the evaluation of the 2005 HSE slips and trips inspection project, and many of the lessons learnt there have been incorporated into the design for this work.

How will we use the results?

Notable accident investigation case studies will be put on the slips and trips websites, preferably on a regular basis to provide an update on progress. The external stakeholders will then be able to access this information, which will illustrate the standards we expect them to meet. Findings from the evaluation will be disseminated to all relevant stakeholders with the aim of ensuring that the lessons learnt are of use to HSE/LAs as a whole.

Further Information

Contacts:

• Francine Clarke, HSE Midlands project manager (0115 971 2879); francine.clarke@hse.gsi.gov.uk
• Peter Lennon (0161 952 8304) in HSE’s Safety Unit; peter.lennon@hse.gsi.gov.uk
• Rob Shaw, HSL Pedestrian Safety Section (01298 218339); robert.shaw@hsl.gov.uk
• Iain Brodie, CACTUS (0141 275 3041); iain.brodie@hse.gsi.gov.uk