Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Local Authorities
The Local Authorities (LA) Science and Technology (S&T) Initiative was established in May 2005. Now, approaching the end of its first year, it is opportune to remind interested parties of what it can be used for and how to access the funds, to review activities to date and report on future activities.
The initiative was set up by the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) to help local authorities improve their use of science and technology in health and safety enforcement. £5m was allocated over the four years from April 2005 to March 2009, to be used for planned projects and reactive support, primarily with the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL).
A governance system based on HSE’s existing research procedures has been set up. LAs make proposals for reactive support to HSE’s Enforcement Liaison Officers, who refer them to HSL if local specialist group involvement is not appropriate. HSL will then discuss with the LA whether it is possible for support to be provided via the Initiative, or if not, what options might be available.
Planned projects are raised via regional partnership teams. Once agreed by the Partnership Manager the proposal goes to the Local Authority Unit (LAU) to work up into a project, in conjunction with HSL, the LA customer and other interested parties in HSE and externally.
LAU ensure projects are devised and implemented in an appropriate and timely manner, and deliver satisfactory outcomes to LAs. Oversight is provided by an LA S&T Panel, which meets 2-3 times a year to review progress and set the strategic direction. They also approve the higher-value projects.
At the launch of the initiative an information note was distributed to relevant HSE and LA staff, and placed on LAU’s web page. HSL produced a CD describing their facilities and capabilities, and attended a number of events around the country to publicise the initiative.
About 50 requests have been received so far, and almost all have been responded to by visits from specialist staff. Most have been for technical assistance during incident investigations, such as slips and trips, forklift truck overturns and accidents at sporting venues. Some firework testing has been carried out following incidents, and later this year a planned project will be set up to test selected items on arrival at Felixstowe.
To date 44 project applications have been made, of which seventeen have been approved and are in progress, one has been completed, sixteen are being developed and two have been combined with other projects, Another seven have been changed to reactive support, either completely or as an initial response. Only one has been formally rejected, as it was seeking a secondment opportunity outwith the scope of the initiative. If the rate at which project applications are being received continues, it is likely that all available funds will be used before the end of the Initiative in 2009.
The type of project varies considerably, from issues arising from local incidents, such as transport accidents and manual handling problems, to topics of wide-ranging interest, such as workplace violence and health issues in nailbars. Two scoping projects have been set up to review the issues involved in public safety and in the beauty industry and to identify topics where specific projects may be beneficial. This does not prevent authorities submitting proposals under either heading in the meantime. A theme common to several applications is how best to identify the needs of small businesses and engage effectively with them. It may be possible to combine the outputs from these projects into a toolkit of methods from which local authorities can select as appropriate.
A feature of many applications is the need to consider how they fit with other work, in particular to planned programmes such as FIT3. Some proposals (such as those relating to slips and trips, circus safety and communications) would be considered low priority by HSE programme managers, but are still of concern to LA. Others have direct relevance, such as support provided for an inspection initiative in craft bakeries. In the former case the work can still proceed, as the funding is specific for LA needs, and the outcomes may also be of use in the wider context. A key action for 2006-07 is to develop a procedure to actively manage the results of such work to ensure that there is maximum impact across LA. In the latter case, close cooperation with the relevant programme team can produce a project that satisfies the LA need but also contributes to programme activities. The bakery project, for example, ran as a pilot for a FIT3 national inspection programme, whilst still providing valuable assistance to a local LA initiative. Identifying and communicating with the key players in the early stages of project development are important factors in making this work successfully.
A section of the Extranet has been reserved for the initiative, see https://extranet.hse.gov.uk/. It contains lists of current work and links to the procedures, and will increasingly be populated with project reports, for the benefit of all authorities.
As projects and reactive work progress, it becomes increasingly important to find out what benefits accrue to LAs, bearing in mind a key objective is to improve LA use of S&T. Feedback from LAs is therefore being actively pursued. Early indications are that the facility is welcomed and has delivered results that have helped achieve positive H&S outcomes. In considering the allocation of funding for 2006-07 the S&T Panel has recommended that a nominal sum of £30K per region be available to provide S&T support, when needed, for local, proactive ‘campaigns’. Further information on how this funding can be accessed will be available shortly.
The initiative runs out in 2009, and, ultimately it will be for HSC to decide, following a report from the S&T Panel on the outcome of the initiative. The S&T Panel has started to consider how best this might be achieved, but it is unlikely that HSC will make any decision until the current initiative has been fully evaluated. Whilst there is a strong demand for HSL’s services from local authorities, for the Initiative to have been judged successful it will be necessary to demonstrate that there has been a significant impact on H&S in the LA-enforced sector.