SIM 07/2011/03
1 Manual handling representatives from each of the Health Boards and HSE have developed the MH Passport2, which has been co-signed by the previous Scottish Minister for Public Health and Sport and HSE Director, Scotland and Northern England. It was issued on 18 March 2011 to senior management in Scottish Health Boards under cover of a “Chief Executive Letter” [CEL 14 (2011)]. Although participation in the scheme is not mandatory, the CEL contains a strong message encouraging Health Boards to do so.
2 Whilst there is no official launch of the MH Passport, the Scottish Manual Handling Forum will introduce and promote the finished product formally to the manual handling community at a study day in June 2011 and will explore implementation plans across NHS Scotland. In time, healthcare providers in Local Authorities, the private and the voluntary sectors may also participate in the scheme.
3 Inspectors should note the publication of the MH Passport, a copy of which is on the SHOW (Scotland's Health on the Web) website. The MH Passport sets out what can be considered to be good practice and which may assist in assessing compliance with the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (MHOR)3.
4 The MH Passport aims to improve manual handling training and standards by:
5 The MH Passport contains 3 standards as follows:
Standard 1: Management of Manual Handling Education and Training
This standard concentrates on the skills and expertise needed by personnel to perform their manual handling roles (manual handling lead, manual handling practitioner, etc). Finally, it also outlines the standards for the provision of adequate training and assessment.
Standard 2: Manual Handling Foundation Education and Training Curriculum
This standard covers the aims and objectives of the MH Passport's foundation education and training curriculum. The training programme comprises a series of modules.
Standard 3: Manual Handling Documentation
This standard comprises a suite of example documentation including induction checklists, generic and specific risk assessment forms and the actual Passport document itself.
6 The NHS Scotland Manual Handling Steering Group (i.e. the Health Board representatives who developed the product) will monitor the MH Passport.
Background statistics
7 In 2009/10 in Great Britain over 9 million working days were lost to work related illness caused by musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). For the same period, over 40% (~40,000) of people in Scotland reported they had suffered from MSDs caused or made worse by work.
8 Across GB, health and social care continues to be one of the industry sectors with statistically higher than average prevalence rates of MSDs, with manual handling injuries accounting for approximately 40% of sickness absence in the sector. Of the 10.5K total number of reported injuries in Scotland in 2009/10, approximately 0.5K of these were related to manual handling injuries to healthcare workers. To help prevent injuries to employees and their patients, effective training of healthcare workers is an essential element of any Health Board's manual handling risk management strategy.
Contact for enquiries: Public Services Sector (Scotland).
1. The Passport Scheme acknowledges that the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) has specific additional manual handling needs to the other Health Boards. SAS fully supports the aims and objectives of the Passport and where possible will ensure consistency with other healthcare providers.
2. The NHSS product is largely based on the “All Wales Manual Handling Training Passport and Information Scheme”.
3. The report of HSE's MH Audit of NHS Wales, following implementation of the Wales Passport, is available on TRIM - record 2008/222800.
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