Some aspects of local authority work can present a risk of real harm or suffering to employees, contractors, service users and the public.
Whether local authorities use their own workforce or contract out their work activities and service delivery, it is important to focus on the significant risks arising from their work-related activities.
A sensible approach to health and safety means focusing on these real risks and avoiding wasting resources on everyday and insignificant ones.
This page will help you find the right balance - whether you are a councillor, head of service, line manager, employee, or health and safety representative.
Tackling myths and misunderstandings
Health and safety is often used as an excuse to stop activities or disguise unpopular decisions - giving rise to myths and misunderstandings.
This guidance will help you make sensible decisions, which you can share with colleagues to help them challenge similar myths.
Answering the following 3 key questions can help you, and those you work with, promote sensible health and safety decision making and adopt a proportionate approach to risk management.
- Is it really about health and safety?
- Is the decision proportionate to the level of risk?
- How do I challenge questionable decisions?
How myths arise
Health and safety at work legislation is about reducing work-related death, serious injury and ill health in the workplace. Unfortunately, health and safety is often used as a convenient excuse to stop activities going ahead, or to disguise unpopular decisions. Some simply use it as a catch-all phrase when they actually mean something quite different. It is no wonder people use health and safety as an opportunity to criticise local decision making.
The nature of local authority services and activities means that councils face a broad and diverse range of risks which can demand complex decision making. Councils often find themselves the focus of sensationalist media stories about health and safety - resulting in accusations of being 'jobsworths'.
Health and safety at work requirements are clear - they require a proportionate approach to risk, which facilitates the delivery of public services, activities and events that benefit the local community. Getting this right involves challenging bureaucracy and poor decision making – particularly where this has an impact on economic growth.
Busting the myths in local government
Councils can respond to these stories and lead by example in reducing bureaucracy and ensuring that approaches taken to manage risk are sensible and proportionate. Doing this well means that:
- significant risks are properly managed
- resources are not wasted on trivia
- benefits that the local community and businesses derive from innovative, worthwhile activities are not lost and economic growth can be supported
Helping everyone in councils to focus on the real risks is an important part of raising health and safety performance.
Deciding if it is really about health and safety
Sometimes health and safety is used to justify a decision, when in reality there is no health and safety legislation that applies. The information below should help you to weed out misunderstandings about health and safety law – and find out if you are dealing with a real health and safety concern.
Yes – the health and safety of staff or the public are affected by a risk created by work activity
- Health and safety at work legislation applies to all employers including local authorities. The law is about protecting people at work – or those affected by work activities. All workers are entitled to work in environments where risks to their health and safety are properly controlled – wherever they are working
- People who are affected by work activities will include, for example, those in receipt of council services or attending an event run by the council. In situations like these, if there is concern about risks to these people arising from the way work is organised, the level of supervision or maintenance of equipment, then health and safety law is likely to apply – and you can now consider what proportionate risk management means in practice
I'm not sure - it is not really about health and safety at work
- Sometimes public protection decisions are mistakenly linked with health and safety at work requirements – when in fact they are covered by more specific legislation or regimes designed to protect, for example, consumers, children or road users from everyday risks
- Checking if there are specific legal requirements will help you and everyone affected to better understand the reasons for decisions – even if they are unpopular. It doesn't help anyone understand the decision if a vague reference to 'health and safety' is used when there is a much more specific reason. The section below has links to useful websites on public safety, health and nuisance issues
- If you decide it is, after all, a genuine health and safety at work issue, you can now consider what proportionate risk management means in practice
No – it has nothing to do with health and safety at work
- If the activity does not involve a work activity, or is an organised event that does not involve people at work, commercial services or work premises, then health and safety at work law does not apply
- Health and safety at work law does not generally apply to wholly volunteer-run events such as street parties. HSE has published guidance on volunteering and how to manage the risks, which explains this in more detail
- Understanding what proportionate risk management means in practice may help you put everyday risks into perspective. Occupational health and safety legislation is not about restricting the everyday activities that most people know how to deal with. It is about taking practical steps to protect people from real work-related harm
What proportionate risk management means in practice
Health and safety at work law is about taking the necessary action to reduce significant risks arising from work - it is not about banning activities. It is important to be clear about what a legal requirement is.
How to distinguish between the real risks and trivia
Council services deliver benefit to the local community and these services may sometimes involve a degree of risk. Decisions about how a local service is delivered or what steps are necessary to enable a local event to go ahead should not lose sight of the benefits that an activity, event or service actually provides. Don't let trivia get in the way of positive outcomes.
If you feel uncomfortable with a decision to stop or limit an activity, or see that it will have undesirable or unintended consequences, you can check whether the decision or the chosen precautions are proportionate by considering the actual risks.
Understanding the risks
Understanding what is the actual risk involves considering the likelihood and consequences of something going wrong. This means thinking about:
- the type of incident the decision or precaution is intended to prevent
- any injury or ill health that could be caused
- how likely it is to happen
The following scenarios will help you reflect on these questions and evaluate levels of risk.
Dog training classes in a community hall
A local council stopped dog training classes at its community halls on the grounds of health and safety.
What is the adverse incident of concern?
The council was concerned that dogs would foul the hall and cause health problems for workers and visitors, particularly where owners do not clear up after them.
What level of injury is anticipated and how likely is it to arise?
There is a small possibility of infection arising from dogs fouling in the hall. There could also be individual instances of allergic response but this is a risk faced in the everyday environment. The likelihood of ill health occurring is very low.
How significant are the health and safety risks?
Overall the risks are trivial.
What does sensible, proportionate risk control look like?
The risks can be managed by giving clear instructions to the dog owners who attend and ensure they clean up after their dogs.
If no work activity is involved, health and safety at work law does not apply.
Refusing permission for hanging basket displays
A local council refuses permission for hanging basket displays, blaming costly engineering survey and inspections.
What is the adverse incident of concern?
Failure of fixings could cause hanging baskets to fall into the street and hit passers-by.
What level of injury is anticipated and how likely is it to arise?
Minor injuries may arise if a basket falls onto someone. A basket would fall only if completely inappropriate fixings are used. The risk of a falling basket hitting a passer-by and causing serious injury is low.
How significant are the health and safety risks?
Overall the risks are low.
What does sensible, proportionate risk control look like?
For conventional hanging baskets of modest size and other simple lightweight floral decorations, all that is needed is the selection of suitable anchor points and a simple visual check to confirm suitability of fixings prior to installation. The key thing is to keep a sense of proportion and not to apply risk control measures in an overly cautious way.
Using dirt bikes at a special school
An opportunity arises for a school to offer off-road motorbike sessions for pupils. The staff in charge think the risks are too high and refuse to sanction the activity, citing health and safety as the reason.
What is the adverse incident of concern?
Some accidents involving falls from the bikes are anticipated.
What level of injury is anticipated and how likely is it to arise?
Most injuries will entail bruises and scrapes. Although rare, there is a possibility of more serious injury resulting from excessive speed for the conditions and collision with bikes or objects.
How significant are the health and safety risks?
The risks are real but they can be managed.
What does sensible, proportionate risk control look like?
Robust precautions are needed to control the significant risks, including:
- careful selection of equipment and protective clothing
- using competent organisers with experience of running similar events
- careful attention to layout of the course
It is vital to pay attention to supervision, training and instruction.
How to challenge questionable decisions
Sensible health and safety is about finding ways to enable activities to go ahead safely – not finding ways to stop them. If you are concerned about actions that appear disproportionate or a decision that does not make sense then why not challenge that decision directly?
Understanding the basis for a decision or precaution will help you tackle your concerns. In some cases, you will find the source for a council's decision or procedures come from legal requirements, in guidance, in the organisation's policies or in advice from others like an insurance company.
This will help you understand the decision and identify whether it is based on facts, whether there is any flexibility in what the law or guidance says is needed, or whether it's just based on myths and misunderstanding.
Once you know the basis for a decision you can consider your options for taking action to help you find a way of challenging it more objectively.
Understanding the basis for a council's risk management decisions
Understanding the basis for a decision will help you decide whether a challenge is justified.
Legal requirement specifically detailed in health and safety at work legislation
Health and safety law deals with risks created by a work activity or undertaking - whether a business activity, or the activities managed or delivered by organisations like local councils. Sensible precautions are explained in HSE guidance, including for voluntary activities.
Other legislation designed to protect the public or consumers may require more specific precautions and there are sources of guidance on public protection:
- Road safety
- Safeguarding of children
- Food hygiene
- Public health
- Water quality
- Licensing
- Planning and building control
- Environment
- Statutory nuisance
- Product safety
If no work activity is involved, health and safety at work law does not apply.
Internal policies or procedures
Health and safety at work legislation requires employers to do what is reasonably practicable to manage risks at work, so employers need to decide what steps to take. Some organisations may put in place detailed rules and procedures that go beyond the requirements of the legislation. This may be for ease of implementation, or might possibly be due to over-zealous interpretation or being risk-averse.
External advice or instructions from another organisation
Risk management decisions are sometimes complex and can involve balancing issues such as civil liabilities, human rights and costs of insuring activities. Understanding this helps put decisions in their wider risk management context. It is also important to identify whether the advice given is specific and relevant, or general advice that's simply not relevant to the actual activity.
A local manager introduces a new instruction or decision
Sometimes managers need to make decisions on limited information, or following an incident. Separating proportionate decisions from knee-jerk or 'jobsworth' decisions is not always easy. When local decisions are made, expect to see clear explanations about why the precautions are considered necessary and are sensible.
Options for taking action
If on reflection you are satisfied that the right action has been taken and properly communicated, no further action is needed. Where a decision is questionable you should consider the options below:
The precautions are sensible – but were not properly explained
A typical example of taking overprotective action to deal with an everyday risk involved a council who demanded removal of small wooden canes used to protect daffodils on a village green.
Encourage colleagues within your council to communicate decisions clearly and honestly. Consider offering feedback to the decision makers to explain what could be done differently to ensure that reasons for decisions are properly explained. Taking action to communicate effectively will help avoid myths and misunderstanding, and avoid the council earning the reputation of being 'jobsworths'.
Where inaccurate press reports are published tackle them with the facts behind your decisions.
The precautions appear disproportionately high for the level of risk
A typical example of taking over-protective action to deal with an everyday risk involved a council who demanded removal of small wooden canes used to protect daffodils on a village green.
You can use the information from these webpages to challenge disproportionate decisions. Talk to staff and colleagues about more proportionate or specific precautions that make sense - this will help avoid myths and misunderstanding and avoid the council being ridiculed for being 'elf an' safety zealots'.
The risk is not managed
Raise concerns with the appropriate director or manager – or the council's health and safety team. You can find details of cases in HSE press releases where HSE has prosecuted businesses and councils for failing to manage significant health and safety risks.
Further action
If you do not get a satisfactory response within your organisation you can raise your concerns with HSE.
If you believe that the health or safety of workers or the public is being put at risk because of failure to control real work-related risks you can contact HSE.