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Worker Involvement – HSE 'do your bit' Stakeholder Event

24 March 2011 Redgrave Court, Bootle

Background

1. HSE held a stakeholder event in its Bootle Headquarters (Redgrave Court) on 24 March 2011 to advise a representative group of stakeholders regarding:

a) successful delivery of the "Safe and Sound at work – do your bit' (DYB) training initiatives; and following HSE Board/SMT agreement;

b) discuss potential arrangements for continued delivery of the DYB initiatives.

2. During 2010.11 financial year, HSE appointed a third party contractor Premier Partnership, to deliver the training initiatives that included:

3. The objectives of the training were exceeded with over 2400 RoES trained nationwide and 120 organisations receiving the joint training.

4. Following the early success of the initiatives the HSE Board endorsed proposals to explore methods for continuing delivery of the training (see: HSE Board Paper HSE11/17 from The National Archive).

Summary note of the stakeholder event

5. Please see the day's agenda.

Agenda - HSE Safe and Sound at Work – 'Do Your Bit': Learning Legacy

6. At the event, Paul Cook, HSE Policy Adviser for the Workforce and Leadership Team provided a presentation on the aims of the initiative and the subsequent performance against targets by the training provider. David Pearson from Premier Partnership then informed the audience about the training products.

7. The event provided an opportunity to hear from three companies who each gave a presentation on their experiences of worker consultation and how attending the DYB training helped improve consultation an involvement of workers in health and safety arrangements at their respective workplaces.

8. The presenters, companies involved and their presentations are as follows:.

9. Both the training initiatives having evaluated well so far and a final presentation was provided by Andrea Broughton from the Institute of Employment Studies on the early evaluation findings.

Worker involvement training courses

10. Syndicate exercises and a question and answer session followed presentations.

11. The following Annexes provide the presentations from the day, a summary of the key points from the syndicate exercises and questions and answers following discussions. Please see:

Annex A

Summary of Syndicate Discussions from Worker Involvement 'do your bit' Event on 24 March 2011

The event attendees were split into three syndicates and were asked to discuss and consider:

Responses to the above included:

Annex B

Question and answer session

Q1. Can you explain the format of the IOSH accreditation test for the new representative training?

A1: There was a brief assessment at the end of the 2-day RoES course and a similar short test at the end of the Day 3 course. Mock questions were discussed by the tutor.

Q2. How do you get the pitch right for the different organisations as they will all be on a different point on their 'consultation journey'?

A2: The training was designed to accommodate differences. The new rep training was for organisations who either had no reps or existing reps that required training on consultation. The joint training was tailored for organisations with more mature consultation systems in place, but who had identified the need to improve their arrangements. The facilitator's brief for the joint training was flexible. A facilitator's experience is key to ensuring successful delivery of this joint training.

Q3. What has been learnt in regards to Risk Assessment (RA) from this topic (Worker Involvement)?

A3: Many organisations requested training on RA and it was the most popular topic in association with training on consultation & involvement. Organisations involved made an ongoing commitment in their action planning session(s) to consult those workers (and their reps) closest to risk(s) when undertaking assessments.

Q4. Has HSE learned from the Worker Safety Advisor (WSA) scheme delivered a few years ago?

A4: This initiative took on board the findings of the scheme, in particular the recommendation to provide "soft" or "people skills" content alongside technical health and safety training. These initiatives cost less and have greater potential to reach more organisations to help them realise the benefits.

Q5. Asked of the organisations presenting, following their attendance at the 'do your bit' training, "How do external companies now view you"?

A5: Replies included: 'reduction in insurance' for one of the organisations who had been active in worker involvement for some time; 'raised companies profile' from another and 'too soon to say as early days' from the third.

Annex C

Delegate List for HSE 'do your bit' Worker Involvement Stakeholder Event –
 24 March 2011.

2021-01-07