Health and Safety

The Health & Safety Committee is composed of any nominated Safety representatives, the Responsible Individual, Operations Managers, Registered Managers, and the Directors. The main aim of the committee is to maintain and improve the health, safety and welfare of employees, clients and others who may be affected by the organisation's activities. The committee will specifically address the following:

• Statistics on accident records, ill health and sickness absence;
• Accident investigations and subsequent actions;
• New health and safety legislation and regulation as they affect activities, staff and clients;
• Health, safety and welfare matters of common concern arising from current practice and inspections by enforcing authorities;
• The training needs of staff arising from the above;
• To prepare and circulate appropriate health and safety information to all employees.

The Health and Safety Committee will meet twice annually and be responsible for disseminating information to their relevant teams to keep them up to date on health and safety issues within the organisation.

This part of the Health and Safety Policy contains the basic arrangements within the organisation for ensuring the health and safety of employees and others. It is supplemented by detailed information, policy statements and practice guidance on a variety of issues, which staff are required to consult before undertaking any new activity or using new equipment.

It is the responsibility of everyone to make these arrangements work.

If an Improvement or Prohibition Notice is served by an enforcement officer under the Health and Safety at Work Act, the recipient of the notice should immediately notify their line manager who should, in turn, notify a member of the Health & Safety Committee or one of the Directors. If a Prohibition Notice is issued with immediate effect the activities specified must cease immediately.

Any member of staff who notices a failure to comply with this policy or other safety advice or guidance must immediately report the circumstances to their line manager.

Suggestions from members of staff for improvements in health and safety are welcomed.

Emergency Procedures

The Registered Manager is responsible for compiling, publishing and reviewing emergency procedures and continuity plans relevant to the workplaces of staff for whom they are responsible. These procedures must cover fire safety; bomb alert; emergency evacuation, violent assault and other such contingencies that may be appropriate to the respective workplaces or activities.

The Registered Manager is responsible for ensuring that employees are fully conversant with the emergency procedures relevant to their staff.

Employees must:

• Familiarise themselves with the procedures and know what to do in an emergency;
• Know the alarm and evacuation assembly points;
• Ensure that all staircases, landings and escape routes are free from obstruction at all times;
• Ensure that fire doors are never wedged open.

Training

The Registered Manager is responsible for instructing new employees on their first day of service in the emergency procedures pertaining to their places of work. In addition, employees will receive health and safety training appropriate to her/his post as part of the induction training.

All staff will receive refresher health and safety training.

Visitors

If circumstances require, visitors should be made aware of the health and safety arrangements applicable to the premises or workplace they are visiting, and their attention drawn to any specific risks or hazards.

This is of particular importance if visitors, such as employees of contractors, may be on the premises for some time.

First Aid

All staff who work with children on a one-to-one basis will receive basic first aid training and refresher courses.

Staff are reminded that first aid should only be administered as far as the individual's knowledge and skills permit. Staff should always seek medical advice and support when needed.  For non-emergencies staff can telephone NHS 111 for advice and guidance or call 999 in an emergency situation.

First aid kits will be kept at all premises in which staff are employed and, in all vehicles owned by the company. The contents of each box will comply with First Aid Regulations 1981. A designated person will be in charge of each box and be responsible for ensuring its contents comply with the regulations.

There should be an easily accessible first aid box (not locked) available on all sites and in all vehicles. In the homes there will be a first aid box located in the kitchen and another in the office. All boxes should be checked on a regular basis (at least monthly) and recorded. Boxes should include at the minimum:

• 1x First-Aid Guidance Leaflet (See Local Resources);
• 20 x individually wrapped sterile Plasters (various sizes and blue ones in the kitchen box);
• 2 x sterile eye/finger dressings;
• 3 x individually wrapped triangular bandages;
• 2 x large individually wrapped, sterile, unmediated wound dressings;
• 6 x medium sized, individually wrapped, sterile unmediated wound dressing;
• 6 x pairs of disposable gloves;
• 2 x sealed sterile water (also known as eye wash).

This list is written in line with the guide from the New British Standard workplace First Aid Kits (BSI).  

In-car first aid kits should also include:

• Foil blanket;
• Fire extinguisher;
• Warning triangle.

Administering first aid

When staff are administering first aid It is never appropriate for staff to touch a child’s intimate body areas. A medical professional would provide any intimate care required.

If there is a minor injury that the child can treat themselves, then the member of staff should work alongside the child to ensure that the minor injury is treated properly to prevent infection. If it is a more serious minor injury, then the member of staff should ensure that the injury is treated by the GP or take the child to the nearest minor injuries or accident and emergency department of the local hospital. In the event of a more serious injury, then an ambulance should be called, or if there are two members of staff, then the child should be taken to hospital, providing there is insurance to cover the vehicle being used. In the event of a life-threatening serious injury, dial 999 and request an ambulance and take whatever measures are necessary to save life.

Any injury requiring hospital treatment should be reported to the Registered Manager, Deputy Manager or other senior person on call within 24-hours. In more serious cases they should be notified immediately. The Registered Manager, Deputy Manager or other senior on call person will notify the relevant people in line with the Notification of Serious Events policy.

Accidents

An accident is defined as an unplanned and uncontrolled event, which has led to or could have caused injury or ill health to persons, damage to equipment/property or other loss.

All accidents must be recorded in line with legislation. There are accident forms on Sue Solutions, our electronic system. Staff will ensure that all accidents are recorded. The Registered Manager is responsible for overseeing this to monitor accidents and implement control measures.

Children’s Accidents

An accident occurring in the home covers any accident involving a child. All accidents should be recorded on a child’s accident report form.

On-call and the Registered Manager, Deputy Manager or other senior on call person should be notified of all injuries that require hospital treatment within 24-hours, in more serious cases, they should be notified immediately. The Registered Manager, Deputy Manager or other senior on call person will notify the relevant people in line with the Notification of Serious Events policy.

Staff Accidents

Staff accidents should be recorded on the staff accident report form and be sent to the Registered Manager for reporting purposes.

Under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) some accidents must be reported to the HSE.

Reporting accidents and ill health at work is a legal requirement. The information enables the enforcing authorities to identify how and why the risks arise and to investigate serious accidents. The enforcing authorities can then help and advise you on preventive action to reduce injury, ill-health and accidental loss.

The Registered Manager is responsible for reporting all accidents, incidents, dangerous occurrences and potential or actual hazards in the workplace in accordance with the procedures laid down under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995. In the absence of the Registered Manager, the Deputy Manager will be responsible for RIDDOR.

Reportable incidents should be reported using the online RIDDOR form this can be found on the HSE website.

Assaults on staff

Assaults (physical, verbal, sexual or written) must be reported in writing. Staff should inform on-call and refer to the incident reporting procedure and the Safeguarding and Young People Policy for details of how to report all such incidents and occurrences.

Investigations and Near Misses

All accidents, whether minor or serious, should be investigated by the Registered Manager who, where required, will initiate control measures to reduce a reoccurrence.

Any near misses should be discussed in the staff meetings and any actions taken to prevent future accidents should be recorded.

Food Safety and Hygiene

All staff will receive online food hygiene training which will be updated every three years. All staff are required to read and understand the Safer Food, Better Business document as part of their induction where they will be made aware of the following:

To reduce the chance of food poisoning be sure to:

• Wash your hands in warm soapy water after visiting the toilet, touching pets and before handling food;
• Defrost frozen meat and poultry fully before cooking (unless cooking instructions state otherwise);
• Do not handle cooked foods with utensils which have touched raw meats. Always keep foods needing to be cooked away from those ready to eat;
• Never leave hot food out overnight to cool down;
• Raw meat should be covered and kept at the bottom of the fridge;
• If using a barbecue, light it well in advance and wait until it is flowing red, with a powdery grey surface, before starting to cook;
• Pre-cook all poultry and once it is cooked take it straight to the barbecue to “finish off”;
• Always cook poultry, sausages, burgers and chopped or minced meats right through, until the juices run clear. Never eat these rare;
• Keep serving bowls covered to protect food from dust and insects;
• Use separate, colour coded, chopping boards for raw meat, fish, vegetables and cooked meats.

All homes will be provided with separate coloured chopping boards and staff should be made aware of how to store food correctly in the fridge to limit the risk of cross contamination.

Sharp knives are to be kept locked away when not in use and will be risk assessed for use in the individual homes.

Employee Wellbeing

Bayleaf Care has developed a strategy to help manage our obligations to maintain the mental health and wellbeing of all our staff. It covers our commitment to employee health, the responsibilities of managers and others for maintaining psychological health, communicating and training on health issues, the range of support available for the maintenance of mental health, and organisational commitment to handling individual issues.

Workplace wellbeing services provided (as required) include:

• Workstation assessments;
• Post-incident support, additional supervision;
• Health and safety training.

The Registered Manager must ensure that they take steps to reduce the risks to employee health and wellbeing by:

• Ensuring that the right people are recruited to the right jobs and that a good match is obtained between individuals recruited and job descriptions/specifications;
• Keeping employees in the team up to date with developments at work and how these might affect their job and workload;
• Ensuring that employees know who to approach with problems concerning their role and how to pursue issues with senior management;
• Making sure jobs are designed fairly and that work is allocated appropriately between the team;
• Providing regular supervisions;
• Take immediate action when suspecting an employee’s health or wellbeing is at risk (i.e. reducing overtime, reducing responsibilities, redeployment to another home, (in consultation with the employee).

Employees

Employees must take responsibility for managing their own health and wellbeing by adopting good health behaviours (for example in relation to diet, alcohol consumption and smoking) and informing the organisation if they believe work or the work environment poses a risk to their health. Any health-related information disclosed by an employee during discussions with managers is treated in confidence.

If employees believe that their work, or some aspect of it, is putting their wellbeing at risk they should, in the first instance, speak to their line manager. The discussion should cover workload and other aspects of job demands and raise issues such as identified training needs.