by Roger Kline
Good timing Mr Cameron. In the year when the cost of cutting corners on health and safety killed oil rig workers, polluted an ocean and threatens the very existence of BP, our prime minister, (without a dissenting squeak from his coalition partners) claims we need to end the "compensation culture" in health and safety.
He wants a "sensible new approach" to "make clear these laws are
intended to protect people, not overwhelm business with red tape".
Social workers beware. This is a direct threat to your working conditions. Over the past thirty years deaths and serious injuries at work have fallen dramatically as the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 has gradually changed workplace safety culture.
Fatal injuries to employees fell from 651 to 180 in the next 35 years only partly because of the decline of manufacturing industry. Lifting the so-called regulatory burden will reverse that trend.
Moreover the review is based on a myth. It is simply not true that legislation is increasing. In fact it has reduced since 1974, according to the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.
What recent health and safety legislation has done is to force employers to work to prevent accidents and ill health rather than pay out compensation. They are now required to actively engage in risk management and are supposed to involve their workforce and safety representatives in doing so. Health and safety representatives have guaranteed rights to inspect and intervene.
Social workers making dangerous home visits are now entitled to a risk assessment of the visit. Social workers, care workers and nurses whose job involves lifting are now entitled to do so safely which has significantly reduced the previous carnage of back injuries. Social workers subjected to excessive stress through workloads or bullying are now entitled to an assessment of the impact of those pressures. Hazardous substances have been banned or controlled and increasingly employed are forced to try to prevent accidents and workplace ill health.
There is not much "new politics" about this review, led as it is by Lady Thatcher's former favourite minister Lord Young. It is a return to very old politics where life was cheap and accidents were inevitable.
Social work is stressful and dangerous enough already. Central to the recommendations of the Social Work Task Force were improvements in the working environment. The social work "health check" was its first practical and welcome outcome. Is David Cameron really suggesting that a better and safer working environment is a regulatory burden? I think we should be told.
Roger Kline is social care spokesperson for Aspect, the childrens services union
Social workers beware. This is a direct threat to your working conditions. Over the past thirty years deaths and serious injuries at work have fallen dramatically as the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 has gradually changed workplace safety culture.
Fatal injuries to employees fell from 651 to 180 in the next 35 years only partly because of the decline of manufacturing industry. Lifting the so-called regulatory burden will reverse that trend.
Moreover the review is based on a myth. It is simply not true that legislation is increasing. In fact it has reduced since 1974, according to the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.
What recent health and safety legislation has done is to force employers to work to prevent accidents and ill health rather than pay out compensation. They are now required to actively engage in risk management and are supposed to involve their workforce and safety representatives in doing so. Health and safety representatives have guaranteed rights to inspect and intervene.
Social workers making dangerous home visits are now entitled to a risk assessment of the visit. Social workers, care workers and nurses whose job involves lifting are now entitled to do so safely which has significantly reduced the previous carnage of back injuries. Social workers subjected to excessive stress through workloads or bullying are now entitled to an assessment of the impact of those pressures. Hazardous substances have been banned or controlled and increasingly employed are forced to try to prevent accidents and workplace ill health.
There is not much "new politics" about this review, led as it is by Lady Thatcher's former favourite minister Lord Young. It is a return to very old politics where life was cheap and accidents were inevitable.
Social work is stressful and dangerous enough already. Central to the recommendations of the Social Work Task Force were improvements in the working environment. The social work "health check" was its first practical and welcome outcome. Is David Cameron really suggesting that a better and safer working environment is a regulatory burden? I think we should be told.
Roger Kline is social care spokesperson for Aspect, the childrens services union
Its great to see someone who fully recognises that health and safety legislation is about protecting people from harm and creating safe working environments for everyone - rather than being in place to catch businesses out and force them to pay out lots of money in compensation.
If an organisation is made to pay out money in compensation or prosecution fines it is because the health and safety laws have not been correctly followed and someone has been injured as a result. But this is not the point of the legislation - it aims to prevent such things happening in the first place and, with correct training and proper application, this is exactly what it does, as Mr Kline rightly explains.
I would add that another worrying trend regarding health and safety is people's perception that it is there to make lives difficult and prevent people from engaging in fun and/or rewarding activities. It is the 'health and safety gone mad' image perpetuated in the media. What needs to be noted is that these stories generally originate from a poorly trained person misunderstanding the laws and applying them incorrectly or with a heavy hand. It is the misapplication of the law, not the law itself, that is at issue and needs examining.
We would welcome any political debate or review that would make it easier for people to understand health and sfaety law and dispel the negative view of the legislation. Because, as is mentioned above in Mr Kline's post, it has made amazing advancements in workplace safety and significantly reduced the number of workplace injuries and deaths.