Health and safety – the necessary evil?

THERE are few people who don’t sigh at the mention of health and safety. It gets bad press because people imagine onerous amounts of paperwork, numerous rules restricting what you can do, and warning signs plastered on every possible bit of wall space. The reality is that health and safety is not a barrier. It’s a way to enable roles to be carried out safely and effectively. 

Health and safety law doesn’t just cover employees. Charities also need to take reasonable steps to ensure that people who benefit from their work, volunteers and anyone who comes into contact with their charity are protected from harm. 

Your charity’s trustees and management have a moral, financial and legal responsibility to ensure measures are in place. Ultimately though, health and safety is everyone’s responsibility as your actions can affect others. You have a duty of care to protect yourself and those around you. This includes volunteers who need the same level of protection when they carry out similar activities and are exposed to the same level of risk as employees.

Breaches in UK charities

Here are three examples of charities that were fined due to health and safety breaches:

• In 2018, a charity was fined £30,000, with costs of £6,654, after a cyclist lost her leg when she became trapped under a lorry on the site of an annual bonfire night fireworks. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) concluded that the organisers had failed to organise the build-up and break-down of events ‘in a way that allows pedestrians and vehicles to circulate in a safe manner’
• In 2014, an equine charity was fined £6,000 after a volunteer lost a thumb and finger in an accident. The volunteer was using an unguarded circular saw and the charity had no risk assessments in place, nor had they provided training 
• In 2010, a mental health charity was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £20,000 in costs for failing to protect an employee who was stabbed to death by a paranoid schizophrenic. The 22-year-old support worker was sent to visit the patient alone, despite the charity knowing his history of violence, refusal to take his medication and that his condition was worsening

The lasting harm to all those affected by accidents, injuries or health issues caused by breaches of health and safety law can be long-standing. For your charity, not only do fines mean financial costs, but you may lose supporters through reputational damage as well. 

Training is one of the HSE’s three core elements

The HSE identifies three core elements needed to effectively manage health and safety, one of which is ‘a trained and skilled workforce.’

Our CharityGo online training platform is powered by TrainingToolz and includes two expert-written health and safety training courses which are available to anyone on the ‘quick start’ or ‘full feature’ subscriptions. 

• Health and safety training for charities teaches you why health and safety is important in your charity and what you must do to ensure you meet legal responsibilities
• Health and safety – hazards awareness for charities teaches you to recognise the significant health and safety hazards in your workplace in order to keep you, your colleagues and volunteers safe

Please visit us at: https://www.charitygo.co.uk/ if you’d like to know more about health and safety training with CharityGo.