Legal requirements

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 ( HSAWA) requires employers to ensure the health and safety and welfare of employees and others who may be affected , so far as is reasonably practicable.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 extends the employer’s duties to:

• carry out risk assessments;
• make arrangements to implement the necessary control measures;
• appoint competent people;
• arrange for appropriate information and training to be provided;
• arrange for appropriate monitoring and review

Employees also have responsibilities under the above legislation to:

• follow appropriate systems of work laid down for their safety;
• make proper use of equipment provided for their safety, in accordance with training received;
• co-operate with their employer on health and safety matters;
• inform their employer if they identify hazardous handling activities;
• take care to ensure that their activities do not put others at risk

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (as amended 2002) require employers to:

• avoid hazardous manual handling operations as far as is reasonably practicable;
• reduce the risk of injury from hazardous manual handling, as far as is reasonably practicable
• assess any hazardous manual handling operation that cannot be avoided, taking into account the Acronym TILE :
• Task
• Individual capacity
• Load
• Environment

Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 requires employers to ensure that all work equipment, e.g. electric and portable hoists, slings, slide sheets etc. provided for use at work is:

• suitable for the intended use;
• safe for use;
• maintained in a safe and hygienic condition;
• inspected to ensure this remains the case;
• used only by people who have received adequate information, instruction and training

Lifting Operation and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 requires the employer to ensure that all lifting equipment is:

• sufficiently strong, stable and suitable for the proposed use;
• positioned or installed to prevent the risk of injury;
• visibly marked with safe working loads; accessories such as slings must be similarly marked;

Equipment and accessories that are used for lifting people should be thoroughly examined at six monthly intervals by a competent person (Someone with sufficient training, experience and knowledge to undertake a particular task). BS EN 10535 also requires hoists for the transfer of disabled persons to be load tested to its maximum weight every 12 months by a competent person.  

• In the case of maintenance issues regarding wheelchairs or other lifting equipment clients/ parents/carers should be informed. Privately owned wheelchairs are the responsibility of the individual service user/pupil;
• Label as “do not use” and withdraw from use any equipment which they feel is unsafe for use, faulty or damaged.

Other legislation that must be taken into account:

• The Human Rights Act 1998
• The Education Act 2011
• Equality Act 2010
• The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001
• United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1990

Accidents / incidents near misses

All accidents and violent incidents to staff / clients / pupils must be reported in accordance with (RIDDOR) the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations. It is also good practice to report near misses. The Council’s online incident reporting system AssessNet can be used for this purpose.  It’s the responsibility of Managers/ Headteachers etc. to ensure that incidents are recorded correctly.

BC Incident Reporting Policy 3.1 gives further information on accident reporting and can be found on the Schools Web/Intranet. 

3.1    DEFINITIONS

Assessment - a structured way of recognising and analysing risks and identifying practical solutions; the aim of the assessment is to use an ergonomics approach involving adapting the task to the worker.

Hazard - the potential to cause harm.

Risk - risk is the likelihood that a person may be harmed or suffers adverse health effects if exposed to a hazard.

Load - a moveable object, which may include a person, hoist, standing frame etc.

Moving and Handling (Manual Handling) - any transporting or supporting a load (including lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving thereof) by hand or bodily force.

Disabled person: The Equalities Act 2010 defines a disabled person as a person with a disability. A person has a disability for the purposes of the Act if he or she has a physical or mental impairment and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day to day activities.

Reasonably Practicable: the degree of risk in a particular environment or activity can be balanced against the time, trouble, cost and physical difficulty of taking measures to avoid the risk.