HEALTH SAFETY & WELFARE COMMITTEE
Minutes of the meeting held at 10.00 am on Wednesday 20th February 2008
Venue FHG07, Gipsy Lane
Present:
Mr R Knight, Deputy Vice Chancellor, ChairMr B Price, Director Human Resources
Mrs M Wyatt, Occupational Health Advisor,
Mr T McGill, University Health and Safety Officer,
Mr S Hogg, UNISON, Computer Services
Mr A Glass, Built Environment
Mr S Simpkins, Deputy Director, Estates and Facilities / Mr G Bailey, Property Safety Officer
Mr A Friend, UNISON, Computer Services
Mr R Beresford, UCU, Business School
Mrs K Brockington, Health and Social Care
Mr P Phillips, School of Technology
Mr G Langford, H&S Assistant, Secretary
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SS / 1. Membership and Apologies for Absence
Apologies were received from
Dr T Bradshaw, School of Life Sciences,
Mrs S Johnson, Westminster Institute
Ms A Kyuchukova, President Students’ Union
Mr B Martin, UNISON, School of Life Sciences
Lucy Millard, Environmental Coordinator
Mrs E Mitchell, School of Life Sciences
Ms H West, Students’ Union General Manager
Ms L Williams, Student Disability Service
2. Minutes of the Meeting held on Wednesday 29th November 2007
The minutes were agreed to be an accurate record.
3. Matters Arising
3.1 (3.2) Progress of Harcourt Hill as smoke free site
Harcourt Hill has been selected as the campus where, for the comfort of non smokers, a single area will be set aside where smoking will be permitted. If it proves to be a success, the intention is for similar schemes to be installed at the other campuses. A smoking shelter, compliant with current non smoking regulations has been identified. Permission will need to be sought from the site’s landlord and the local authority.
Steve Simpkins will carry the project forward.
3.2 (3.4) Review of written procedure for control of Legionnaires’ Disease
It was confirmed that the finalised procedures for the control of Legionnaires’ disease have been written. It is intended that the documents will be signed by the nominated responsible post holders by the 22nd February 2008.
Staff for whom it is appropriate have received a briefing with regard to these procedures.
It is intended that the procedure be posted on the Estates and Facilities Management website.
In order to actively fulfil the duty of minimising risk, the committee recommended that the procedures should be drawn to the attention of students during induction at halls. Steve Simpkins will discuss this with Gillian Almond, Deputy Director, Accommodation, Catering and Conference Services.
3.3 (3.5) Review of the location of fire assembly points
When fire alarms sound, the designated fire assembly points are frequently not used, with staff and students tending to simply gather outside a building. The recent and proposed building work and changed campus layouts may mean that some of the existing assembly points are no longer in optimum positions.
The Safety Team gave proposals for revisions to the fire assembly points, which were accepted by the committee.
The proposals are that;
assembly points be designated by a lettering system (A,B,C etc),
assembly point signs, with the designated letter, be installed,
that the point currently on Cheney Field be relocated to ex-Darcy plot,
the point currently at Gipsy Lane main entrance be moved to the car park,
that a point be created in Gipsy Lane Campus quad,
a new point be created at the start of College Close, Wheatley,
a new point be created on the car park at Marston Road, off Jack Straws Lane.
It was noted that forthcoming campus redevelopment may have an impact on the existing and new assembly points, which should be taken into account during the development of the Master Plans. Steve Simpkins will discuss this with Yannis Roussos, Associate Director, Capital Projects.
The responsibility for installation of signage belongs to Campus Services.
Tim McGill will discuss the proposals for new assembly signs with Stephen Clark, Head of Campus Services.
It was noted that very few people make use of the traffic lights at either end of Gipsy Lane whilst entering and leaving the campus at the current main entrance. It was felt that the risk of a road accident may be reduced if a pedestrian crossing were installed in Gipsy Lane close to the main gate. Rex Knight agreed to pick up this issue with the local authority as part of the Master Plan.
3.4 (3.5) Review of fire action notices in pooled rooms
It has been agreed that since pooled rooms are used on an occasional basis by staff and students who may not be familiar with their surroundings, it is particularly important to have relevant safety information on display.
The Safety Team have carried out an inspection of all of the University’s pooled rooms in order to determine the status of the display of fire action, first aid and room capacity notices. It was found that in the many cases they were either absent or out of date. In line with the proposal for relocation of fire assembly points many of the fire action notice will need to be changed.
It was noted that the pooled rooms in Gibbs Building have been quipped with new notice boards, with lockable transparent covers, which would be suitable for the display of such notices.
Tim McGill will discuss the situation with Stephen Clark, Head of Campus Services and Mike Newell, Facilities Manager, in order to agree an action plan to have appropriate notices installed.
3.5 (3.8) Methods to ensure that managers’ responsibilities
are undertaken
Bob Price reported that he had had a fruitful discussion with the Deans on the responsibility of line managers to manage the safety and welfare of their staff, particularly in relation to stress and workload and it was recognised that managers’ understanding of these responsibilities could be improved.
Bob Price will ensure that this issue is covered in the University’s management training courses. In addition, some management briefing sessions will be run in the autumn.
3.6 (3.7) Frequency of false alarms at Clive Booth Hall
At the last meeting it was noted that there was an apparently high level of false fire alarms occurring at Clive Booth Hall. There is concern that the frequency of false alarms may lead to complacency, and failure to evacuate in the event of a fire.
Alarm activation data for the period September 2007 to January 2008 for all the University’s halls was presented in graphical form. It was found that there was a very much higher incidence of alarms at Clive Booth and Morrell Halls. However, when normalised to a per capita rate the differences, hall to hall, are not so stark. The major cause of false alarms at Clive Booth Hall has been identified as activation of the study bedroom’s smoke detector by the steam from the room’s shower.
There is some evidence that the Clive Booth’s phase 2 rooms’ detectors are more prone to activation by steam than those in phase 1 rooms, even though they are located further from the shower pod. Steve Simpkins will arrange for an assessment of the configuration of the detectors in phases 1 and 2.
It was agreed to continue to monitor the frequency of alarm activation, particularly to compare Semester 1 with Semester 2, as there is some evidence that the rates become lower as students become aware of the effect of steam from the shower.
The option to reduce the sensitivity of the detectors was ruled out as this would delay their response in the event of a fire.
3.7 (6) Briefing regarding lone working
Bob Price reported that he had included this topic in discussions with Deans on managers’ responsibilities, as noted in 3.5, above, and there will be a parallel discussion with the Directors in the near future.
3.8 (7) Enforcement of Driving Safely Safety Notice within EFM
Geoff Bailey reported that the undertaking to enforce the Driving Safely Safety Notice within the Directorate of Estates and Facilities Management is running inline with the action plan. The driving licences of all Property Services staff who drive have been found to be in order. Risk assessments in connection with driving activities are intended to be completed by end of March 2008.
On a related topic, it was noted that there is room for improvement in the way in which records are kept for staff who are permitted to drive minibuses on behalf of the University. Mel Wyatt will arrange that the names for those who have succeeded in driving assessments and medical assessments in line with Minibus Drivers Safety Notice, OBUHSN-27 will be displayed on the Human Resources website.
It was noted that since1997, the automatic entitlement to drive a minibus (category D1) is no longer granted to those awarded a driving licence. As a result it is becoming increasingly common for 8 seat people carriers to be utilised. It was agreed that the assessments required to be undertaken for minibus drivers, according to OBUHSN-27 should not apply to drivers of people carriers.
4 Progress of Stress Management Training
Mel Wyatt reported that the stress management project is making good progress. The last of the focus groups, for manual staff, was held in November 2007.
A meeting of the Stress Steering Group took place on 5th February.
Stress awareness training for managers and supervisors has been running on a monthly basis since November. The current programme runs until June 2008. The training has been well received. The session will be extended from 2 hours to 2½ hours to allow more time for group work and the examination of case studies.
Bob Price reported that he has given a briefing to Deans about the findings of the stress management project, in particular how the way in which workload is distributed and the way in which administrative tasks are managed, impact on academic staff.
In order to outline proposed actions to manage the University’s activities so as to reduce the likelihood of staff being adversely affected by stress, Bob Price is in the process of preparing a report for the Executive Board that will identify a range of potential action points for the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic, Deans and Directors and the HR/OCSLD team.
It was noted that the latest staff survey confirms the findings of the stress survey, with workload being the highest concern amongst academics, followed by change management.
5 UCEA Health & Safety Annual Report 2007
The UCEA (Universities & Colleges Employers Association) Health and Safety Annual Report had been issued to the committee prior to the meeting.
Two items from the Health and Safety Action Plan were considered.
Item 13, Promotion of training initiatives within the sector. Since the need for more systematic training has been identified, Bob Price intends to enquire about this with UCEA.
Item 14, Adoption of Construction ‘revitalising’ may be of interest considering the proposed construction activities. It was noted that this is an AUDE/USHA joint project. Ian King, Director Estates and Facilities Management, is a member of AUDE. Steve Simpkins will raise this with Ian King.
6 Any other business
Membership
It was agreed that Stephen Clark, Head of Campus Services, be invited to become a member of the committee.
7 Date of next meetings
10 am Fri 11th April 2008 Board Room 1, Gipsy Lane
10 am Wed 4th June 2008 Board Room 1, Gipsy Lane
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