SCHOOL OF ENGLISH
UNIT HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICY
1. BUILDINGS
The School is housed in two adjacent buildings, Castle House and Kennedy Hall on the Scores, and in the Postgraduate English Research Centre, 66 North Street.
2. OPENING HOURS
The buildings are open on weekdays from about 8.45 am to 5.15 pm, outside which hours they can be accessed by authorised swipe cards. Janitorial staff are notified of any out-of-hours use. There are no special arrangements for the use of the buildings outside working hours and at weekends, when all swipe card holders (members of staff and postgraduates) have access on an individual basis, but no record is kept of their movements. It is therefore up to individuals to ensure that when using the buildings they comply with normal safety precautions.
3. RESPONSIBILITIES
Dr C J M MacLachlan, responsible for Kennedy Hall, and Ms J V Guttridge, responsible for Castle House, report to the Head of the School, Professor L M Hutson, who has ultimate responsibility for health and safety within the School, though the School’s Health and Safety Officer is Dr MacLachlan. He chairs the School’s Health and Safety Committee.
4. RISK ASSESSMENT
A Risk Assessment has been carried out by the Head of School and Health and Safety Officer (Dec 2006), and a copy of this Assessment is kept by the Head of School, by the Safety Officer, and in the School Office. In general, it may be said that the risks faced by the buildings, their contents, and their occupants and users, are the normal risks that can be expected of premises used for academic purposes (teaching, research, administration, secretarial and postgraduate computing facilities).
5. FIRE PRECAUTIONS
There are fire exits, appropriately sign-posted, on every level of Kennedy Hall. In Castle House and 66 North Street the emergency exit is identical with the building’s central staircase.
6. FIRST AID
A first aid box is available in the kitchen in Castle House and in the kitchen in Kennedy Hall. The School has trained First Aiders in each building. These include Dr Tom Jones and Dr Sara Lodge in Kennedy Hall and Mrs Laura Mackintosh and Dr B A Murray in Castle House. The University provides every year a training course in First Aid of which members of the School are encouraged to take advantage. Information on this course will be provided by the Safety Officer at the appropriate time. The School has designated rest rooms in each building for students who become unwell. These are the Stephen Boyd Room in Kennedy Hall and Castle House Room 14.
7. ACCIDENT AND INJURY
Statements of basic emergency procedures (coloured green and blue) are on display on noticeboards throughout the buildings. All accidents and injuries should be reported on a form, copies of which are kept in the Secretary's Office in Castle House, and the Safety Office should be notified. The form should be sent to The University Safety Adviser, 65 North Street.
8. ELECTRICAL SAFETY
The responsibility for testing fixed electrical installations rests with Estates and is carried out on a rota basis approximately once every five years. There is routine testing of portable appliances, carried out by Estates.
Electrical and other faults that may be observed by users of the buildings should be reported without delay to the secretary in Castle House for appropriate action.
9. DISPLAY SCREEN EQUIPMENT
Computers are widely used by members of staff and secretaries. Secretaries have attended courses on the use of computer workstations organised throughout the university and staff have been given Display Screen Equipment training.
10. CONTROL OF SUBSTANCES HAZARDOUS TO HEALTH (COSHH)
Users of the buildings should be aware of the potential hazards involved in the use of certain materials, e.g., Tippex, certain cleaning products, etc. Suppliers of hazardous substances are required to label containers with the details of hazards and of precautions needed to deal with them. Users of such materials must follow the precautions given on the label.
11. MANUAL HANDLING
About one third of all reported occupational injuries are attributable to handling loads. Any colleagues with concerns about manual handling issues should contact Staff Development who may be willing to run courses on manual handling techniques; such courses have been run in the university in the past.
12. PERIODIC SELF INSPECTIONS AND HEALTH AND SAFETY COMMITTEE
In addition to the periodic self inspections carried out using the Annual School Safety Report forms (on file in the School Office) the Health and Safety Committee of the School meets regularly, normally once per semester. Its membership for 2009-10 is Dr C J M MacLachlan (convener), Dr Philip Parry, Ms Jane Guttridge, and Mr Jesse Sharpe (student member). This committee acts as a forum to monitor and review Health and Safety matters, to disseminate Health and Safety information, and to support the Health and Safety Officer.
13. SAFETY DOCUMENTATION
A file of all relevant papers and documentation is kept in the secretary’s office in Castle House (including various leaflets on safety aspects issued by Environmental Health & Safety Services and the folder on Health and Safety Codes of Guidance issued in 2005).
14. DISTRIBUTION
Copies of this Unit Safety Policy are sent to Environmental Health & Safety Services and to all members of the School.
Professor Lorna Hutson
February 2010