5. EHI Annual Health and Safety Plan 2024-25_Year End Update_Covering Report_V2.0_FINAL
Renfrewshire Council · 13 May 2025
Back to Communities and Housing Policy Board — 13 May 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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________________________________________________________________ To: Communities and Housing Policy Board On: 13 May 2025 ___________________________________________________________________ Report by: Director of Environment, Housing and Infrastructure ___________________________________________________________________ Heading: Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Annual Health and Safety Plan 2024/25 – Year End Update ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Summary 1.1 The Council’s Health and Wellbeing Plan, a key priority within the Council’s People Strategy 2021 – 2026, promotes a positive Health and Safety culture to ensure compliance with relevant Health and Safety legislation and supports the Council Plan in Working together to achieve a thriving and connected Renfrewshire, creating opportunities for all. 1.2 This report provides an update on the work undertaken by the Department of Environment, Housing and Infrastructure to implement the actions contained in the Annual Health and Safety Plan 2024/25 which was approved by the Communities and Housing Policy Board on 21st May 2024. 1.3 Appendix 1 to this report sets out an update on the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Health and Safety Plan 2024/25 and Appendix 2 provides a brief update for actions contained in this Plan for the areas within the remit of the Communities and Housing Policy Board. 1.4 It should be noted that a similar Report (Appendix 1) and Action Update (Appendix 2) will be considered by the Communities and Housing Policy Board on 13th May 2025, the Infrastructure, Land and Environment Policy Board on 21st May 2025 and the Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board on 12th June 2025 in respect of the elements covered by those Boards’ remits. _________________________________________________________________
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2. Recommendations 2.1. It is recommended that the Communities and Housing Policy Board: (I) Notes the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure (EHI) Annual Health and Safety Plan 2024/25 update (Appendix 1) as specific to the areas of activity delegated to this Policy Board; (II) Notes the Environment, Housing and Infrastructure (EHI) Annual Health and Safety Plan 2024/25 action update (Appendix 2) as specific to the areas of activity delegated to this Policy Board: and (III) Notes that a similar Report and update on the Action Plan is also being presented to the Infrastructure, Land and Environment Policy Board and the Finance, Resources and Customer Services Policy Board to approve the elements covered within those Boards’ remits __________________________________________________________________ 3. Background 3.1. Environment, Housing and Infrastructure (EHI) Department is responsible for the provision of everyday essential services, directly to the public of Renfrewshire, to other services within the Council and to community planning partners. These services are delivered by around 1,800 Full Time Equivalent (FTE), with an estimated net expenditure of £61.925 (excluding Housing Revenue Account) for 2025/26. The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) budget and Rent Levels for total rental and other income for 2025/26 is £65.492m. 3.2. The Department provides the following key frontline services: Operations: Neighbourhood Services, Fleet and Social Transportation, Waste and Recycling (to over 92,000 households and businesses Climate, Public Protection and Roads: supporting our communities through our Regulatory and Community Safety Services and supporting more than 862 km of roads and transport infrastructure. Facilities and Property Services: (Hard and Soft Services) including PPP schools, cleaning/catering/janitorial services, public building (repairs, maintenance and compliance), Building Services and Property Services, a multi-disciplinary design team. Housing Services: Management and investment in housing stock (12,078 properties) and providing a wide range of advice and support to our tenants. 3.3 Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Services deliver universal services for over 186,000 Renfrewshire residents, helping to run our schools and care homes, providing 12,078 homes for social rent, protecting and enhancing our local environment though a wide range of initiatives and work to make Renfrewshire a great place to live and work.
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3.4 Our services are delivered by a diverse, skilled and committed workforce of 1,800 FTE who deliver services 24/7 over 365 days a year. The health, safety and wellbeing of all our employees is of paramount importance. 3.5 Governance for Health and Safety is provided through monthly discussions at Environment and Infrastructure Senior Leadership Team meetings and quarterly CRMT (Crisis Resilient Management Team). __________________________________________________________________ Implications of this Report 1. Financial – Potential exists for financial liability from property damage, civil or criminal prosecutions through the outcome of accidents and/or ill-health. This report demonstrates Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Services compliance and commitment to Health and Safety policies and procedures. 2. HR & Organisational Development – This report supports Renfrewshire Council’s commitment to the health, safety and wellbeing of employees. 3. Community/Council Planning Our Renfrewshire is well – EHI will improve the physical and mental health and wellbeing of employees through participation in the “Healthy Working Lives” and “Your Health Matters” Programmes and any other corporate initiatives promoting wellbeing. Our Renfrewshire is safe – EHI will provide training and support to employees to allow them to develop within the organisation and to gain the skills and experience necessary to provide a quality service to our customers. 4. Legal – Environment, Housing and Infrastructure will continue to comply with all current statutory Health and Safety legislation and Renfrewshire Council Corporate Health and Safety policies and guidance. 5. Property/Assets – The maintenance of appropriate registers (e.g. Asbestos Register with respect of domestic Council properties) and an obligation to conduct workplace inspections. 6. Information Technology – None. 7. Equality & Human Rights - The Recommendations contained within this report have been assessed in relation to their impact on equalities and human rights. No negative impacts on equality groups or potential for infringement of individuals’ human rights have been identified arising from the recommendations contained in the report. If required following implementation, the actual impact of the recommendations and the mitigating actions will be reviewed and monitored, and the results of the assessment will be published on the Council’s website.
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8. Health & Safety – This report supports and demonstrates Environment, Housing and Infrastructure’s commitment to ensuring effective Health and Safety management across the Department. 9. Procurement – None. 10. Risk – This report supports the overarching management of risk within Renfrewshire Council. 11. Privacy Impact – None. 12. COSLA Policy Position – None. 13. Children’s Rights – This report is for noting and has no direct implications on children’s rights. 14. Climate Risk – None. List of Background Papers a) Background Paper 1: Health and Wellbeing Plan (For all council employees), The foregoing background papers will be retained within Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Department (Service Development) for inspection by the public for the prescribed period of four years from the date of the meeting. The contact officer within the service is Gill Darbyshire, Senior Service Development Manager, gill.darbyshire@renfrewshire.gov.uk Author: Gordon McNeil, Director of Environment, Housing & Infrastructure Gill Darbyshire, Senior Service Development Manager E-mail: Gordon.mcneil@renfrewshire.gov.uk Gill.darbyshire@renfrewshire.gov.uk
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Renfrewshire Council Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Health and Safety Plan 2024/25 – Year End Update Communities and Housing Policy Board 1st April 2024 – 31st March 2025 May 2025 Appendix 1
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This annual report is prepared by Environment, Housing and Infrastructure (EHI) in accordance with Renfrewshire Council’s Health and Safety Policy and Plan, the purpose of which is to evaluate the health and safety performance of the Department. 1. Management of health and safety within the Department Broad context of health and safety policy 1.1 The Director of Environment, Housing and Infrastructure (EHI) has overall responsibility for the application of Health and Safety Policy and welfare at work of employees within the Department. The Leadership Team of EHI, comprising four Heads of Service and Senior Managers, take a lead and active role in the monitoring and application health and safety policy. 1.2 The objective of EHI is to ensure that health, safety and wellbeing are an integral part of the business and all services areas continually seek to develop a positive culture and attitude amongst employees to achieve this. 1.3 As outlined below, regular discussion takes place on a wide range of health and safety policy areas and this allows the opportunity to ensure that arrangements are in place to reflect the service fully and to monitor the effectiveness of current arrangements, updating as required. 2 Organisation for implementing health and safety management Health and Safety Planning Group/Committees 2.1 EHI is represented on the Corporate Health and Safety Committee (CH&SC) by the Senior Service Development Manager who attends the quarterly meetings. The Head of Operations and Service Development Chairs the Council’s Resilience Management Team (CRMT) which covers all services across the Council. Health and Safety is lead across EHI by the Senior Service Development Manager supported by Service Co-ordination Assistant and officers across all Services. 2.2 A monthly meeting of EHI Senior Leadership Team is chaired by the Head of Operations and Service Development, arranged to align with the quarterly meeting cycle of the CH&SC, which discusses a wide range of health and safety work including: (a) Accidents - statistics, trends, investigations and other information to identify causes and provide so far as is practicable solutions for their prevention. (b) Workplace inspections (internal) and audits (Corporate and external) (c) The planning, performance management and review of EH&I’s approach to Health and Safety (d) The monitoring and implementation of the Health & Safety Action Plan
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(e) The identification, assessment and recording of risks (f) Actions arising from the Corporate Health & Safety Committee (CHSCM) (g) Actions arising from the corporate and service Risk Management and planning arrangements, and (h) New developments in Health & Safety arising from legislation and Government and Council policy 2.3 The Health and Safety Policy continues to reflect and provide a guidance framework for the management of Health and Safety across EHI. Consultation Mechanisms 2.4 Information on health and safety issues are communicated to employees using a wide range of internal channels such as strategic meetings, operational meetings, Trade Union meetings, workload reviews, “toolbox talks,” emails and noticeboards. 2.5 It is particularly important to note that a significant number of EHI employees do not have access to electronic communications and therefore, as set out above, a range of approaches are taken in this area including joint working arrangements for employee and Trade Union consultation. Although the Department has an ability to communicate digitally with frontline employees through digital messaging, enabling a quick and effective way to communicate important information, this relies on employees providing a personal mobile number and signing up to receive notifications through “RenTalk”. 2.6 Regular meetings take place with EHI Directorate and Trade Union Representatives where key health and safety issues may be discussed, supporting ongoing awareness and practice of health and safety, management of risks, prevention of accidents and ill health and the maintenance of safe working practices. 3 Environment, Housing & Infrastructure (EHI) Annual Health and Safety Plan 2024/25 – Year End Update 3.1 A wide range of work has been undertaken between 1st April 2024 – 31st March 2025 to promote and address health and safety areas or concerns and a high- level summary of this is outlined below: 3.2 Housing Services A review of Housing Services properties tagged as requiring two officer visits has been undertaken to ensure that information is up to date. All members of staff from the local area Housing Services team participated in learning about ‘Trauma-informed’ practice, to learn more about the causes of trauma and the impacts of trauma on people. The learning is intended to assist our staff in their roles when working with people and each other, to recognise causes and behaviours which may relate to previous or current trauma in their life, to respond in a supportive manner, and to connect with and support those affected when manifesting stress and distress.
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Two Officers from the Local Area Housing Services teams are now Mental Health First Aiders. Work has progressed within Housing Services to renew the contract for an enhanced Lone Worker App, which includes features such as check-in/check- out – which is a management tool to confirm people have logged into the APP at the start of their duties out-with the office and then logged out at the end. All Housing Services officers have attended Fire Safety Workshops. The workshops included advice on excessive fire loading, where fires can occur, how fires start and general fire safety. Fire Safety courses will be extended to Concierge and Caretaking staff during April 2025. Concierge and Caretaking staff within Housing Management Services have completed refresher training and training is ongoing for new team members. 3.3 Climate Change, Public Protection and Roads In response to increased reports of verbal abuse against our employees, “Conflict Resolution” awareness and training, delivered by Police Scotland, has been successfully completed by the Wardens Service. As a result of verbal and physical assaults on the Trading Standards team during enforcement duties a new process for joint working with Police Scotland has been developed. Pre-visit checks are undertaken with Police Scotland, HMRC, Home Office and other relevant stakeholders, and where a Police presence is likely to be required to maintain order, the Team schedule this directly with Community Policing. Full operational briefings are conducted with partners on these “Days of Action” to ensure all roles and remits are clarified. Operational processes have been rationalised to ensure Officers spend the minimum amount of time in premises where recoveries are being made, to reduce the possibility of escalation. These activities have also made use of the national tobacco detection dog resource, which has assisted in making recoveries safer and quicker. 4 Monitoring and Support Services 4.1 The ongoing health, safety and wellbeing of employees and service users continues to be a priority for EHI. The focus to promote an open, positive health and safety culture and to encourage employees and management to report all incidents, accidents and occurrences. 4.2 All reported incidents, accidents and occurrences are reviewed on a weekly basis, resulting in more accurate date. Every incident, accident or occurrence is investigated and associated risk assessments reviewed and amended where necessary. 4.3 From 1st April 2024 – 31st March 2025 across EHI there were 218 incidents, accidents and near misses reported. The table below (Figure 1) shows the breakdown of these incidents by service area.
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Figure 1 – EHI 2024/25 – Total number of incidents/accidents and near misses reported per Service Area (01/04/2024 – 31/03/2025) 4.4 There has been a slight increase across EHI in the number of accidents, incidents and near misses reported in 2024/2025. There were 188 in 2023/24, and 218 in 2024/25 an increase of 30 (Figure 2). There has been a significant increase in the number of violence and aggression incidents being reported which now make up 34% of the overall incidents recording by our employees. Considerable work, previously noted within this report, has resulted in a sight decease of reported incidents of Violence and Aggression in the later part of 2025. Work is ongoing to monitor this situation and to work collaboratively with Corporate Health & Safety as part of the new Violence and Aggression Working Group. Figure 2 - EHI 2024/25 – Comparison of incidents/accidents and near misses reported per Service Area (01/04/2023-31/03/2024) & (01/04/2024 – 31/03/2025
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4.5 Under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) there were 18 accidents across EHI between 1st April 2024 – 31st March 2025 comprising 1 dangerous occurrence, 3 specified injury, 1 specified employed by someone else and 13 “over 7-day absences”. 5 Review of Support Services 2024/25 5.1 Supporting our employees and attendance continues to be a key priority for EHI and arrangements are in place to utilise the services of the Council’s Occupational Health provider. During 2024/25 a number of referrals have been made and systems and processes are in place for manager or employee self- referrals to the Occupational Health Service or employee counselling service. The key elements used have included: Early intervention programme Employee counselling service Treating employees referred to the Service Physiotherapy and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) for employees Statutory Occupational Health Benchmarking (eg Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS), Audiometry) 5.2 The updating of the “Work ‘n’ Life mental Health Awareness Directory has been completed and distributed to all EHI employees. To compliment the directory a “Z card” has also been created for easy use and reference with includes all the important contact numbers and agencies and this has also been distributed to EHI employees. 6 Environment, Housing & Infrastructure (EHI) Health & Safety Plan 2024/25 - Actions Update (Appendix 2) 6.1 The Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Health and Safety Action Plan 2024/25 set out a range of key actions that were to be undertaken in 2024/25. A short update on each of these actions, for areas under the remit of the Communities and Housing Policy Board, is set out as Appendix 2 to this report. 6.2 The Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Health and Safety SLT will continue to review Health and Safety management across EHI respective areas of responsibility and a revised EHI Health and Safety Plan 2025 – 2028 has been developed to continue this work.
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Environment, Housing and Infrastructure Annual Health and Safety Action Plan 2024/25 (Year End Update) Climate, Public Protection and Roads Service Area Title of Action Due date Update (March 2025) Open/Closed Climate and Public Protection Review and transfer all risk assessments for Public Protection to the new risk assessment template. 31/03/2025 Work to review and transfer risk assessments for Public Health is ongoing. It is anticipated that this work will be completed by October 2025. Open - This action has been included in the new 2025- 2028 Health and Safety Action Plan (EHIH&S.02.15) Climate and Public Protection All public facing staff in Public Protection to complete violence and aggression training. 31/03/2025 The mandatory training is complete and the majority of public facing staff have completed the violence and aggression training on I-Learn. Team talks for frontline staff will be delivered on a regular basis in future years. Closed Climate and Public Protection Develop and implement a staff induction pack 31/12/2024 Public Protection have finalised the staff induction plan and this is being used routinely as new starts come into the Service. Closed Climate and Public Protection Stress management training to be carried out. 31/03/2025 A bespoke “Conflict Management” course was delivered by Police Scotland to both shifts within the Community Support Service during September and October 2024. The course was well received by all staff. Closed Climate and Public Protection Complete specific risk assessment for handling XL Bully Dogs. 30/06/2024 The risk assessment has been drafted for staff who may come into contact with XL Bully type dogs as part of their remit in undertaking enforcement of the Control of Dogs Act 2010 and dealing with stray dogs. Open - This action has been included in the new 2025- 2028 Health and Safety Action Plan (EHIH&S.02.16) Appendix 2
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Housing Services Service Area Title of Action Due date Update (March 2025) Open/Closed Housing Services Undertake a regular programme of risk assessment and safe systems of work reviews. 31/03/2025 Risk assessments are up to date but continually refreshed as and when required. Closed Housing Services Compile departmental risk assessment and safe systems of work register. 31/03/2025 Work is ongoing to compile a risk assessment and safe systems of work register. This will be continued into 2025/26. Open - This action has been included in the new 2025-2028 Health and Safety Action Plan (EHI.002.08 – Risk Register – EHI.003.06 (b) Develop, update and maintain the department’s Risk Register) Housing Services Undertake a regular programme of health and safety training and information sharing for all employees. 31/03/2025 Complete. Training programme and records in place. Closed Housing Services Undertake violence aggression training for all at risk employees. 31/03/2025 Complete. I Learn module in place for relevant employees. Closed
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Housing Services Service Area Title of Action Due date Update (March 2025) Open/Closed Housing Services Monitor accident trends and statistics to identify risk and provide, as far as possible, for its prevention/reduction. 31/03/2025 Accident information is reviewed to ensure opportunities to implement changes to prevent or reduce recurrence are identified and implemented. Closed Housing Services Promote the use of Mental Health First Aiders within Housing Services 31/03/2025 2 Officers from the Local Area Housing Services teams are now Mental Health First Aiders. Closed Housing Services Record and report on all health and safety related training. 31/03/2025 Training records, including i-Learn courses, are held in Business World and individual team records on file. Closed