450 JNC February 2023
Renfrewshire Council · 7 February 2023
Back to Renfrewshire Council Joint Negotiating Committee for Teaching Staff — 7 February 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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1 Renfrewshire Joint Negotiating Committee for Teachers To: Renfrewshire Joint Negotiating Committee for Teachers On: 07th February 2023 Heading: Developments in Health and Safety ___________________________________________________________________ 1. Summary This report outlines the developments which have taken place since the last meeting of the Joint Negotiating Committee for Teachers (JNC). __________________________________________________________________ 2. Recommendations 2.1 This report is for information only and to note that this is a retrospective record of health, safety and well-being activities undertaken by Finance and Resources, HR, health and safety section and other council services. ________________________________________________________ 3. Background This section of the report details the activities undertaken since the last JNC. The report below focusses on the actions and activities to continue to support the council’s new ways of working plans. 3.1 A risk-based review of all our policies and guidance documents is under way, we will prioritise a refresh of the documents in line with statutory compliance as well as business needs. The first topics that are being worked on include: • Accident reporting and investigation guidance • Manual handling guidance • Alcohol and substance use • Violence and aggression in the workplace guidance 3.2 The Corporate Health and Safety Committee met in December 2022. The Committee members have been consulted on well-being as well discussing other issues safety issues. The dates for 2023 are being proposed. 3.3 The Health and Safety team continue to evaluate contractor’s and supplier’s health and safety documentation when they apply for contracts with
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2 Renfrewshire Council. Since the last meeting we have assessed 13 high risk contracts and 1 low risk contract. 3.4 The Health and Safety team respond on a regular basis to requests for Freedom of Information as well as to Insurance claims. Since the last JNC meeting, 11 have been processed. Most of the FOI’s relate to generic incident/accidents/violence at work. 3.5 A new version of the accident/incident form was launched on the 5th January 2023. This has been the culmination of a collaboration between the Health and Safety team, the Business world team, Trades Unions and service representatives. The new form will make it easier for anyone to report an incident and will allow for greater collection of data. 3.6 There have been a few meetings with Scottish Fire and Rescue (SFR) since the last JNC. The meetings are a result of SFR attending call outs to our premises. We discuss, where possible, improvements to the fire safety arrangements. 3.7 The Health and Safety team continue to the review of our blood borne virus documentation. This initially started in the Housing teams, but we have expanded this project into a council wide working group to refresh the risk assessments where there may be occupational exposures generated though work-related activities. 3.8 The Health and Safety team continue to produce health and wellbeing guidance and campaigns to support the workforce. A significant focus was on working with our colleagues in Organisational Development and One Ren on the joint staff well-being day in November 2022. This provided staff with OH and Counselling information, health and well-being advice, financial and staff benefits information. 3.9 The Health and Safety team continue to support the new ways of working arrangements being developed across the council. This includes reviewing floor plate designs and ventilation impacts. 4.0 The Health and Safety team have supported the arrangements and the delivery of the Winterfest event in Paisley and the Christmas Lights Switch on events in Renfrew and Johnstone. 4.1 The health and safety team continue to support the Council’s construction activities though scheduled monthly meetings with the property services team. Since the last JNC meeting the team have also been involved in meetings/site visits for the Paisley Town Hall project and the Paisley Arts Centre project as well as other smaller projects.
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3 4.2 The health and safety team continue to support the Underwood Road Depot upgrades, Key areas of activity include: Traffic management review is ongoing, a refocus on signage and pedestrian access and egress. New security CCTV has been put in place covering all areas of the depot. Planning and redesign in place to upgrade the existing street scene vehicle holding area to service and allow vehicular parking for the refuse collection vehicle fleet – Project works are due to start Monday 16th January 2023. 4.3 The council offered the flu vaccine out to all staff not covered under the criteria for an inoculation from the NHS. We worked with our OH provider from October to December 2022 to deliver face to face inoculations for staff, and the last of the sessions will be delivered in January 2023. We offered vouchers for those who could not attend in person. As part of this programme, we worked closely with our partner organisations (One Ren, RVJB and Scotland Excel) to offer to their staff too. 4.4 Meetings have been held with the Head of Education (Inclusion and Quality Improvement) and the teaching trade unions, to review the violence and aggression policy and arrangements within the school environment. The meetings have been very productive and it was agreed to continue to work on this over the next few months. Further updates will be brought to the JNC. 4.5 Since the last JNC, across the council there have been 208 courses delivered: Total course completions between 30. Nov 2022 and 11. Jan 2023 Course Completions Waste Recycling in Schools & Nurseries 5 Infection Prevention and Control (SCIE) 16 Promoting Positive Behaviour Legislation and Guidance 7 Display Screen Awareness (DSE) 116 Ladder Safety Awareness 2 Using the Lifepak Defibrillator 2 Remote Health and Safety Module 1 Manual Handling Module 3 Fire Module 9 Supporting Employees Experiencing Domestic Abuse 2 Accident & Incident Reporting (RIDDOR) 6 Guidance on Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2020 2 Control of Contractors 11 Fire Warden 16 Violence and Aggression 8 Elected members 2 Total 208