Page 54 - IOSH JanFeb24_Full LR

Execution
The Working Safely programme consists
of 80 actions, but before any of these could
THE PRACTICE CASE STUDY
be tackled one of Nicola’s first jobs was to

expand her team from four to 12.
The trust appointed a deputy head
of health and safety who was very
experienced at implementing behavioural
culture change and was previously a senior
OSH adviser in a COMAH (Control of
Major Accident Hazards) top-tier site.
Then there are two health and safety
managers, one for north and central
Wales, the other covering south Wales.
‘They manage the OSH advisers, oversee

and monitor staff incidents looking at

the quality of the investigation and offer
further support to the line manager a new piece of equipment. They also have making sure everyone has a comprehensive
in undertaking that investigation and oversight of RIDDOR reports and they DSE assessment in place, because the hours
jointly undertake the more complex manage our case load of reported incidents that they spend sitting at their desks can
investigations,’ says Nicola. and near misses,’ Nicola explains. ‘We contribute to musculoskeletal issues. This
The OSH advisers are out engaging have a positive culture of staff reporting team member also educates those staff

with local management teams, supporting near misses and actual incidents, and it’s and volunteers to understand how their
managers with risk assessments and key that we draw out the learning from environment should look.
operating procedures. ‘They are doing this quickly.’ ‘Manual handling is a top consideration
inspections of the workplace and they are The other member of the team is a for us given the nature of the work we
involved at the early stages of projects, display screen equipment (DSE) and undertake, particularly transporting patients

whether that is fitting out a clinical contact manual handling adviser who is heavily or extracting them from difficult scenes, so

centre, rebuilding a station or introducing involved in the clinical contact centres, our manual handling adviser has undertaken
work to promote bespoke training and
bespoke risk assessments,’ states Nicola. ‘This
is an example of trying to balance the reality
that our staff will often face: for example, the

need to get a patient to hospital for treatment
without delay, or to wait for additional help to
Tackling violence and aggression arrive for patient extraction – you can see the
need for real consideration, judgement and
with dedicated roles safe systems of work to weigh up the risks.

Listening to our staff to find workable and

One of the new violence and aggression case manager will link proportionate solutions is necessary for staff
professional roles against staff is one of in with that member of safety and patient survival.’

that the Working the unfortunate top staff and offer support. Any safety incidents are recorded on an

Safely programme trends,’ Nicola says. That could be anything NHS Wales reporting system, with data
has required is a ‘Working with the from referring them to transposed into a dashboard suite of metrics.
dedicated violence and violence and aggression occupational health,
Results
aggression manager. manager is a case just being somebody
‘This person’s job manager, so when to talk to, or even Still in the early stages of the roll-out, Nicola
is about preventing a member of staff accompanying them to and her team have spent much of the last few

incidents of violence does experience an court if the staff member months establishing baselines.

and aggression to staff. episode of violence decides to take the case ‘Two of the big things that we have done
As you can imagine, and aggression, that any further.’ in the early phase was to get a baseline for
54 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 | IOSHMAGAZINE.COM

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