Some sensible Christmastime advice

Information sent on behalf of Leicestershire Constabulary

The main message with the frosty mornings now upon us is aimed at drivers. We always gat an increase in vehicle crime at this time of year as people will start their engines to warm up the car while they go inside to keep warm and finish off their cup of tea.

This is an open invitation to car thieves for them to come and take your car, not only will this leave you without your car, but insurance companies will not payout for vehicles taken in this way, so this could end up very expensive for YOU!

Harborough Police will be out patrolling on frosty morning looking for cars left to “defrost” and will be speaking to the owners, vehicle owners can face a fine for leaving their vehicle running unattended on the highway, so beware!

Other Vehicle tips include

• Not leaving Christmas presents on display in your vehicle.
• Make sure all your windows and lights are clear of snow before driving.
• Don’t drive unless necessary in bad conditions
• Keep your washer level topped up with screen wash with an antifreeze
• Pack an emergency kit. High Vis jacket, food, water, shovel, boots, de-icer, torch and maybe even some salt grit.
• Keep your tires in check with a good level of tread, 3mm instead of the legal minimum if 1.6mm
• Keep sunglasses in the car to deal with low sun conditions.

Other winter advice

• Leave some lights on in your home, a completely dark house tells thieves that you’re out
• In very cold spells leave the heating on but turned right down to between 10 and 15 degrees to stop the pipes freezing.

This information was originally provided for general issue by Leicestershire Constabulary

Leicester company fined for creating fire safety risk

A Leicester haulage company has been prosecuted for creating a massive fire risk by illegally storing huge quantities of highly flammable aerosols.  The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the firm had not properly managed the risks associated with storing large amounts of aerosol products at their Hilltop Industrial Estate site in Leicestershire.The Company pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6(2) of the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1999 (COMAH) and Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 at Coalville Magistrates Court and were fined £5,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,900.

The court heard that the company stored large amounts of LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) for around seven months.  It failed to notify the authorities of its operations on site, did not complete a risk assessment and then failed to implement many good practices recognised by industry.

HSE Inspector, James Wright, said:"The arrangements this company had in place for the storage of aerosol products fell well below what HSE would expect to find ... On this occasion, with the amount of LPG being stored on site, there was a real risk of a major fire, which would have posed a threat to employees on site and those in the surrounding area ... The company also failed to notify the HSE that they were operating a site which came under the COMAH Regulations ... This case should serve as a reminder to all operators of sites warehousing aerosol products - where there are serious failures to implement suitable arrangements for managing the risks from LPG, HSE will not hesitate to prosecute."

Simple steps to avoid repeating this type of problem

This is so simple that it scarcely needs to be said: Keep the level of highly flammable materials stored on your premises under review:

• keep a simple inventory
• review the inventory against the stock on a regular basis
• manage by walking about - look to see what is being stored and ensure that the arrangements for the site are suitable for the levels and the types of materials being stored
• keep the fire risk assessment and the DSEAR (Dangerous Substances and Explosive Substances Risk Assessments) up to date

If you need any assistance - contact us through our website

Sunday night - before the week ahead

Update - on Friday 09 December 2012
Team away day - Focus on 2012
The Safety Team met off site for a discussion on the challenges of the year ahead. This proved to be an extremely interesting and useful session. It allowed the Team to be more fully involved in the running of the business and in the process of considering how next year will shape up for us. We even managed to fit in a session of using Fire Extinguishers (carried out by our in house Senior Fire Safety Consultant). We have even filmed this to provide some YouTube footage, to be uploaded shortly.

Many ideas and approaches were raised by the team. These have been captured and a précis of the meeting notes is to be circulated on Monday, with actions and individuals responsible for them clearly identified. I am convinced that we are focussed on 2012 and that we will be able to progress the business in the New Year!

Wednesday's training course went really well. Hagrid did a great job of working the delegates hard and ensuring that they left enthused to achieve. I wonder how contact back with reality has hit them this morning!

For my part, the site visits at the start of the week went without any hitches and the reports have been sent onto the clients for them to action, as appropriate. The Networking session on Tuesday morning was excellent and that group is destined for great things (in my opinion).

Testimonial from a course delegate:

The issue of Health & Safety can be seen to be an obstacle to be overcome rather than an opportunity to be taken.  Mike Ellerby and Peter Phillips dispel the myths of Health & Safety and replace them with commonsense.  Like it or not, we all have to deal with Health & Safety.  Mike and his team will save you time, angst and potentially significant sums of money should you get your Health & Safety wrong.

Testimonial from a course delegate:

I recently attended the Level 2 Health & Safety in the Workplace course at (run by Mike Ellerby and Peter Phillips). The course was interesting with lot's of interaction in very comfortable surroundings, the trainer was very knowledgable re all aspects of H & S in the work place and I came away feeling more confident in my role as Health & Safety office within my work place. I would like to thank (Mike and Peter) and I look forward to working with them in the future.

Initial section of the Blog (now relegated to the rear of this blog)
I can't say that I particularly enjoyed the drive down to Lymington today, but it was reasonably hassle free.

I was pleasantly surprised by the hotel (booked on Late Rooms) and by the balcony overlooking the High Street. The Christmas tree on the balcony was a nice touch. The food (enjoyed from a window table while creating this blog) was pleasant and I enjoyed a Peroni with it.

Tomorrow starts with an early start on Lymington High Street (mainly to carry out an Accessibility Audit) and a then short drive over to Salisbury to look at the common areas of an Industrial Estate.

I'm looking forward to the Networking meeting early on Tuesday morning. There are some excellent relationships being built at that club.

On Wednesday we are running a training course in our offices and on Thursday meeting with three potential new clients.

Friday is an "away day" for the Safety Team to discuss our focus for 2012. I have to admit that I'm looking forward to that.

New Year's Safety Resolutions - are you making any?

At New Year, many people make resolutions to change - their lifestyle, attitude, eating habits, etc. Do businesses? Do the people who run businesses?

This year, why not make a resolution to "do safety better". I do not mean that you should spend unnecessary sums of money or to carry out unnecessary training or risk assessments. I mean "to think about safety and make some simple, low cost changes for the better". My hope is that some of these changes (or improvements) will become permanent and will permeate the business.

Some simple starters?

Housekeeping standards - about a third of workplace accidents result from slips, trips and falls and about half of these result from poor housekeeping. It is, therefore, simple to avoid most of these accidents just by clearing the place up a bit. This may also make your business a bit more effective and will help to reduce your fire safety risks as well.

Fire Safety - Check exit routes, check emergency lighting, check the fire alarm, do a fire drill, update your fire safety risk assessment, etc. Many businesses think that they are doing this, until they have a check and find sporadic records or records that ceases two years ago when the book was full!

Vehicle movements - review the separation between people and vehicles - people come off really badly when it goes wrong!

Focus - as with all areas that are important to your business, focus your efforts onto those things that will make a big difference for a low cost and for minimal effort. Housekeeping is a nice, easy big hit. It costs little and can reduce the instances of slips, trips and falls and it can reduce the likelihood of a fire.

Records - consider which records are most important to the management of health and safety and make it ease to keep these up to date. 

Get involved - walk round the premises and view the operation regularly. Put right those things that do not look right on the walk round or, even better, get those people who should already have addressed these issues to put them right! This is truly management by walking about.

If you do need help, please contact us through our website

Networking Groups, my view point (October 2012 update)

I am an advocate of face to face Networking as those of you who follows me on Twitter (@Safety_Matters) will know. Over the last two years, I have reviewed critically all of the Networking Groups that I am a member of. The upshot of this review is that it is clear that some Groups are more active and more effective than others. I'm not merely griping about lead generation, but I'm criticising the ethos of some of these groups.

An obvious point coming out of the review is that attending Networking Groups costs both time and money. These are commodities that all businesses need to keep under review and to control. The money (in most cases) is not a great deal. The time, however, is a resource that is increasingly subject to many demands.  I now ask a lot of the Networking Groups that I associate with and challenge them to be more than a group of people meeting up.

Following my review, I have now left two Networking Groups altogether and I have reduced by attendance at another (by using a reliable substitute from within my business). I joined an active and vibrant Group that operates differently: they meet twice a month rather than on a weekly basis and they provide tea & coffee, but not breakfast. This does help to control both the cost and the time commitment for attendance. AS I said, this new group is the most active and vibrant group that I have ever been a member of. The reason for this, I think, is focus: on the Members and on Outcomes. This group has risen to the real challenge facing many Networking Groups: getting work through the group, not just for the members. The group has secured a significant contrcat to provide the services of all members to another (business) Group on a retained basis. I hope to talk more about the mechanisms of that when it is not so sensitive a subject.

This group has also set some ambitious targets for all members: pairing members up and requiring them to get five business opportunities for their partner before the end of this year. Not an easy task.

Social media marketing cannot, for me, fully replace face to face Networking, but it does give some positive results and is becoming increasingly important to my business. I'm encouraging others within my business to take up and embrace the world Twitter. As you can guess, this is being met with different views. Jamie embraces the concept, Richard struggles with it and Hagrid can't even touch computers (a Hogwarts thing!). My time investment in Twitter is not excessive: I use a lot of (otherwise) dead time, such as waiting for clients, waiting for the train, travelling by train, etc. Writing blog posts can be both rewarding and therapeutic. Rewarding in that it helps to crystallise some thoughts and therapeutic in that it allows me to channel some frustrations into (hopefully meaningful) words. I can then spread my thoughts and my musings by the use of (you guessed it!): Twitter.

I'm making a conscious effort to make more use of LinkedIn and would be pleased to hear from other as to how effective it is (or can be).

Like many things (including the provision of health and safety services), the true costs of Networking Groups should be monitored and scrutinised regularly. If it is not working for your business, look for other things that are.

Please visit my Health and Safety Website

Please follow me on Twitter: @Safety_Matters

Health and Safety in 2012 - keeping a competitive edge

Worried about safety in 2012?
Many people (including business owners, managers and directors) are looking forward to 2012 and wondering what it will have in store for them. Health and safety is one of those things that companies need to get right, but which should not compromise the economic viability of the company.

With many companies worried about expenditure, it is right that they should be worried that the health and safety of their workers may be compromised. We offer a solution to that problem: appoint us to work with you on your health and safety. True: we charge for that service. Also true: we are likely to be more cost effective than you struggling to do it in-house and then not having the time to do it properly. The benefit of appointing us is that we know what we are doing and we will work with you to improve your safety performance.

Contact us through our website