The following was sent to POOSH members recently "When we talked recently you indicated that you would be willing to support the Department of Health (assuming the content is acceptable) by including a reference to the Chronic condition guides (one for employers and one for employees) in any newsletters that you send to your members. It would also be great if you would consider including a link from the appropriate section of your web site to these guides?
The guides have been produced as part of the Responsibility Deal and focus on the management of chronic conditions in the workplace, they are targeted both at the employee and at the employer. For most organisations their employees are their most critical asset and in turn for the employees their most critical asset is their own health.Ill health at work can be a huge problem for both companies and employees. For example in 2009/10 1.3 million people suffered from work related ill health and 23.4 million days were lost by British industry due to work-related ill health. The impact on a business of a critical member of staff being absent due to a long term condition can be devastating for organisations.
Everyone suffers if employees are needlessly absent from work due to ill health, the country, the employer and the employee, but many organisations find health a difficult area to manage. Because we all suffer because of this issue I believe that we all have some responsibility in tackling the issue.To re-emphasise this is where I am asking for your help, we have produced some practical guidance which will help organisations to better help and support their employees who are suffering with long term health conditions, but it is of no use unless we can get this into the hands of those who need it."
Susanna Everton, London Regional Director July 2011
POOSH is the Professional Organisation in Occupational Safety and Health. It is a multidisciplinary group made up of representatives from OH nursing, medical, hygienists, environmental health, ergonomists, risk management and accident prevention groups, IOSH and the HSE. I represent the AOHNP(UK) and have attended the last two meetings.
As with many groups in our area of health, this one appeared to be losing its way, and representatives wondered if it was still relevant as many were also attending the Council for Work and Health. A high level meeting was held at the end of 2010 to discuss this and it was decided if it could try and attract members who were senior in their roles within an organisation, the Group might have more ‘clout’ in its opinions and lobbying. This meeting was addressed by Geoffrey Podger, HSE Chief Executive, who gave us an account of how the HSE was responding to the public sector cuts and there aim to move away from the Guidance currently offered, to the compliance side of Health and Safety. He recognised that the POOSH Group could, because of the range of professions within its membership, would be in a good place to champion professional guidance and advice across occupational heath and safety/ workplace well being. This led to quite a discussion within the group and it was decided to invite an equally high level speaker to the next meeting to encourage the senior people to attend!
Dame Carol Black, spoke at the meeting in March, and gave us an update on where things were with ‘The new responsibilities deal – guiding principles’ part of the ‘Working for a healthier tomorrow’ programme.
She was interested to see what a group like POOSH could do to promote the principles in small and medium enterprises. What does a modern OH service need to offer, what tools would be required to deliver, working within the view of the Public Health White paper which was out for consultation at the time, and mentioned the role of OH in the workplace in supporting the promotion of good health – reducing obesity, musculo-skelletal disorders and issues around mental health. She recognised that large organisations had a monopoly on OH care that was not available to SME’s even though the vast majority of workers are in these types of businesses and were missing out on what was available. She welcomed all our views – particularly on how local communities and large industries within these areas could be motivated and mobilised to fill the gaps.
She was quick to exclude the other strand of work , that some OH practitioner’s are piloting – Atos’s programme for assessing fitness to return to work and reduction of benefits from her current remit, but did say that the report by Prof Harrington had been well received and would ‘probably’ be acted upon.
If you have any views on these topics Dame Carol would be happy to hear from you.
Susanna Everton, London Regional Director May 2011
HSE APPROVED Codes of Practice
A recent announcement from HSE about free on-line access to Approved Codes of Practice was welcomed by the Chairman of Professional Organisations in Occupational Safety and Health (POOSH). “It is something POOSH has strongly argued for recently, and which will particularly benefit small and medium businesses” said David Newsum, Chairman for 2009.
The HSE says that around 100 of the most popular currently priced publications should be available on the site as PDFs at 1 September 2009 and the rest will be on the site by the end of March 2010. Siobhan Clarke, POOSH representative August 2009
IIRSM – International Institute of Risk and Safety Management
IIRSM now have a Specialist member category – which includes Occupational Health. Attached is a .pdf version of the IIRSM Brochure. This gives a potted history and includes all the information on how to join as well as an application form. Alternatively you can download an application form from their website.
If you have any queries please contact Membership Manager, Miss Nicola Curran – nicola_C@iirsm.org May 2009
Driving Posture and Ergonomics POOSH Scotland have recently issued some documents which we thought may be of interest - click on the links below to go to the .pdf files.
The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) has published a public commitment by 28 royal colleges, faculties and health organisations to work together to improve the quality and safety of healthcare in the UK. They have all signed up to 'a commitment to patient safety' which sets out the principles and aims of the pledge to commit to putting patient safety at the heart of their work. The aims of the pledge are:
- to be recognised amongst the best and safest health services in the world; - to ensure that patients receive the very best care possible and achieve the best outcomes; - to minimise the risk of harm to patients occurring as a consequence of healthcare.
The 28 bodies also commit to:
- recognising their leadership role in ensuring patient safety; - incorporating patient safety into training and education programmes; - creating an environment in which staff are able to report incidents openly and honestly without recrimination; - giving patients the information they need to contribute to their safety.
FOM took a lead in writing this document, working with colleagues from other disciplines, seeking to reapply the principles of world of health and safety at work.
