Reducing the risk of further pandemic restrictions. It’s time to play your part…again
Remember until last Wednesday for England there was no Plan B, just Plan A. Scotland and Wales already are under slightly tougher measures and Northern Ireland are putting similar measures in place. The UK Government has got its Plan B out of the cupboard and has begun to look again to change how we live and work to prevent increasing infection rates. Whether this change is the only change we see before Spring or whether it will be one of an increasing number of step-changes we have yet to see. Already the impacts of the concern over the new COVID variant are being felt once again on the Tourism and Aviation industries.
We could spend a lot of time arguing about the whys and wherefores, but as Government is starting to move goalposts, we cannot afford to become too complacent.
For the record the HSE have been out to businesses carrying out COVID spot checks and so far, they have completed 345, 038 although these haven’t all been to site. Notably they have also reported 22,904 concerns and 743 outbreaks from COVID-related cases. In terms of enforcement 2,370 cases required written correspondence and 365 cases resulted in notices being served.
They have also reported identified failings which include inadequate cleaning arrangements, insufficient ventilation, no risk assessments for COVID, inadequate consultation with employees and no handwashing facilities. The HSE Spot check whilst obviously very focussed and less complex to carry out also includes questions on work-related stress and welfare.
No doubt you did risk assess your business for COVID and develop actions to manage both COVID and continuing your business when this all started, but before we head properly into Winter now is absolutely the time to review, and possibly, ramp up our risk management controls for COVID.
Have employees and your OHS culture become a little complacent to COVID of late? Have you reviewed your risk assessments and done some investigation into now knowns/myths and best practices of late? Can we learn from what worked well before and not so well for us? Have you done your own spot check?
If you have an occupational health and safety management system based on a standard such as ISO 45001 then you will already be well on your way if not completed this. If you haven’t then do, please, “get cracking” and go at least to the HSE’s website as your starting point. We none of us want to be back to the beginning with our national COVID response.