Upbeat HSC gives itself pat on the back

The HSC has "restructured, refocused and repositioned" and is now "ready to deliver", according to a first-year report to the Minister of Work, Jane Kennedy, on its workplace health and safety strategy .

HSC strategy

"We have restructured, refocused, and repositioned ourselves and now we are ready to deliver." Not the words of an ailing company, but the HSC's verdict on the first year of its Strategy for workplace health and safety in Great Britain to 2010 and beyond.

The HSC launched its strategy in February 2004 and makes its claims in a first-year report to Jane Kennedy, the Minister for Work1. It believes that "events of recent months show that the strategy is beginning to create an impact". These events include the effect of the strategy on the Hampton report on enforcement (see Hampton and the Regulators), the Department for Work and Pensions' (DWP) five-year strategy for getting one million people back into work (see Government plans to put back one million benefit recipients into a job) and the Department of Health's recent health white paper (see The White Paper on work and health).

The HSC is now set to turn its sights abroad, announcing that it will use the UK presidency of the EU in the second half of 2005 "to align EU activity more closely with the HSE agenda". To this end, it will take the opportunity to review the EU's occupational health and safety strategy and help shape its 2007 successor.

The report is generally a recap of the HSC/E's main achievements of the past year. All of these have been covered in recent HSBs - the launch of stress management standards, for example (see Managing work-related stress - the HSE sets its standards) - and do not bear repeating.

More targets

The HSC reiterates that there is no significant statistical progress on the injury and ill-health targets established in Revitalising health and safety. Despite this, it then singles out the fall in musculoskeletal disorders and levelling off in the incidence of stress cases. Admittedly, they are the two largest causes of ill health and days lost. But given the fraught issues around even establishing a reliable baseline, it seems premature to state that this progress offers "some encouragement that the results of the actions we have initiated are beginning to show through in the figures".

The Revitalising targets are to be delivered in full by April 2010, with part of the progress secured by April 2005. But the HSC refers to yet another set of targets, this time to deliver a Public Service Agreement for health and safety set by the DWP (the HSC's sponsoring department). This requires the HSC and HSE, by 2008, to "improve health and safety outcomes in Great Britain through progressive improvement in the control of risks in the workplace2."

The HSC will measure delivery of the PSA against targets for the two main areas of the HSE's work: occupational health and safety and major hazards. For the former, the HSE must achieve reductions between 2004/05 and 2007/08 of:

  • 3% in the incidence rate of work-related fatal and major injuries;

  • 6% in the incidence of work-related ill health; and

  • 9% in the number of days lost due to injuries and ill health.

    In practice these are little more than another interim stage before the 2009/10 deadline, albeit with a different baseline. The major hazards targets, however, require the HSE to achieve reductions between 2001/02 and 2007/08 of:

  • 5% in the number of reports made to the HSE by licence holders that indicate a challenge to nuclear safety;

  • 45% in the number of major and significant hydrocarbon releases in the offshore oil and gas sector; and

  • 15% in the number of relevant RIDDOR dangerous occurrences onshore.

    The HSC believes that "performance is currently moving in the right direction, and offers some indication that industry, working with the HSE, is improving its management of major hazard risks".

    In addition to the injury and ill-health targets, the HSC will evaluate its strategy against the impact on:

  • attitudes, roles and behaviours of stakeholders; and

  • the way in which the HSE and local authorities use their collective resources.

    Launching the report, the HSC's chair, Bill Callaghan, said: "I am pleased to present this report on the first year of our strategy and am appreciative of the ministerial support we have received throughout this time. A key message for the longer term is that HSE has made major changes to the way it sets its priorities and directs its resources. As an organisation it is now much better placed to implement the strategy and deliver its targets."

    1 "Workplace strategy - moving to delivery", HSC, March 2005, www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/plans/hscplans/firstyear.htm.

    2 PSA technical note: www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/plans/sr2004.htm.


    Winning over the trade union doubters

    The HSC'S first-year report on its strategy notes that the HSC has "worked to win over those stakeholders expressing doubts about the strategy as a whole, notably some in the trade union community". The HSC accepts that their concerns "stemmed from genuine worries that the strategy heralded a softening of [the HSC's] approach to enforcement", with a shift to advice and support (see When things go wrong: enforcement HSE style). But, soothes the HSC:

  • "we are taking opportunities as they present themselves to reassure unions that there is no policy or intent to shift the balance";

  • "we are developing a vigorous worker involvement programme, of which active engagement with the TUC and individual unions forms an important part"; and

  • the HSE's recent commitment to "substantial" external recruitment, including trainee inspectors, also sends an "unequivocal signal".

    The HSC hopes that such "cumulative evidence will convince those with concerns that their fears about our commitment to proportionate enforcement are unfounded." (Recommendations in the Hampton report (see Hampton and the Regulators), however, will also fuel the concerns of those who fear a shift from inspection to advice.)