Safesmart achieves ISO 27001 certification, adding to ISO 9001

We are very pleased to announce that Safesmart has achieved ISO 27001 certification, which is the international gold standard for information security.

This new certification adds to our existing ISO 9001 certification for Quality Management Systems.

What is ISO 27001?

ISO 27001: 2022 is the international standard for Information Security Management. It is meant to demonstrate that an organisation effectively manages their cyber security, data privacy, and protects the integrity of their information and systems on a continuous basis.

What is ISO 9001?

ISO 9001: 2015 is the international standard for Quality Management Systems. It provides a framework that drives continuous improvement in an organisation to a globally recognised standard.

How does Smartlog help?

Smartlog uniquely and effectively enables us to achieve both certifications, with many of its functions being integral to our operations as a company:

  • ISO 27001 – Internal data protection policy management and certified UK GDPR and Cyber Security training delivered through the software play an important part in meeting key requirements of ISO 27001.
  • ISO 9001 – Key management functions in Smartlog enable the continuous improvement of business operations. This is especially notable in the remit of health and safety compliance within the organisational structure.

These two certifications have added to the solid foundation upon which we operate. They allow us to continually improve our products and services, whilst also providing our customers with the assurance that we continue to seek the highest possible standards across our entire company.

New eLearning course: Safeguarding & Prevent (Basic Awareness)

We have now released a Safeguarding & Prevent (Basic Awareness) course on Smartlog® which is completely free for all current Smartlog customers to assign and use.

What is in the new course?

Schools and colleges have a legal obligation to safeguard and promote the welfare of children (anyone under the age of 18 years old) when carrying out their duties.

Safeguarding training is therefore a legal requirement and often a primary focus of agencies that inspect the standards of schools and colleges, e.g. Ofsted, Estyn, and Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI).

To add to our existing Safeguarding training course suite, we have now released a more condensed Safeguarding & Prevent (Basic Awareness) course, which is suitable and sufficient for any staff members who do not engage in ‘regulated activity’ with children as part of their duties.

For any employees carrying out regulated activities with a child or children, they can complete our standard Safeguarding & Prevent course.

Course Details
  • Course duration: 1 hour
  • Assessment questions
  • Certificate upon completion

New eLearning course: Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022

We have now released a Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 course on Smartlog® which is completely free for all current Smartlog customers to assign and use.

What are the new changes?

From 1 October 2023, changes to the fire safety legislation in England and Wales will come into force.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, applicable to all non-domestic premises including the non-domestic parts of multi-occupied residential buildings (e.g. communal corridors, staircases and plant rooms), is being amended in accordance with Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 – this means that the duties imposed on the ‘responsible person’ are changing. 

In response, we have created an e-learning course to provide an overview of the changes, which is useful for anyone who is involved in fire safety.

Course Details
  • Course duration: 15 – 25 minutes
  • Assessment questions
  • Certificate upon completion

Gloucester Rugby onboard Smartlog®

Safesmart is pleased to announce two-time European Challenge Cup champions Gloucester Rugby as a Smartlog® client.

Competing in the Gallagher Premiership and four-time runners-up of the top division, Gloucester are also five-time Anglo-Welsh cup winners, and will be utilising the cloud-based health and safety software Smartlog to manage risk, compliance, training and safety processes among both personnel and premises.

Safesmart’s Managing Director Sam Secker said:

“We are extremely pleased to have an organisation of Gloucester Rugby’s stature onboard as a client, integrating Smartlog into their health and safety processes as well as tapping into our knowledge and expertise in this field.

We are positive this will be a great relationship going forward for the both of us.”

Gloucester Rugby kick off their 2023-24 season with a Premiership Rugby Cup match against Nottingham on 9 September at 3pm.

HSE releases workplace fatality figures for 2022/23

A total of 135 workers were killed at work in Great Britain in 2022/23, which is an increase of 12 deaths (9%) from the previous year, newly released Health and Safety Executive (HSE) figures show.

Although this is a significant increase compared to last year, this year’s figure is only slightly above the previous 5-year average of 134 deaths between 2017 and 2022. Overall however, this represents a downward trend in workplace fatalities, with 150 workplace deaths 10 years ago in 2012/13 and a significantly higher 227 deaths in 2002/03.

In this year’s figures, the most common cause of fatal injuries continues to be falls from height (40), followed by being struck by a moving object (29) and being struck by a moving vehicle (20), which all together make up two-thirds (66%) of the figures.

Construction is the most dangerous industry

The construction industry continues to account for the greatest number of workers killed in fatal accidents, with 45 deaths (33%). This is some way higher than the second highest industry, agriculture, forestry and fishing (21 fatalities).

In fact, 82% of fatal injuries occurred in only five industry sectors:

  • construction,
  • agriculture, forestry and fishing,
  • manufacturing,
  • transportation and storage
  • wholesale, retail, motor vehicle repair
Older workers are at higher risk

There continues to be a disproportionate risk to older workers, with around 25% (33) of fatal injuries involving workers aged 60+, even though they only make up around 11% of the workforce.

Self-employed workers are at higher risk

Similar to last year, a third (33%) of fatal injuries were to self-employed workers even though they only make up 13% of workers. This is also in line with the 5-year average of 33% of fatal injuries to self-employed workers between 2018/19 and 2022/23.

A positive finding

A more positive finding saw a 23% decrease in workplace fatal injuries to members of the public as a result of a work-related incident, from 88 fatalities in 2021/22 to 68 in 2022/23.

This is also significantly below the previous 5-year-average of 93 from 2017/18 – 2021/22.


Sources

HSE (2023) ‘Workplace fatal injuries in Great Britain, 2021’. Available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/fatals.htm (accessed: 17/07/2023)

HSE (2023) ‘HSE releases annual workplace fatality figures for 2022/23’. Available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/pdf/fatalinjuries.pdf (accessed: 17/07/2023)

ONS (Office for National Statistics) ‘Understanding changes in self-employment in the UK: January 2019 to March 2022’. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/ (accessed: 17/07/2023)

New eLearning course: Safer Recruitment

We have now released a Safer Recruitment course on Smartlog® which is completely free for all current Smartlog customers to assign and use.

What is Safer Recruitment?

According to both the School Staffing (England) Regulations 2009 and Education (Pupil Referral Units) (Application of Enactments) (England) Regulations 2007, at least one person who interviews an applicant for a role in a school or college must have completed Safer Recruitment training.

This new training course is designed for those responsible for recruiting staff and volunteers to work within the education sector, enabling them to ensure compliance with statutory guidance that prevents unsuitable people working with children and young people. 

Some of the topics covered include:

  • Safeguarding and recruitment law
  • The recruitment and selection process
  • DBS, Enhanced DBS and other important checks
  • Case studies 
  • Agency staff, contractors, volunteers, proprietors & other procedures
Course Details
  • Course duration: 45 – 90 minutes
  • Assessment questions
  • Certificate upon completion

New eLearning course: Modern Slavery Awareness

We have now released a Modern Slavery Awareness course on Smartlog® which is immediately available for all current Smartlog customers to use at no additional charge.

Modern Slavery in the UK

Modern slavery remains a prominent worldwide problem, and latest figures estimate that there are more than 136,000 victims of modern slavery in the United Kingdom. To combat this, there have been major pieces of legislation passed in the last few years – including strict guidance that certain types of businesses must follow, and national helplines have been set up to aid victims and lead to the prosecution of perpetrators.

What is in this Modern Slavery course?

This modern slavery course is aimed at helping all employees recognise the different signs that someone is potentially a victim of modern slavery, and to confidently take the appropriate actions.

To help raise awareness, this new course covers:

  • What modern slavery is and how it affects those in the UK
  • The main types of modern slavery
  • Who the victims of modern slavery are and how they are exploited
  • How to identify victims of modern slavery
  • How to report concerns and incidences of modern slavery, and the actions taken behind the reports

More information about our Modern Slavery Awareness eLearning course can be found here: https://safesmart.co.uk/modern-slavery-awareness/

ASCL Annual Conference 2023: We are exhibiting

We are pleased to announce that we will be exhibiting at the ASCL Annual Conference from 10 – 11 March 2023 at the ICC in Birmingham, and will be situated at Stand 39.

Date

Friday 10 and Saturday 11 March 2023

Venue

The International Convention Centre (ICC)

Broad St, Birmingham

B1 2EA

Book your place

Further information and booking details can be found on ASCL’s website.

HSE 2021/22 health & safety at work statistics: The 5 key takeaways

The HSE have released the annual health and safety figures for the year 2021/2022, and here are the 5 key takeaways.

1. Stress, depression or anxiety cases are at an all-time high

After work-related stress, depression or anxiety cases reached an all-time high of 824,000 in 2019/20, the number was slightly lower the following year. However, with 914,000 workers suffering from stress, depression or anxiety, this year’s numbers are 11% (91,000 cases) higher than last year’s – which is a record figure.

This means that cases have more than doubled from 442,000 in 2014/15, which is an increase of 107% in only seven years, which puts this worrying trend in perspective. This also correlates with a case rate increase from 1.4% workers to 2.8% in the same 7-year period.

What is the cause for this steep rise in cases? According to the HSE: “the effects of the coronavirus pandemic were found to be a major contributory factor to work-related stress, depression or anxiety”. This remains to be explored further if the trend continues in future statistics.

2. Illnesses and workplace injuries have gone up from last year

Total illnesses have increased by 130,000 cases (8%) from last year, which is the fourth consecutive year the number has increased; whilst workplace injuries have had an even larger jump from last year, increasing by 124,000 cases (28%).

As a noteworthy point: workplace injuries hit their lowest number ever last year (441,000) after an unexpected spike in 2019/20 of 691,000 incidents – the highest number since 2010; however, this year the figure has returned to trendline levels (565,000).

3. Workplace deaths continue to fall

After a spike in workplace fatal injuries last year (145), this year’s figure (123) is the second-lowest on record; and promisingly, the two lowest years on record for workplace fatalities have both occurred in the last three years.

This also means that the 5-year average of 134 deaths is the lowest 5-year average since RIDDOR began collecting records, which is yet more promising evidence of workplace deaths continuing to trend downwards.

Looking closer at the figures, the most common cause of fatal injuries continues to be falls from height (29), followed by being struck by a moving vehicle (23) and then being struck by a moving/flying/falling object (18), which altogether make up more than half (57%) of the fatalities.

The rest of these figures are broken down in more detail here: https://safesmart.co.uk/hse-releases-workplace-fatality-figures-for-2021-22/

4. Human health/social work has the highest illness rate among all industries

According to the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the average work-related illness rate per 100,000 workers for all industries is 4,190 (4.2%), and in contrast, human health/social work has a rate of 6.8%, which is the highest among all industries. This rate has actually lowered from 2020/21’s rate of 7.3% which resulted in 24% of all worker illnesses coming from the human health/social work sector alone.

This provides a clearer picture of how much the coronavirus pandemic affected the health of frontline healthcare workers during its peak.

5. Infectious disease rates are slightly down from last year

Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, overall workplace injuries were trending downwards; and they have now returned to a rate below pre-coronavirus levels. However, in contrast, the rate of illness caused or made worse by work is significantly above pre-coronavirus levels – 4.2% compared to 3.2% in both 17/18 and 18/19.

When looking closer at these figures, the rates of infectious disease (virus, bacteria) have almost tripled – 82,000 workers were affected in 2021/22 compared to 30,000 in 18/19. However, this latest figure is still lower than the 93,000 cases in 20/21, which was at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

When compiled alongside the massive rise in stress, depression or anxiety cases, this year’s illness figures are the highest on record for both prevalence (1,8 million) and rate per workers (5.4%). With the rate and prevalence of illness also both increasing for the fourth year in a row, this is a growing area of concern and worry in occupational health & safety.


Bibliography

HSE (2022) ‘Health and safety statistics’. Available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/ (accessed: 06/02/2023)

HSE (2022) ‘Workplace fatal injuries in Great Britain, 2022’. Available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/pdf/fatalinjuries.pdf (accessed: 06/02/2023)

HSE (2022) ‘Kinds of accident statistics in Great Britain, 2022’. Available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causinj/kinds-of-accident.pdf (accessed: 06/02/2023)

HSE (2022) ‘Historical picture statistics in Great Britain, 2022 – trends in work-related ill health and workplace injury’. Available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/history/historical-picture.pdf (accessed: 06/02/2023)

HSE (2023) ‘Industries’. Available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/industry/ (accessed: 24/01/2023)

HSE (2022) ‘LFS – Labour Force Survey – Self-reported work-related ill health and workplace injuries: Index of LFS tables’. Available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/lfs/index.htm#illness (accessed: 06/01/2023)

HSE (2022) ‘Index of data tables’. https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/tables/index.htm#riddor (accessed 06/02/2023)

Safesmart and Wonde partnership

We are very pleased to announce our new partnership with Wonde, one that will enable schools to seamlessly connect and synchronise their Smartlog® data with their management information system (MIS).

Wonde are data management specialists, trusted by over 25,000 schools across the globe in the provision of powerful, highly secure, easy-to-use data management solutions. They act as a protective layer between a school’s MIS and what schools share with third party applications.

Wonde integrates seamlessly with a school’s MIS to ensure data is securely maintained, managed and accessible. Currently this data transfer is done on an ad-hoc basis using various data formats and possibly insecure transfer methods. Using Wonde gives a secure, easy and continuously updated connection between a school and their approved applications, ensuring only relevant, up-to-date and accurate data is shared. 

Schools can be confident data is secure, and students and staff are supported in their learning journey.

“Wonde are pleased to be supporting Safesmart in their mission to ensure safer working environments for students and staff across the UK. Safesmart, like Wonde, are focused on making everyday life easier for schools and by eliminating the need for manual input, schools have more streamlined health and safety processes that comply with current health and safety legislations. With both Safesmart and Wonde, schools can be confident they can operate efficiently, safely and securely.”
Jon Coleman
CCO and Co-Founder at Wonde

For more information, visit: www.wonde.com

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