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
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
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.
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.
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.”
Everyone at Safesmart would like to express our condolences and join the nation in mourning the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the United Kingdom’s longest-serving monarch, after reigning for 70 years.
Her Majesty QueenElizabeth II: 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022.
A total of 123 workers were killed in work-related accidents in Great Britain in 2021/22, which is a 15% decrease from the previous year, newly released Health and Safety Executive (HSE) figures show.
According to the latest RIDDOR figures, workplace fatalities have continued their pre-pandemic downward trend, with the latest figures well below the 2016 – 2021 five year average of 136 fatalities.
The drop in fatalities is especially promising, due to the data covering the period April 2021 to March 2022, during which time most COVID-19 restrictions were removed and the economy began returning to normal.
The most common cause of fatal injuries continues to be falls from height (29), being struck by a moving vehicle (23) and being struck by a moving object (18), which all account for over half of the fatalities.
When breaking down according to sector, around a quarter (30) of fatalities occurred in the construction industry, 22 fatalities in the manufacturing sector, and 22 in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector – which is similar distribution to previous years.
There remains a disproportionate risk to older workers; with around a quarter (29) of fatal injuries involving workers aged 60+, although they only make up around 11% of the workforce. Furthermore, when analysing the data further, the rate of fatalities for workers aged 65+ is around 4 times that of the average rate across all age groups.
Also, there was a 27% increase in workplace fatal injuries to members of the public as a result of a work-related incident, with 80 fatalities in 2021/22 down from 63 last year.
We are pleased to announce that we will be exhibiting at the ASCL Annual Conference from 11 – 12 March 2022 at the ICC in Birmingham, and will be situated at Stand 02.
The HSE have released the annual health and safety figures for the year 2020/2021, and here are the 5 key takeaways.
1. Because of COVID-19, no statistics on working days lost and economic costs are included in this year’s statistics.
Because of the discontinuity in collecting statistics presented by COVID-19 measures such as furlough, the HSE have decided to omit statistics on working days lost and their associated economic costs.
Instead, they have released a 29-page technical report on how the pandemic has affected the collection and interpretation of the latest health & safety statistics, which can be found on: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/coronavirus/covid-19.pdf
However, data on how many workers were directly affected by the coronavirus illness is included (see number 2).
2. New and long-standing infectious disease (virus, bacteria) illnesses have more than tripled
After going up by 21% to 1.63 million in 19/20, new and long-standing illnesses have increased slightly to 1.66 million this year.
Significantly, infectious disease (virus, bacteria) illnesses more than tripled, from 30,000 cases in 19/20 to 93,000 cases this year. According to the HSE, the cases are all for COVID-19 which respondents believe may have been from exposure to coronavirus at work.
However, only 32,110 COVID-19 cases were reported to Enforcing Authorities in 2020/21 which employers believed may be caused by exposure to coronavirus at work.
Positively, whilst stress, depression or anxiety cases went up a worrying 37% in 19/20, this year they have decreased by around 2,000 cases; and in other positive news, work-related musculoskeletal disorder cases fell for a third consecutive year, decreasing by 23,000 cases to 470,000.
3. Workplace fatalities have returned above the 5-year average
After a record low of workplace fatalities last year (113), deaths have climbed to 142 – above the 16/17 to 20/21 5-year average of 136.
The most common cause of fatal injuries continues to be falls from height (35), followed by being struck by a moving vehicle (25) and being struck by a moving object (17), which altogether account for more than half of the fatalities.
4. Serious injuries have had their largest yearly decrease in 40 years:
Self-reported non-fatal injuries have reduced by an estimated 250,000 cases (36%), with slips, trips and falls accounting for 33% of these cases and manual handling accounting for 18%.
There was also a notable reduction in serious workplace injuries this year; with 51,211 employee non-fatal injuries reported by employers to RIDDOR – which is over 15,000 cases less than 2019/20.
This represents the largest yearly drop in RIDDOR-reported injuries since 1980.
5. HSE prosecutions are down more than 40%
After a significant drop in HSE (and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in Scotland) notices, prosecutions and fines in 2019/20, this year saw prosecutions fall by 36% and total fines fall by 23%.
The construction industry, which suffered the most prosecutions last year (42%), saw prosecutions more than halve this year; although it still remains the sector with the highest prosecutions (37%).
On the other hand, the manufacturing industry had the second most prosecutions (32%), but remains the sector with the highest fine total (£8 million) – half of its total fines in 19/20.
A total of 142 workers were killed at work in Great Britain in 2020/21, which is a 26% increase (29 deaths) from the previous year, newly released HSE figures show.
However, the number of fatalities has remained level in recent years – the average annual number of workers killed at work over the five years from 2016/17 to 2020/21 is 136, putting this year’s numbers slightly above average.
The most common cause of fatal injuries continues to be falls from height (35), followed by being struck by a moving vehicle (25) and being struck by a moving object (17), which all account for more than half of the fatalities.
One notable finding was the disproportionate risks to older workers; with around 30% (41) of fatal injuries involving workers aged 60+, even though they only make up around 11% of the workforce.
In another finding, 38% of worker fatal injuries were to self-employed workers even though they only make up 16% of workers. In comparison, the proportion of fatal injuries to self-employed workers is higher in 2020/21 than in the 5-year period from 2016/17 to 2020/21, where 31% of fatal injuries were to self-employed workers.
A more positive finding saw a 43% decrease in workplace fatal injuries to members of the public as a result of a work-related incident, with 60 fatalities in 2020/21 compared to 106 in 2019/20.
This site uses cookies. By continuing to use our website you show that you consent to our website’s use of cookies. Click here to view our Privacy Notice.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
