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.
As this week marks a month of national lockdown – Britain’s third since 23 March last year, there remains uncertainty about a timeline for the lifting of restrictions.
The government has not yet made any clear indications for industries classed as ‘non-essential’ in the private sector about re-opening dates. However, schools have received more clarity, with the youngest pupils in Scotland set to return to classes full-time from 22 February and England hoping to bring back pupils from 8 March.
Whilst schools have not been completely shut to all pupils during the on-going pandemic; just like in September last year, re-opening will carry several health & safety challenges as temporarily abandoned facilities and buildings will need to be assessed for safety before being re-utilised to accommodate the increase of staff and pupil numbers.
Professional Services Availability: Site Visits
Per Government guidelines, our team continue to work remotely and remaining accessible by telephone, Zoom, MS Teams and email. However, our risk assessors are available for site visits nationwide to ensure that risk assessments remain up-to-date even while businesses and institutions remain temporarily closed.
We are still taking bookings for the following professional services:
Regarding a COVID-19 Risk Assessment, the HSE state that:
“As an employer, you must protect people from harm. This includes taking reasonable steps to protect your workers and others from coronavirus. This is called a COVID-19 risk assessment and it’ll help you manage risk and protect people.”
We released the following resources last summer, which can all be accessed through Smartlog:
If you wish to access any of these resources, or for more information, fill in our contact form, get in touch with our customer services team on 01908 320152 or send us an email to: customerservices@safesmart.co.uk with your request.
The Safesmart team would like to wish all our customers and their families a very Merry Christmas. After a difficult and challenging 2020, we hope that you all enjoy a happy new year.
For the Christmas holiday period, our office operating hours will be as following:
The HSE have released the annual health and safety figures for the year 2019/2020, and here are the 5 key takeaways.
Please note that this report falls largely outside the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public life (the first nationwide lockdown began 23rd March). Therefore findings should not be mainly attributed as to being the results of the pandemic.
1. Worker stress, depression or anxiety cases are up 37% from last year:
The cases for new and long-standing illnesses last year totalled 1.35 million, and this year’s figure is up a significant 21% to 1.63 million.
However, the most significant news: stress, depression or anxiety cases have gone up by a worrying 37% and are now the primary illness type (51%) of all new and long-standing illness cases (they made up 45% of cases last year). Stress, depression or anxiety are also responsible for an estimated 17.9 million working days lost this year – a massive increase of 40% from last year.
Overall, working days lost due to illness have gone up by 9 million (a 39% increase) from last year to 32.5 million – the highest number since 2001/02.
However, the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal disorder cases (480,000) fell by around 18,000 cases compared to 18/19, although new incidents were 14,000 more than last year.
2. Infectious disease cases had not increased by the end of March:
In the latest Labour Force Survey, work-related infectious disease (virus, bacteria) incidents remain unchanged from last year at around 24,000 cases, below the 2017 to 2019 3-year average of just over 30,000 cases. It must be noted again that the survey only relates to ill-health cases during the 12-month period before March this year.
However with the first COVID-19 case in the UK confirmed on 31 January, this is a notable finding.
3. Workplace fatalities reached a record low:
There were 111 worker (or employees/self-employed) fatalities in 19/20 – the lowest figure ever reported by RIDDOR since records began in 1974. The rate of fatal injuries also fell to a record low of 0.34 per 100,000 workers.
Whilst falls from height remain the biggest cause of death to workers (26%), the overall fall in fatalities continues an ongoing positive downward trend.
4. There are less serious injuries occurring at work, but more people are getting injured:
This year there were 4,937 less non-fatal injuries than last year for the lowest recorded figure from RIDDOR since 1985. Slips, trips or falls remain the biggest cause of RIDDOR reported injuries (29%).
However, this contrasts with Labour Force Survey statistics reporting 112,000 more non-fatal workplace injuries than last year, reaching the highest figure since 2010/11 with an estimated 693,000 cases this year.
Additionally, an estimated 6.3 million days were lost due to workplace injury – an increase of 1.6 million (34%) from last year.
This means that an estimated 38.8 million working days this year were lost due to work-related ill-health and non-fatal injuries; of which, at 10.6 million days more than 2018/19 is the largest single-year change on record.
5. HSE notices, prosecutions and fines fell significantly this year
2019/20 saw a 21% fall in notices issued by enforcing bodies, a 13% & 12% drop in prosecutions & convictions respectively by the HSE (and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in Scotland), and a 34% drop in fines.
The construction industry remained the sector with the most convictions (42% of all convictions), but manufacturing organisations were responsible for 45% of all fines received (£16 million) whilst only responsible for 27% of convictions.
We are pleased to announce that Safesmart has become a G-Cloud 12 supplier, supplying the health & safety compliance management cloud-hosted software Smartlog® to the public sector through the UK Government’s framework.
The G-Cloud initiative, which began in 2012, was set up to ease the procurement process of cloud-affiliated technological services by public sector bodies — which includes central government, local government and emergency services departments.
The G-Cloud framework is operated by the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), and Smartlog is now listed and supplied on the Digital Marketplace under the ‘Cloud software’ category: “Applications that are accessed over the internet and hosted in the cloud.“
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