COVER STORY
IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, IS IT? Caught in a manual handling minefield? Refresh your own knowledge before training your colleagues with a course from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).
LIFTING THINGS
Manual handling – it sounds simple. Pick something up, move it, put it down again. What could possibly go wrong?
The answer, unfortunately, is “plenty”. According to recent HSE statistics, manual handling errors are responsible for over one third of all workplace injuries. In other words, over one million people a year in the UK are affected, costing society somewhere in the region of £5.7 billion – enough to pay for the UK’s entire Accident & Emergency service more than five times over.
Of course, as anyone unfortunate enough to have suffered a manual handling injury knows, the real cost of a Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD) can be far worse than lost time or money. MSDs can affect joints, tendons and muscles, causing damage to many areas of the body such as arms, legs, backs and shoulders.
A bad back, for example, can be agonising and – in the worst cases –
16
result in a lifetime of suffering and frustration, as Frances Richardson, RoSPA’s director of operations, explained: “Manual handling is responsible for more than a third of all workplace injuries, many of which can have painful and long-lasting consequences for victims and huge costs for employers. This is why RoSPA places such importance on the prevention of these injuries.”
Fortunately, there are strict manual handling regulations in place to help protect employees from harm. The Manual Handling Operations Regulations (MHOR1992) define manual handling as “any transporting or supporting of a load (including the lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving thereof) by hand or bodily force.”
These regulations demonstrate a hierarchy of measures that will help you manage your manual handling risks.
The ranking system for this hierarchy is listed below:
• First – You must avoid harmful manual handling operations, so far as it is reasonably practicable
• Second – Assess the manual handling operations that cannot be avoided
• Third – Reduce the risk of injury so far as it is reasonably practicable
With this critical issue in mind, RoSPA has developed a Manual Handling Trainers course with BTEC Level 3 accreditation. This accreditation means the course comes with a recognised qualification equivalent to A-level standard.
RoSPA is one of the longest-serving providers of manual handling courses in the UK and this course is for those who train others in manual handling. Not only does it cover the lifting of routine loads, awkward loads and team handling as well as the pushing and pulling of loads, it also aims to help organisations reduce the incidence of
www.tomorrowshs.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56