EDITOR’S NOTE EDITOR’S NOTE Hello and welcome to the Tomorrow’s Health & Safety Yearbook 2020/2021.


In last year’s edition, I wrote about how the health and safety industry is always in a state of constant flux. It must evolve alongside an ever-changing working landscape and adapt to the new challenges that emerge. After a tumultuous 2020, never has this statement been more apt.


So frequent is the use of the phrase ‘the new normal’ these days, we seem to forget that there’s nothing ‘normal’ about it. The global COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything and the real issue for many businesses, indeed society as a whole, is we know little of when things will return to the way they once were. Over the next few months, the health and safety industry will take centre-stage as businesses try to adjust to an increasingly strange reality.


By now, those organisations choosing to bring back employees into the workplace have got their heads around the compliance issues concerning the control of COVID-19, and all the associated business continuity issues. The sheer scale of the task facing the health and safety industry is not to be underestimated. Every part of the workplace must be risk-assessed, with new measures previously not even on the agenda now having to be put in place to mitigate the potential of further outbreaks.


This goes far beyond ensuring two-metres social distancing and regular cleaning (although both remain vitally important), it intersects with every part of the workplace, from ensuring the resilience of the supply chain and installing as many touch-free devices as possible, to monitoring break-room usage and decommissioning desks in high-capacity areas. In many ways, the very culture of the organisation one works for has to change because more than ever before, employees will have to become more responsible for the health and wellbeing of others as well as themselves.


Elsewhere, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) released its annual figures for the number of work-related fatalities in 2019/20. The provisional data revealed that 111 workers were fatally injured at work between April 2019 and March 2020, the lowest year on record. Whilst the organisation was keen to stress that this fall was likely accentuated by the impact of the Coronavirus, there was still space to be encouraged by the improvements. A fuller assessment of work-related ill-health and injuries, drawing on a wider range of data sources, will be provided as part of the annual Health and Safety Statistics released on 4 November 2020.


To summarise, the challenges that lie ahead are undoubtedly numerous and the long-term effects of the pandemic remain to be seen, but whatever next year holds in store, Tomorrow’s Health & Safety will be the mast to guide you through the storms.


THE TEAM


Editorial Editor Sarah Robinson sarah@opusbm.co.uk


Editor Ryan Lloyd ryan@opusbm.co.uk


Advertising Account Manager Paul Turner paul@opusbm.co.uk


Sales Executive Storm Little storm@opusbm.co.uk


Production Production Director Hannah Wilkinson hannah@opusbm.co.uk


Designer Daniel Etheridge daniel@opusbm.co.uk


Designer Nigel Rice nigel@opusbm.co.uk


CEO Mark Hanson mark@opusbm.co.uk


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This publication is copyright Opus Business Media Limited and may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form in whole or in part without the prior written permission of Opus Business Media Limited. While every care has been taken during the preparation of this magazine, Opus Business Media Limited cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the information herein or for any consequence arising from it. The publisher does not necessarily agree with the views and opinions expressed by contributors.


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