Feature
THE DUTY TO CARE
Why And How Health And Safety Professionals
And Facilities Managers Can Put Caring At The Forefront, And What Does Health And Safety Look Like In 2021 And Beyond?
By Malcolm Tullett, Health and Safety expert at Risk & Safety Plus
Health and Safety is all about the common law duty of care. The 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act states that all employers “shall ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all [their] employees”, and those ‘general duties’ are extended to non- employees affected by the activities. The devil is always in the details
and this wording has a great deal of scope for individual interpretation about what ‘what is reasonably practicable’ means!
I’m sure that like me, you will be able to cite examples of workers being treated poorly as well as callous individuals who are just too preoccupied with their own wellbeing to care. History has sadly shown that those with responsibility over others have repeatedly failed. In response to these failings, the courts have quite rightly imposed a duty of care on the caregivers to ensure that they provide the level of care required.
Everyone’s duty of care is different and might well be determined by how caring an individual is in all areas of their lives. Some, and thankfully this is a small minority, will still simply try to avoid their duty of care at any cost. It does not matter to them that they might be found out in court, let alone punished. Then there is a much larger group of people who see care as simply a matter of compliance. They will produce a form, usually based on a tick box list to either jog their memory or worse, to provide evidence that they have exercised their duty of care just in case something goes wrong.
Facilities managers, whether they are performing a hard or soft role will need to work closely and collaboratively with other health and safety management personnel. They will be an important conduit for passing on information to line managers and purchasing staff to ensure compliance and ensuring that facilities are still ‘fit for purpose’. There may be specific requirements for additional or refresher training for staff. Considering and coordinating this with the HR team should be a priority and making sure an organisation’s training matrix is up to scratch should be actioned and not stuck on the ‘to do’ list.
Now more than ever, facilities managers, in collaboration with health and safety professionals, may well find that their own duty of care credentials need to be evidenced and put centre stage with their own staff and clients. They will need to ensure their compliance teams and providers have the skill sets, flexibility and empathy to lead them into the new, different working arrangements. Individual staff needs and circumstances must be properly assessed and ‘care-fully’ addressed, as a one-size-fits- all time saving approach could prove very costly.
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