Wendy Foers – Director of Human Resources and Organisation Development (Chair)

John Selby – Senior Safety & Risk Advisor

Peter McDermott – Safety & Risk Advisor

Richard Absalom – Staff Safety Officer

Kevin Aylward – Human Resources Corporate Manager

Michael Boyne – Head of Operational Support

Shreekant Buch – Fleet Manager – West Sector

John Hopson – Commander West

Karl Mullis – Commander CAC (deputising for Steve Sale)

John Comerford – PTS Regional Operations Manager – West Division

Patrick Billups – Assistant Head of Training Bromley

Ian Scott – Sector Representative – Central

John Vass – Sector Representative – South East

Barnie Daws – Fleet Health & Safety Representative Croydon

Pat Osliff – Sector Representative – North West

Ian Lee – Unison Health & Safety Officer

John Winnister – Sector Representative – South West

Ruby Bhelay-Haynes – Safety & Risk Administrator (Minute Taker)

Claire Thomas – Occupational Health Dept (KCH)

Pat Driscoll – Support Services Manager - CAC

Geoff Davidson – Support Services Officer Representative

Fred Phillips – Senior Representative – CAC

Steve Sale – Commander CAC

Martin Nelhams – Estates Manager

Dave Smith – Sector Representative – North East

Colin Jolly – Fleet Manager

The minutes of the meeting held on the 7^th May 2003 were agreed as a true record.

JS advised the group that a summary document of the "Back In Work Campaign" would be placed on ‘The Pulse’ for reference.

RA informed the group that the Staff Safety Group had approved the draft policy and procedures.

Pat Osliff had raised concerns with regard to good practice whereby staff did not receive support following attendance at a difficult incident.

RA stated that 2-day Personal Safety/Post Incident Reporting Training had been provided to most managers and that the assistance offered should improve as a result.

PO clarified that her comments related to any difficult incident rather than those involving violence. It was agreed that staff should be reminded of the Counselling services now provided by a further entry in the RIB.

RA advised that the next stage would be to forward the Policy/Procedures to the OMG for comment and approval.

RA tabled a draft ‘Lone Workers Policy’ and sought comments from the Group by the end of July.

JH advised that Commanders had undertaken to remind Station Officers of the need to forward RIDDOR Reports to the HSE and Safety & Risk Department.

JS advised that Health & Safety Bulletin no.58 (July 2002) had also been issued to clarify the reporting of RIDDOR incidents.

JS would continue to monitor RIDDOR incidents and would report back to the Group if necessary.

KM reported that the Metropolitan Police Service was still experiencing technical problems with their new system. It was not possible at this stage for the MPS to give a firm date as to when their system would be live. However, it had been confirmed that following changes, the MPS and LAS systems would be compatible.

PB advised that the original producer of "Amphisept" had been bought out. He had met with the new suppliers and had confirmed that the gel did take longer to evaporate than the liquid form. The production of the liquid form had been referred to their Chemist and a report was awaited. In the absence of the liquid form, No 1 fluid could be used but the gel was as effective although it took longer to evaporate.

PB would give a further update at the next meeting.

JH confirmed that the Commanders had made attempts to improve the release of vehicles and was unaware of any further problems.

JW stated that there was a lack of operational vehicles available for trainees.

MB advised that all attempts were made to provide enough vehicles at each location but agreed to look into the matter and report back at the next meeting.

JH advised that the Commanders had confirmed that local meetings with councils were attended and speed humps were opposed. He reported that Barnet Borough Council was seriously considering reducing the number of speed humps. Recent studies had also indicated that speed humps caused more deaths than they prevented and this might encourage all Councils to review their traffic calming measures.

JH would give a further update at the next meeting.

21.03 Staff Safety Update: (Minutes of Staff Safety Group Meeting of 18^th June issued with agenda)

MB referred to the issued minutes of the Mobile Phone User Group and advised that some staff had requested the facility to be able to phone their crew mate. MB advised that this would require "open dialing" and to-date a decision had not been made with regards to this. Various options would be costed.

RA advised that a Working Group had been established to consider any implications that the Data Protection Act might have in regard to the operation of the High Risk Address Register. Any changes would be reported.

RA advised that training had been delivered to the staff at stations originally identified as being in the highest risk areas for assaults. Reported assaults in those areas had reduced by 25%. It had been agreed that as all other areas had similar levels of assaults the training would no longer be confined to any specific area. The Resource Centres would, therefore, schedule staff attendance from any of the remaining stations.

RA referred to a proposal made to the Safety Group. He had suggested that the LAS adopt a code word that could be used to alert a colleague to a potentially dangerous situation. An example was given where a crewmember noticing a weapon on the patient being attended by his/her colleague could use an established code word to alert their colleague without alerting the patient. A suitable code word was being considered and once determined the proposal would be formally submitted to the Safety Group

JW referred to the issued Risk Register update where it stated that all staff had stab vests, when in fact he had been advised that several staff at Croydon were still waiting delivery of the vests.

MB advised that the managers of members of staff still waiting to be issued with garments should contact Gadge Nijjar, Operational Support Services Manager. As an interim measure, spare available stab vests in FRU vehicles could be used by staff.

JS referred to the issued update and asked the Group to note the following:

JS and KA had recently attended a review meeting with the HSE Inspector Mark Farrell, who had expressed his satisfaction with the progress of the Action Plan’s implementation.

The National Audit Office had requested that a representative from the LAS speak at their Conference in November to set out the LAS Programme as a ‘Best Practice’ model.

The existing manual handling element of the IHCD Technicians training course had been revised to reflect best practice and it was intended to train 60 Trainers to a recognised BTEC Manual Handling standard.

An Ergonomics and Back Care Advisor appointment had been offered.

Draft 4 of the revised Manual Handling Procedure was with the Manual Handling Sub Group for review and comment.

The Dyna Med Pro-Stair descending chair was to be evaluated by Sector Manual Handling Assessor’s.

Various lifting/transferring aids had been displayed at the last A&E VEWG meeting.

Representatives from PTS, Operational management, Operational training and A&E VEWG recently reviewed the Falcon Trolley Bed, version 6.

JH advised that no issues had been raised by Commanders.

KA advised that the Department of Health (DoH) collected data for violence and accidents from NHS Trusts to measure progress on the key strategic aims of "Working Together". Improving the quality of working life of staff required a reduction in incidents of violence and accidents at work.

For the year 2002/03 the LAS recorded 1656 cases of verbal abuse. Many of the incidents recorded swearing but without any detrimental effect and without further categorisation it was difficult to undertake any meaningful analysis.

It was proposed that in future, verbal abuse resulting in an injury or detrimental effect would be identified separately in statistics in order to establish if any trends exist. Findings would be reported to the Group.

All cases of verbal abuse would continue to be reported to the DoH.

RA reported that he had met with all Station Officers and Assistant Station Officers and trained them in Incident Grading and advised on investigations and other related issues. It would be necessary to repeat the exercise for Team Leaders and arrangements were in hand. The grading of incidents would be effective from 1^st July 2003.

In response to an enquiry RA confirmed that the time limit for an incident to be graded was 10 days (as for LA52 completion and submission), unless it was a serious untoward incident which requires more investigation.

JS advised that 17 sites had not submitted inspection reports for the quarter. It was stressed that such inspections were required under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations and provided an effective means of maintaining safe workplaces as well as complying with the regulations.

At the suggestion of JH, JS agreed to highlight to Commanders the guidance sheet that provides information as to where the reports should be forwarded and to e. mail the reports to Commanders for discussion at Sectors.

A summary of the current status of actions on the risk register had been issued with the agenda. Actions and updates were reflected in the general agenda items.

JS reported that since the last meeting a 2 day Safety and Risk Managers Awareness course (22^nd/23^rd May), the Incident Grading training and Induction Training had taken place.

KA reported that in the Financial Year 2002/03 there had been a total of 4,727 incidents reported on LA52’s.

Absence through Industrial Injury accounted for 1.3% of the average 7% sickness absence during 2002/03.

There had been a steady reduction in Industrial Injury absence from October 2002 which had a beneficial effect on Sickness absence.

KA presented a discussion paper that has been attached to these minutes for reference. It was agreed that the paper should form the basis of discussions at Sector level and that any findings from local discussions should be referred to KA or to the next meeting.

Gordon Ballard was no longer able to undertake the Coordinators role and a replacement had been sought. The Safety Representatives’ proposed Ian Lee, as the Coordinator and Ian Scott as the deputy.

IL queried as to whose responsibility it was to clean under the side of trolley bed plinths as in all probability it was unlikely to have ever been undertaken and the risk of infection increased over time.

PB advised that the responsibility was the crew staffs but the practicality of doing so was acknowledged as being difficult. Infection from the floor was regarded as low risk but a suitable method of disinfecting the area would be considered and reported at the next meeting.

BD undertook to remove a plinth to establish if debris etc. collected in the inaccessible area.

PO expressed concerns about the hygiene issue of using vehicle based safety helmets.

It was agreed that the issue of paper caps was an available option. JS agreed to raise this previously operated system with Christopher Vale – Acting Logistics Manager.

33.03.1 SCBU Vehicles

IS queried the height in the new SCBU vehicles. (BETS Vehicle – please see attached email document from Michael Boyne).

MB agreed to look into this matter and report back at the next meeting.

WF advised that the next meeting would take place on the 24^th September between 14.00-16.00 hours in the Conference Room, LAS HQ.

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