Responsibilities

Organisation Responsibilities

6.1     The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) states employers must reduce the risk of injury to staff and people using care services by:

• • avoiding those manual handling tasks that could result in injury, where reasonably practicable
  • assessing the risks from moving and handling that cannot be avoided
  • putting measures in place to reduce the risk, where reasonably practicable[1]

6.2     To ensure compliance with the HSE, the council will:

• • Conduct regular risk assessments: Identifying potential hazards and assess the risks associated with them. This is to help implementing appropriate control measures to mitigate risks
  • Provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Ensuring that all employees have access to necessary PPE and that it is provided at no cost to them
  • Maintain safe equipment: Regularly inspect and maintain equipment to ensure they are safe to use and keep documented records of these inspections
  • Implement emergency procedures: Develop and communicate clear procedures for emergency situations, such as fire evacuation and medical response
  • Provide training and information: Educating employees about their health and safety duties and provide ongoing training to ensure they are aware of best practices and any changes in regulations
  • Incident reporting process: (where for example the, equipment provision is hosted by one agency, the incident reporting process is communicated across all stakeholders to ensure lessons are learned)
  • Third-party providers: the interface and overlap with third party providers, where applicable is supported with clear strategic and operational procedures and documentation

Managerial Responsibilities

Heads of Service

6.3      Heads of Services (or any other job role which has the same level of responsibility) must ensure no-one is exposed to foreseeable risk of injury so far as is reasonably practicable.

6.4    They must also satisfy themselves that staff are competent, follow the principles of manual handling and do not operating in a way that is contrary to the way they have been trained.  

Line Managers

6.5      Line Managers must:

• • Disseminate the standards and procedures within this policy and ensure their implementation
  • Ensure staff are clear on their roles and responsibilities when an individual requires support with moving and handling. Including when a person has a personal budget and therefore are required to undertake a risk assessment of their workplace (i.e. home) and ensure that:
    • any employees are trained in moving and handling techniques
    • the requirements to have lifting equipment serviced under the Lifting Operation and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER) apply.  This includes personally funded and health or social care provided equipment (responsibility lies with the owner) However, the council may still provide guidance, resources, and support to help the person with care needs to understand their responsibilities and ensure a safe environment for both themselves and their care staff
  • Ensure suitable and sufficient risk assessments are carried out: completed for people accessing social care services using the principles at Appendix 1 and the additional guidance at Appendix 2 as appropriate
  • Maintain adequate staffing levels to enable safe working practices and minimise impact of repetitive handling tasks and those requiring prolonged static postures
  • Review employees ability to perform their duties safely and address any concerns or required adjustments
  • Arrange the delivery of regular moving and handling training and ensure accurate record keeping of attendance and any further work required including their staff’s understanding of the relevant legislations and moving and handling techniques
  • Ensure that equipment provided is suitable and sufficient and is maintained in accordance with relevant legislation (LOLER and PUWER)
  • Take appropriate action when moving and handling hazards, accidents or ‘near misses’ are reported
  • Seek guidance from the council’s Safety, Health & Environment (SHE) team when needed
  • Use risk assessment as a tool to support a balanced decision-making process to ensure one party’s benefit does not significantly increase the risk of the other party

Staff Responsibilities

6.6      Staff are responsible for:

• • Taking reasonable care for their own safety and that of others when carrying out moving and handling tasks
  • Attending appropriate Moving & Handling training relevant for their role, as identified on their training profile. Undertaking a Dynamic Risk Assessment of any moving and handling task, even where a written risk assessment is already in place
  • Using moving and handling equipment and techniques in accordance with training provided and written guidance as per the manufacturer’s instructions and guidance
  • Wearing appropriate clothing and footwear, i.e. not open toed sandals, that do not constrain movement/posture when moving and handling, and use the personal protective equipment (PPE) provided
  • Reporting to their line manager if they are unsure of any moving and handling procedure, or if they consider any task too difficult or likely to pose a risk of injury
  • Inform their line manager any reasons that may place them especially at risk such as:
    • Pregnancy
    • Disability which may affect their manual handling capability
    • Recent manual handling injury or history of back, knee or other health problems
  • Alerting their line manager/senior member of staff of the need for a review of the risk assessment, equipment or further training
  • Reporting all incidents or potential incidents arising from moving and handling, in line with their service specific incident reporting procedures
  • Reporting any musculoskeletal disorder/health conditions/pregnancy to their manager which may affect their work. The manager should seek advice on managing any risk, promptly
  • Undertaking pre-use checks prior to using equipment. If equipment is found to be at fault, report it, label and withdraw equipment from use
  •  When moving a person, communicate and seek their consent and talk through their actions to the individual before any moving or handling take place
  • Reading/reviewing any risk assessment and Moving & Handling plan every time they are involved with an individual’s moving and handling needs

6.7      Additionally, employees working in a supervisory role, including professional staff, i.e. Physiotherapist, Occupational Therapist, supervising Therapy assistant/Technician are responsible for ensuring staff have adequate skills, knowledge and personal physical capability to undertake the required task. 

6.8      Staff within the Adult Social Care Operations Team must also ensure that a person’s support plan is reflective of the needs of the person and shared with the care   
            providers and/or in-house services where appropriate.