Training accident report

Report: 5
Date: 23 March 2009
By: Director of Human Resources on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

The SHRMT have identified funding for a study of the training accidents contained in two years of MetAir accident data. The aim is to identify causation factors to establish why training activities in the MPS account for a significant percentage of the major injuries reported each month. It is anticipated that this study will commence in March 2009.

An analysis of January 2007- December 2008 major accidents indicates:

• 19% of major accidents were attributed to training;
• 86% of these accidents involved police officers and 5% PCSOs;
• Officer Safety Training (OST) accounted for 50% of these training accidents.

A. Recommendation

That members note the report.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. In previous health and safety performance reports to the Corporate Governance Committee training accidents have accounted for 20 - 30% of major injuries. This issue was discussed by the MPS Strategic Health and Safety Committee which agreed the following action:

• to liaise with the Central Operations Officer Safety Training Unit (CO11) to quantify this issue in respect of Officer Safety Training (OST);
• to endorse the requirement for the Safety and Health Risk Management Team (SHRMT) to sponsor a review of training accidents recorded on MetAIR. This data is required in order to quantify understanding of the issues underlying these accidents; in particular, the number, type of training accident, type of training and causational factors. Such information would help the MPS to plan and prioritise its risk controls to reduce the incidence and impact of training-related accidents.

2. The Corporate Governance Committee is aware, from previous debate, that training related injuries are not captured under the MetAir system as a reporting category and as such the data relating to these injuries is contained within free text reporting fields and not readily available for extraction and analysis to identify causation factors. It is planned that this shortfall is addressed in a new accident reporting system under the Transforming HR project.

3. The SHRMT have identified funding for a study of the training accidents contained in the past two years of MetAir accident data. This study will commence in March 2009.

Training providers

4. Training is provided by 86 corporate and local (B)OCU/department training units. Figure 1 indicates the array of training provided.

Figure 1: Student training day for 2008/09 by Home Office Training Categories (available with appendix 1)

Risk assessments

5. The SHRMT has approached local (B)OCU, Department and Corporate training units to verify that appropriate risk assessments are in place for the training activity undertaken. Returns received indicate that local or corporate risk assessments are in place and the risk assessment process is captured as part of the MPA/MPS assurance process.

Study of major accidents

6. As an interim indicative guide for this committee, prior to undertaking the proposed MetAir study (Paragraph 2), MetAir major accident data for the period January 2007-December 2008 has been reviewed to quantify the number of training related accidents. This involved a manual review to ascertain both the overall number/type of training accident and any causational trends. This exercise involved reviewing the free text narrative fields for 382 major accidents. Results of this analysis indicated:

• 19% of major accidents were attributed to training;
• 86% of these accidents involved Police Officers and 5% PCSOs;
• Officer Safety Training (OST) accounted for 50% of these training accidents;
• public Order training accounted for 11% of these training accidents;
• bicycle and motorcycle training accounted for 5% of these training accidents;
• The overall injury profile for all the major training accidents was as follows:
  • fractured wrist/hands - 24%
  • fractured chest - 17%
  • fractured feet/ankles -9%

Officer safety training

7. A further review of OST training injuries indicates that approximately 32% of injuries were associated with physical contact whilst using pads and 19% occurred during practising arrest and restraint techniques.

8. Owing to the percentage of accidents associated as occurring during officer safety training the Officer Safety Training Unit has provided a supplementary paper on the role of the unit and OST. This paper is attached at Appendix 1.

Constraints

9. It must be emphasized that the above data analysis reflects this narrow cohort of major accidents only and an analysis of all the accidents categories is required to give an accurate reflection of the true nature and scale of training accidents. The Federation, Trades Unions and Superintendents Association have been consulted and expressed their support for the proposed work and MetAir study.

C. Race and equality impact

There are no immediate implications on equality and diversity arising from this report. The team will monitor all health and safety matters, including tAir statistics, to determine whether there is any disproportionate impact on any particular group, and, where there is, take appropriate action.

D. Financial implications

1. The cost of the proposed MetAir study has yet to be quantified but it is estimated it will be less than £40,000 and will be funded within existing DHR budgets.

2. Developing a new accident reporting system will be addressed as part of the Transforming HR project and costs contained within that budget.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Nick Kettle, Head of Safety and Health Risk Management and Nicholas Sutcliffe - CO11 Inspector Officer Safety Training Unit, MPS.

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback