Health and safety

Report: 9
Date: 10 January 2002
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report provides an update on issues in respect of Health and Safety within the MPS and the response to the Improvement Notices issued by the Health and Safety Executive. It also provides an update on issues raised at the HR meeting held on 17 May 2001 relating to officer fitness and outlines the impact of Operation Calm on Health and Safety.

A. Recommendations

That

1. Members note the content of this report; and
2. a further report on fitness testing will be submitted for consideration by the Human Resources Committee in spring.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. At the Human Resources (HR) Committee on 17 May 2001, the MPS presented a paper on health and safety developments following the death of PC Sidhu (paper HR/01/38). This provided the background to the six Improvement Notices that were subsequently served on the MPS by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) on 1 June 2001.

2. When the paper was presented, members requested an update in six months, which should also include current thinking in the MPS on officer fitness.

Progress in respect of improvement notices

3. The MPS has complied with the requirement to submit responses to the HSE in respect of the Improvement Notices and the responses have met the requirements of those Notices. Appendix 1 provides a summary of each of the Improvement Notices, together with progress to date.

4. No further information relating to any further action has been received from the HSE since 13 June 2001.

5. The training programme for some boroughs next year is already heavily committed, particularly those who began Community and Race Relations (CRR) training in December 2001 or are due to begin in May 2002. The Competency Framework training is also due to roll out during the year. Combined with the requirement to meet the improvement notice training, this effectively leaves some boroughs with no spare training capacity. Commander Loughborough is addressing guidance regarding the training priorities for 2002/03.

6. The Health & Safety Strategic Committee recommended that the training should cover CID officers and operational civil staff. This can be met through boroughs using their trainers to deliver to this group. Finance and Resource Managers and Personnel Managers require specific training packages to be developed to meet their particular roles and responsibilities. This aspect falls outside the improvement notice requirements. The development of such courses and their training will be investigated and costed. Any financial implications will fall to an application for the 2003/04 financial year.

Progress on the Internal Audit recommendations

7. Internal Audit carried out an audit on health and safety management within the MPS and its findings were published at around the same time as the Improvement Notices. The recommendations largely mirrored those areas for improvement highlighted in the HSE Improvement Notices.

8. The audit focused on management systems. Visits to borough Senior Management Teams (SMTs) and the 2-3 hour inputs based on the HSE "Successful Health and Safety Management" HSG65 are key to the future corporate development of health and safety. 29 out of the 33 boroughs have been completed by the target date of 31 December 2001. The remainder will be completed by end of January 2002.

9. This approach will be extended to departmental SMTs and is due for completion by 30 June 2002. The first such visit was carried out on 10 December 2001.

10. To reinforce this corporate approach, Health and Safety Branch will additionally brief the senior manager leading the inspection process of boroughs and departments about key health and safety issues.

11. The Home Office is leading the work in respect of developing a national OH strategy. They have convened a working group that first meet on 6 December 2001. The MPS is represented, as are ACPO, the APA, HMIC, Staff Associations, Trade Unions, HSE and practitioner groups.

Issues raised at the HR meeting 17 May 2001 relating to officer fitness

12. The MPS uses the job related fitness test (JRFT) to assess the levels of fitness of candidates for entry to the Service, and for entry standards to specialist branches. The test was devised by Loughborough University Department of Physical Education who were engaged to research the nature and extent of the physical demands on police officers. They reported in 1995 and the JRFT was adopted by the MPS in October 1995.

13. More recently, the Home Office has adopted the JRFT as the national standard for all 43 Forces in England and Wales. This followed a comprehensive review of the test involving Loughborough University, EOC, MPS Federation and MPS Consultancy Group who consulted a large representative group of officers via focus groups and questionnaires. Details of the JRFT and the testing process is set out at Appendix 2 and Appendix 3 gives a breakdown of those individuals tested during the year ending October 2001.

14. Fitness testing beyond training school only currently exists for entry into Specialist Units, e.g. Firearms and Territorial Support Groups (TSG). In respect of firearms officers there is also a requirement to pass the test on an annual basis to continue within the unit. These tests require a high level of fitness.

15. The continuation of fitness testing after Training School and outside of specialist units has been the subject of significant internal debate. Issues such as time off to train, additional staff and facility costs, the relationship with recuperative and restricted duties policies and sanctions for failure require careful consideration. As such, it is proposed that a more detailed report on this topic be submitted to a future meeting of the Human Resources Committee.

Operation Calm – Health & Safety Monitoring

16. At the last HR Committee on 1 November 2001, the MPS were asked to look at the impact of Operation Calm on the health and safety of staff. The Health and Safety Branch have analysed reported incidents for October 2001 concentrating on accidents or incidents involving officers returning home from work, particularly road traffic accidents where no other vehicle was involved. No pattern or adverse trend has emerged but monitoring will continue.

17. Other issues have been identified, such as evidence of ad hoc and unacceptable sleeping arrangements. Borough management teams are now aware of this problem and are trying to ensure that officers share the additional burden in an equitable manner. Other options, such as the provision of accommodation at hotels or the allocation of space for sleeping within operational buildings are also being considered.

C. Financial implications

The training costs associated with meeting the legal requirements of the improvement notices, as outlined above, have been included in the approved growth bid of £190,000 for 2002/03, as approved by the full Authority on 10 December 2001.

D. Background papers

None.

E. Contact details

Report author: Michael Shurety, MPS.

For information contact:

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

Appendix 1: Progress on the actions required to meet the improvement notices

Improvement notice

1. Improvement Notice 2360
Uniformed officers have not had sufficient training. To ensure they can respond to hazards and risks. 

Progress so far

An external training provider (AMT International) has been selected through the formal tendering process. The first of 10 training sessions for training the trainers in order to deliver the PC – Inspector package took place 10 to 14 December 2001. Following this training, trainers will commence delivery to the officers.

Improvement notice

2. Improvement Notice 2361
Senior officers (Chief Insp - Chief Supt) need to be competent to ensure they understand the consequences of their directions and decisions. 

Progress so far

The first session for the Safety Leadership (chief inspector – chief superintendent) package will take place 21 - 25 January 2002. This was originally intended for November 2001, however significant alteration was required to the package. It is our intention to have delivered training to a significant percentage of uniformed officers from PC to Chief Superintendent by 31 December 2002.

Improvement notice

3. Improvement Notice 2362 
There is no, or there is insufficient record of the arrangements for effective planning, organisation and control of health and safety. 

Progress so far

Action to progress this is as outlined within para 8. The intention is to have in place a corporate system, which implements the MPS Health and Safety Policy.

Improvement notice

4. Improvement Notice 2363 
There is no, or there is an insufficient arrangements for the effective control of officers at incidents. 

Progress so far

A training package "Supervising Safely" will be developed with AMT and delivered through trainers having been trained by AMT.

Improvement notice

5. Improvement Notice 2364 
There is no, or there is an insufficient record for effective monitoring of health and safety. 

Progress so far

The SMT briefing covers proactive and reactive monitoring as required within the HSE model. Additional monitoring will be carried out by Health and Safety Branch plus that outlined within para 10.

Improvement notice

6. Improvement Notice 2365 
There is no system, or the system is inadequate to analyse accident data, or to ensure accidents are investigated to prevent reoccurrence. 

Progress so far

This notices identifies the need for an IT system to gather accident and incident data. PRISM is unable to meet these needs.

Health and Safety Branch have scoped potential providers to meet this requirement and have identified a suitable system. Directorate of Information is currently examining the viability of this system. A business case will be formulated in due course to request funding if appropriate. Investigation of accidents forms part of the Supervising Safely package of training.

Appendix 2: The Job Related Fitness Test (JRFT)

The JRFT comprises four elements, which test different aspects of physical fitness; the table below indicates what each aspect of the test represents and the standard of fitness required by recruits.

Fitness testing process

Candidates for police service with the MPS are tested during the recruitment process and during their training at Hendon, the JRFT is undertaken at week 3 and again at week 9 for failures. Second failures are given a third test, following appropriate, specific training advice from OH physical training instructors. A third failure will lead to Regulation 15 action in accordance with Home Office requirements.

Appendix 3: Fitness test results - 01/11/2000 - 31/10/2001

A total of 5881 individuals were tested in the MPS during this period, broken down as follows:

Candidates

Recruits

Dog Handlers

Officer Safety Instructors

Firearms Officers

Territorial Support Group

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