Hello and welcome to the sixth issue of the Ryder Partnership Ltd

fortnightly newsletter The Alchemist, in which we will keep you up to date on all the latest developments
in the world of health and safety.

This issue focuses on –

Fire Safety –

(Housing Association pleads ‘not guilty’)

(The increasing skills gap in fire risk assessors)

The Green Agenda.

FIRE SAFETY.

“Your Housing Group” was one of six organisations that appeared at Warrington Magistrates Court this week, charged with fire safety offences.

Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service announced a series of charges under fire safety legislation in July, which relate to its investigation of the fire that destroyed the Beechmere retirement village in Crewe in August 2019.

“Your Housing”, Avantage (Cheshire) and Morgan Sindall Property Services all pleaded

“not guilty”

at the short court hearing.

“Your Housing”, which was the ‘responsible person’ for fire safety at the development, faces 16 charges under the

Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005.

These include a failure to take measures to prevent the spread of fire in the premises, a failure to ensure it was possible for people to evacuate the premises as quickly and as safely as possible, and a failure to ensure employees were provided with adequate safety training.

Avantage (Cheshire) procured the design and build process and operated the scheme.

Morgan Sindall Property Services was contracted to provide repairs and maintenance.

The fire service has also charged three other firms, which each gave no indication of a plea at the magistrates court this week.

These were –  WSP UK, a consultancy that provided a fire strategy for the building;

Total Fire Group, which risk assessed Beechmere in 2017 and 2018;

and Mac Roofing and Contracting, which carried out roofing works in the days immediately before the blaze.

All six companies will now appear at Chester Crown Court where the case will continue on 14 November.

The magistrate warned that the “complexities” of the case means that the trial could last up to 12 weeks.

Beechmere was a large retirement village, built using a timber-frame structure, which was almost completely destroyed in the fire.

More than 150 residents lost their homes and possessions. While none were injured, the fire service said the impact on their lives “has been significant”.

The development was a purpose built housing scheme for people over 55, consisting of a block of 132 self-contained apartments. All the homes were designed for independent living with support, and varying levels of care if required.

The fire was one of the biggest ever attended by Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service, with 70 firefighters deployed at its height to bring it under control.

When it announced the charges in July, the fire service said:

“This has been a long and complex process owing to the scale of the fire and the number of parties involved in designing, building, maintaining and managing the building.”

Following the hearing this week, a spokesperson for “Your Housing Group” said:

“The safety and well-being of customers will always be our absolute priority at

Your Housing and Avantage.

“Since 2019, we have continued to do all we can to support customers, families and colleagues who were affected by the fire at the PFI [private finance initiative] development at Beechmere. We have also financed and carried out fire safety works, in close liaison with CFRS [Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service], at other developments built as part of the same PFI project.

“Both Your Housing and Avantage have today entered pleas of not guilty to all charges. Given the ongoing legal proceedings, neither company is able to comment further at this time.”

MIND THE GAP.

Complexity versus competence.

Andrea White, Fire Engineer and Managing Director of AW Fire, told delegates that the gap between building complexity and competence in fire safety was increasing at IOSH’s Fire Risk Management Conference in September.

She looked back at the post-war building phase and described a 1967 residential block of flats made with concrete floors and concrete on the outside, saying:

“Concrete is non-combustible, if there was a fire it would be confined to that flat… it would have no opportunity to climb up the external walls”.

Highlighting what has changed regarding buildings built 50 years ago and today, she stated that:

“We’re building with different materials, incorporating more combustible materials and we’re requiring higher levels of insulation. We have less robust building materials, which are more combustible. Historically we didn’t need to think so deeply about fire spread within, across and between buildings because we were building with non-combustible materials.”

White went on to mention that buildings are now built to functional requirements rather than prescription – a change, she said, which has allowed greater flexibility for architects to design buildings and spaces.

However, she queried whether the fire safety industry has adapted quickly enough to this development.

Keeping up with increasingly complex guidance – an impossible task?

The transition to more flexible building requirements has also meant that guidance has changed. What used to be one document of around 50 pages, is now a multitude of  documents, many of them comprising hundreds of pages each.  Guidance has become more subjective and more challenging to interpret:

“Now there’s judgement involved in fire safety design instead of just following a prescription…keeping up with this information could end up being a full-time job.”

She questioned whether it is reasonable to expect one fire safety professional to be aware of and always on top of this amount of guidance.

Is the quality of training diminishing?

White told delegates that she had witnessed during her career a focus shift from exam-based qualifications to attendance-based certificates. As a result, she has seen a gradual decline in competence from those who are deemed qualified.

She then questioned the quality of teaching, asking delegates:

“Are we giving students access to knowledgeable tutors who have a good grasp of that subject? I would say to you ‘sometimes’; but often, through my experience… those teaching the subjects are only qualified to the level of training they are giving and not sufficiently beyond that level to be able to answer students’ questions.”

Industry competence, she suggested, has ended up as an ‘incomplete puzzle’, where fire professionals use LinkedIn posts or conferences to try to fill gaps in their knowledge and stay on top of the latest requirements.

She concluded by questioning who decides what topics should be covered in training courses and whether content is compared or mapped to existing competency frameworks or skills required in particular roles.

“Are we operating within our competencies?”

To summarise, White concluded that the increased complexity of buildings, coupled with lower quality training and competence within the industry, has, in her opinion, created a fire safety gap:

“The requirements to demonstrate competence have now decreased whilst building complexity has increased, and that leaves a gap.”

She urged delegates who undertake fire safety to carefully consider the limits of their own competence.  She asked delegates who oversee fire safety professionals to carry out due diligence of individuals executing fire safety work, and to make sure they understand the extent of knowledge demonstrated by those with particular certificates, qualifications, post nominals or professional registrations.

AND A PROSECUTION FOR A QUITE AVOIDABLE ACCIDENT….

The director of a dog food company has been given a suspended prison sentence after a teenage boy severed and lost his finger on his first day working at the firm.

The new starter, who was 16 at the time, had been hired by Finer By Nature after leaving school and began working there on 15 July 2020.

Kidderminster Magistrates Court heard that the middle finger on the teen’s right hand was sliced off while assisting another worker operating a food processing machine, used to package dog food, at the company’s site at Whitestone Business Park in Hereford.

Despite there being an interlock guard on the machine, the young worker, who is now 19, was instructed to stand on a step ladder and put his hands into the hopper bowl to scrape meat into the base where there were dangerous moving parts of the machine.

This led to his middle finger being severed by the machine. He had two operations to close off the wound following the incident and stayed in hospital for six days in total.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found Finer By Nature had failed to make suitable and sufficient assessments of the risks involved with this type of work and that Gary Pitchford, the director at Finer By Nature, had neglected to manage the safety of employees using the food processing machine.

Finer By Nature pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 3(1) and 3(4) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and Regulation 11(1) Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998.

The company was fined £34,000 and ordered to pay £4,564.15 in costs at Kidderminster Magistrates’ Court on 5 October 2023.

Company Director Gary Pitchford, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 37 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. He was sentenced to a six-month custodial sentence for each of the three offences to run concurrently, suspended for 12 months and 180 hours of unpaid work.

HSE Inspector Sara Lumley, said:

“This incident occurred on the first day of this young person’s work. The machine was adequately guarded, and correct use of the guard would easily have been prevented this incident. The risks should have been identified before the machine was used. Employers should make sure they properly assess and apply effective control measures to minimise the risk from dangerous parts of machinery.

The sentence handed out should act as a reminder to all employers that they will be punished if they don’t protect their workers.”

YOU HAVE TO LOOK AFTER THE YOUNG ONES…

Construction firm fined after serious injury to work experience teenager.

The 16-year-old boy suffered the injuries after becoming trapped under a tractor.

The teenager was on work experience and was driving a tractor down an incline when it came off the track and overturned.

He was alone and the tractor did not have a seat belt fitted.

HSE’s investigation found the company had failed to adequately protect the boy through:

• a lack of supervision

• not providing adequate information, instruction and training for him.

The company was ordered to pay a fine of £50,000.

THE GREEN AGENDA

Recyclable hi-vis clothing has been developed – made from recycled materials and able to be recycled after use.

Images from Arco’s responsible hi-vis range.

New t-shirts, short sleeve and long sleeve polo shirts, waistcoats, sweatshirts, fleeces, softshell and overcoats have been created for health and safety professionals.

They have been developed by safety company Arco and designed in collaboration with polyester recycling start-up Stuff4Life.

A spokesperson for ARCO said “Using a complete circular approach, the range can offer assurance to customers with proven sustainable credentials whilst remaining excellent quality and competitively priced.”

Clothes can be recycled and ‘transformed’

If you have any questions relating to the topics covered in this issue of the newsletter, then please get in touch.

The garments in the responsible hi-vis range have been designed to –

last longer,

be used in all weathers and temperatures,

made from certified recycled and responsibly sourced materials,

and conform to the relevant hi-vis safety standards.

All additional parts, including poppers, toggles, zips, ribs, cuffs, neckbands and collars, are made from recycled polyester too.

The range includes interactive outdoor clothing and garments with UV protection, wicking properties and other practical features – they have been tested to retain integrity, dimensional stability, UV protection and colourfastness to above the average number of washes.

Once the clothing comes to the end of its life it can be recycled and transformed back into new polyester yarn for garment production over and over again.

WHY IS THIS MAN SO IMPORTANT IN THE HISTORY OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY ?

Email the answers to larry@ryderpartnership.co.uk

And FINALLY…

COSHH Risk Assessment Training – Wednesday 15th November 2023; Telford

Mental Health First Aid, Level 2 – Thursday 16th November 2023; Telford

Manual Handling ‘Train the Trainer’ – Wednesday 22nd November 2023; Telford

Safe & Legal Update 2023 – Friday 15th December 2023; Telford

For more information on our training courses, please contact Rebeckah on reb@ryderpartnership.co.uk or call 07956734831.

Thank you for taking time to read the Newsletter. The next edition will be out in late November.

Until then keep healthy and safe!

NEWSFLASHES

Please note that we also issue regular newsflashes on whatever we think may be of interest. If you do not wish to receive them, then please contact Jae on

marketing@ryderpartnership.com