Health and Safety boost for Council

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council has reached a new high in health and safety standards.  

Earlier this year, the Council conducted a Royal Society of the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) audit on its Health and Safety policy and practice.  

This audit has now been officially verified, and RoSPA formally confirmed that the Council is operating at Level 4 - a major boost as the awards range from 0 to 5, with 5 being the highest.  

At the last audit two years ago at Southend was awarded a level 1.  

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council's Executive Councillor for Corporate Support Services, Councillor Andrew Moring said: "We have made terrific improvements.

"To move up by three places in two years is - as RoSPA advises - a significant achievement.  

"We are also told that very few authorities have been awarded Level 4 or 5 and that this result places us in the top quarter of all those audited.  

"Congratulations to everyone who has helped us to reach Level 4. Now we are aiming at Level 5. "

The verifying auditor reported: "The evidence provided during the audit clearly demonstrated the standard of the safety management achieved by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council during the past two years as improving, as noted by their employee survey results."  

These improvements were achieved by a series of measures such as:  

·         The establishment of a Strategic Health and Safety Group to drive improvement across all areas of the Council.

·         A clear action plan based on the findings of the first audit

·         A review and revision of all policies and the introduction of mandatory Health and Safety training for all line managers. The provision of professional Health and Safety Training, for designated H&S co-ordinators.

·         Benchmarking our performance against other authorities.

·         On successful completion of the Action Plan, RoSPA was again invited to undertake another audit - which has led to the award of the new level 4 status.