Agenda item

Objective: To review health and safety activity that has been undertaken during the period, whether it was successful, and identify current tasks and challenges being faced.

The Health and Safety Officer addressed the committee and highlighted the following:

-       The report summarises the key health and safety related activity for quarter 4, which has included progress in policy development, training, system improvements and workplace safety.

-       The Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) policy was approved by Cabinet on the 14 April and has now been shared with housing colleagues, with training carried out. During the quarter water safety, asbestos, first aid, and ladder safety training has also been provided.

-       Operational improvements to the T100 safety management system have been made to better support building service colleagues to complete health and safety tasks and checklists.

-       Following some recent unacceptable customer behaviour incidents experienced in the Municipal Offices, including from customers visiting housing colleagues, the team have sought advice from the Gloucester crime prevention team who have undertaken a site inspection. They were able to provide several observations and offer some potential improvements, and the team are now delivering a programme of measures to enhance building safety for colleagues. This has included improved customer signage and the presence of a security guard in the Municipal Offices.

-       During quarter 4 there were no reportable RIDDOR (reporting of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences regulations) incidents. There were eight incident reports with some colleagues experiencing minor injuries, including three road traffic incidents and one fire incident. The highest number of incidents related to unacceptable customer behaviour which led to the actions taken above. Customer conflict training has also been provided to colleagues in frontline roles. For the whole year there were 55 reports of unacceptable customer behaviour.

-       Road traffic incident levels fluctuated during the year, and some proactive steps have been taken, including the delivery of the RoSPA driving training assessment course to two members of the building services team who are now competent to assess colleagues and support safety improvements.

-       A review of trends over the past four years (April 2022 – March 2026) has shown increases in minor injuries and road traffic incidents during 2025/26. There was also a notable rise in house fires compared to previous years. This has required measures including the introduction of an E-Bike Battery policy. This rise is in line with national trends of an increased use of lithium battery technology.

-       Incidents continue to be reviewed and monitored by the health and safety team and key themes will be reported through the housing compliance monitoring group. The health and safety team are now investigating reporting improvements.

-       Peter Adams has joined CBC as Director of Health, Safety and Operations and is currently working to define key priorities for the health and safety function to develop a structured program of work aimed at driving improvements in overall health and safety across the council.

The committee’s discussion raised the following points:

-       At this point it is difficult to tell whether the E-Bike Battery policy has been effective as it is still quite new but the team will continue to monitor the impact. Agreed that the number of fire incidents is concerning. The next issue of the Tenant Voice will include a feature on contents insurance to highlight its importance as unfortunately, despite peoples’ best efforts, fires do happen. It is also worth noting that not all fires are the result of lithium batteries. The most recent fire is still under investigation, but it may have been caused by rodents damaging wires.

-       Poor behaviour towards staff is not tolerated. Recently there have been incidents where the police have been involved and criminal charges have been brought. There are a range of different interventions available, for example, people are put on a contact restriction which may mean they are not allowed to visit offices or are only allowed to contact a named individual. The rising trend of incidents is concerning but the council always respond to them robustly.