Report - Fire Brigades Union

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SECTION J — HEALTH & SAFETY These comments are made without prejudice to the union making further submission to the CTSA on any issues of further concern at a date in the future. Yours sincerely John McGhee National Officer Health, Safety and Welfare On 5 October a delegation from the FBU met with officials of the French firefighters’ union SNSPP which represents French firefighters working in the tunnel. The meeting discussed contractual and safety arrangements affecting members working in the tunnel. A joint FBU/SNSPP statement was agreed and published. Further meetings are planned for 2011. J17 Confidential stress helpline The union continues to offer members access to the confidential stress helpline (0800 783 4778). The service is provided by an independent company which maintains complete confidentiality on behalf of those who use the service. J18 The Fire Service College As we are all aware, the HSE has been proactive in inspecting FRSs and its reports are out in the public domain. It has also been proactive in inspecting the Fire Service College (FSC) at Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire. The FSC has been proactive in moving forward with recommendations from the HSE. This can only be beneficial to our members who use and work at the college. J19 Practitioners’ Forum – reporting of firefighter injuries and fatalities task and finish group As a result of the In the line of duty report and the lobby of parliament, and a paper submitted to the Practitioners’ Forum by the FBU, the reporting of firefighter injuries and fatalities task and finish group was set up. The first meeting of this group took place on Tuesday 16 February 2010 at Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service headquarters. The group was chaired by deputy chief fire officer Andrew Beale, Nottinghamshire FRS, on behalf of the Practitioners’ Forum. The attendees included a number of representatives from CFOA regions, HSE, CLG (statistics officer), FOA, CFRAU, SW Ambulance NHS Trust, Northern Ireland FRS and the Scottish government. The group discussed the issues as laid out in the agenda. The focus for most participants was information required under RIDDOR. On behalf of the union it was argued that this was an opportunity for the FRS to outline what the necessary information to gather was, in order to inform future policy and guidance. Discussion around the recording of off-duty death was causing difficulty as were deaths such as heart attacks on duty. Agreement was reached that the recommendations from the group should include the need for the FRS to review its guidance in light of any significant issues being identified through the analysis of data received. The group agreed to take the definitions for “on-duty” contained in the FBU report, In the line of duty, and adapt them for this piece of work. Clarification is being sought from CLG on what currently happens to data collected. Further meetings took place in March and April. In June 2010 a final report was agreed by the task and finish group and was sent to the FRS health and safety group for action. This report was agreed by the FRS group in September and was due to go to the Practitioners Forum meeting in October but was not raised. A total of nine recommendations were made in this paper which go someway towards satisfying the union’s aims following the report into firefighter fatalities. This is an issue we will need to raise with the minister if the Practitioners’ Forum is dissolved. Recommendations made by the FRS's safety statistics group (formerly the Reporting of firefighter and fatalities task and finish group) report That the Practitioners’ Forum take the line-by-line recommendation contained in this report to the minister. In addition, that CFOA champion the recommendations made by this group and approach CLG with a view to implementing these recommendations to ensure that the data will prove more useful for comparative and trend analysis. It is recommended that: 1. The data capture form is used by FRSs There is an example of good practice developing with the CFOA National H&S Committee Key Performance 162 FBU Annual Report 2011
SECTION J — HEALTH & SAFETY Indicators and RIDDOR reporting where detailed analysis is occurring within and across FRSs. This includes regional comparisons, service comparisons and detailed mining of data when discrepancies or trends have been discovered. A spreadsheet has been produced by the group to ensure all relevant information is captured by each FRS for onward transmission to CLG. It is imperative that CLG take on board the information provided on the spreadsheet because their data will then prove more useful for comparative and trend-analysis purposes. (To ensure complete data is entered appropriately, the spreadsheet will not allow progression if fields are left blank but does require further refinement). It is important that the supporting narrative in the Excel spreadsheet, as piloted by the South West region, is adopted as it allows dialogue between services and fuller analysis of each line. Adoption of this line-by-line annual return will allow CFRAU and CLG to identify trends and suggest areas that FRSs should pay specific attention to. (This is in line with their current practice). The Excel spreadsheet is not in its final format and merely indicates the data that this group recommends is collated. The final format would need to be developed around ‘and/or’ gates in relation to completion of the form. The analysis and correlation of submitted data is the key to the design of this particular form. The form would need to be developed around the headings of: who is the injured person, what role were they undertaking, where they were doing it and whether they were deemed competent or not to do it. 2. Volunteers are classed as “non-employees” Non-operational volunteers, such as Prince’s Trust attendees, should not be classed as employees for reporting purposes. Instead they should be classed as “members of the public”. 3. FRSs record retained duty system (RDS) personnel responding to a call as “on-duty” This group recognises that the recording of RDS responding to a call is different across the FRSs, CLG and HSE. For statistical collation however, it is recommended that all services submit to CLG accidents from the point of pager actuation. 4. The chemical type be recorded to allow for analysis and trend identification to occur Currently there is no national collation of hazardous substance exposures. However, information is collected by the HSE who have a RIDDOR category for this with numbers but not the finer detail e.g. chemical type. Currently this is an area which has not adequately evolved and this group would recommend further research is undertaken – possibly with the Occupational Health sub-group of CFOA under the HR lead and/or CFRAU and/or CLG. The form recommended here would not be the right place to record hazardous substance exposures which do not result in an immediate identifiable injury. 5. Employees classed as being “on-duty” or “off-duty” in relation to (a) sporting events and (b)assisting at operational duties as a passer-by. a) Confusion appears to be common when an employee is injured whilst representing their service at a sporting event (the cases of representing FRSs at sporting events is deemed to be with full managerial approval). The question is, are they on-duty or off-duty at the point of injury? This group recommends that, if the person has written permission to represent their service, they be considered as on-duty. b) Cases of accidents/injuries by firefighters involved at operational incidents whilst off-duty should not be recorded on this form because their involvement is as a member of the public and not in an on-duty capacity because invariably they would not have their PPE with them for instance. 6. Absence statistics are reviewed by a separate task and finish group undertaking this work This group believes there is inadequate information gathered as to the reasons why people are absent from work. In particular issues with staff that have had a heart attack or a stroke at work – or not at work (which may be recorded as a direct result of work activity but not recorded under accident at work procedures). The recommendation is that the separate CFRA work stream look at how to record details of non-accident fatalities of fire and rescue service employees. 7. A pilot and review of the form and the process be undertaken in a number of differing FRSs to include – a metropolitan service, a county council service and a combined fire authority service If the recommendations here are accepted then a pilot and review is required in order to eliminate any double-reporting or statistical detail contradictions/ anomalies. 8. CLG adopt the new FRS safety statistics data collection form This group requests CFOA to champion the new safety statistics data collection form so it can be adopted by the Research and Statistics Division of CLG. This will ensure that the right data recommended by both strategic officers and practitioners will be collected and then disseminated to ensure constructive analysis can be undertaken by those same practitioners and strategic managers. 9. Ensure the right information is entered into the right boxes for the annual data returns to CLG All members of this group identified the fact that fire services complete the annual data returns slightly differently, which, in turn, compounds data analysis. It is fundamentally important therefore that the drop-down menus in the annual returns are absolutely clear and unambiguous. Furthermore, all FRSs are encouraged to ensure absolute data quality on submission. CFRAU and FBU Annual Report 2011 163
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The Fire Brigades Union Executive C
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