For many, it may seem tedious to report every minor incident in the workplace but recording such occurrences can be a useful strategy in preventing future major incidents.
Possibly as a result of the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, there has been a lot of recent focus on the frequency of small fires on construction and renovation sites.
RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) does not require the reporting of near misses, such as small fires but, in our opinion, there is no doubt that reporting minor incidents can identify trends within an organisation which may be the result of poor management or a lack of effective health and safety procedures. Do these minor incidents occur in the same area or same department or at a specific time in the day or the year? Without recording all incidents, root causes cannot be identified.
Accidents occur every day, but we suspect that unless there is an injury, the vast majority will not be reported. Consider an example of an employee tripping over a power lead although, other than some embarrassment, sustains no injury and does not report the incident. As a result no action is taken to make the area safer. The next employee who suffers a fall as a result of tripping over the lead may not be so fortunate.
One of our Education clients discussed with us the recording of all incidents, as they shared our vision. They understood that a minor cut or graze that was not reported may not be treated, potentially resulting in a more serious infection. This would inevitably result in bad publicity, potential legal action and probable litigation.
Our experience leads us to believe that for every serious accident, there is a significantly greater number of minor accidents and near misses. If there is an accident or incident, even if there is no injury, we recommend that it is reported in order that action can be taken to prevent a recurrence.
Recording all incidents, preferably in Continuity West’s MIMS system, is not only good practice but would enable the accumulation of sufficient data which can be categorised and reported upon. From this data trends can be determined to provide the organisation, whether a micro SME or a multi-national company, with the ability to implement preventative measures and reduce the number of incidents and accidents in the workplace.
Blog written by one of our directors, Chris Simms.