22March 2007

Lord McKenzie

Minister with responsibility for health and safety at work

Environmental Health – the Year Ahead Local Authorities and HSE Working Together – “The Challenges Ahead”

Thursday, 22nd March 2007

[Check against delivery]

Thank you, and good afternoon.

Let me start by congratulating both LACoRS and CIEH for their hard work in organising this event and for inviting me to contribute to the health and safety session.

I am happy to be here today to talk about the challenge facing local authorities and HSE. Although I have only been in the job a short time I think the challenges are clear and obvious:

• 30 million days were lost to work-related illness or injury in 2005/6;
• and 2 million people are suffering from an illness that they believed was caused or made worse by their current or past work.

Many of these people will be forced to leave work because of their health condition or disabilities and will be left to claim benefits. What sort of reward is this for a life of work? This is one of the many reasons why the work of those of you that have come here today is so important.

I am relatively new to this position but I am very familiar with local authorities and the work that they do across a whole range of subjects. I was leader of Luton Council, so have first hand knowledge of the dedication local government professionals show in delivering public services.

I’m very pleased to support this conference and would like to take a moment to acknowledge the important work and the progress that has been made by both Local authorities and HSE working together to improve health and safety.  

The facts are not all negative, actually the 30 millions days lost every year to work related ill health and injury is the lowest since HSE started recording these figures. In addition during the last two years fatal and major injuries at work have reduced to such an extent, that it suggests we are on track to meet our target of a 3% reduction in the number of accidents in the three years to 2008 but unfortunately they are not on track to meet the revitalising target of 10% by 2010.  Injuries arising from falls from heights and workplace transport are now a consistent downward trend and the results for production and service industries in the most recent statistics are also encouraging, with both showing a downward trend since 2004/5.

However, within the detail and encouraging trends of the last year, there remain some areas of concern. Whilst the rate of reported fatal and major injuries fell by almost 7% last year, it is still too soon to say if this translates into a longer-term trend.

Local authorities are responsible for enforcement in over 50% of work premises and almost half of the employed workforce. This proportion is increasing for local authorities as numbers in the services sector rise. The statistics I referred to show progress in the areas where we have been successful but also highlight a number of stubborn problem areas for us to tackle. The services sector is a case in point, and is an area where Local Authorities can bring their local knowledge to bear. HSE also has a responsibility in this area and it seems to me that through further joint work we will improve the situation.

LA enforced major industries displayed a mixed picture, with hotels and catering, business and finance, and retail and wholesale distribution showing 15% increases in major injury rates over 3 year averages.

We are also finding that injuries resulting from slips and trips are worryingly resistant to change across all industries, although this might be expected if raising awareness also increases rates of reporting. We have seen the number of fatal & major injuries from slips and trips remain at the same level for the last two years and when compared to the figures from 2001/02 there has actually been a 6.5% increase in the number of slips and trips reported. While there have been reductions in the number of slips and trips reported in sectors such as hotel and catering and industrial cleaning, these are offset by increasing numbers elsewhere, notably public administration and education.

However there are other encouraging indicators. The evaluation reports of the “Watch your Step”, and “Height Aware” campaigns indicated a raised awareness of the key issues and messages and that the campaigns have succeeded in attracting support from stakeholders. However, it is too soon to say if these major campaigns will have a sustained impact on injury numbers or rates. The risk remains for campaigns that messages will be forgotten or they are only taken up by the usual (enthusiastic) suspects, and no long-term benefits accrue without long-term investment of significant resources.

This risk is particularly acute with ubiquitous hazards, like slips and trips. In this case audiences are almost universal, and it is therefore difficult to identify target audiences who have the most potential to affect performance and thus target messages unless we invest far more and for the longer term. Indeed we should probably view our work with slips and trips as only just beginning, rather than half complete, as might be inferred by this stage of targeting and planning.

The big challenge for us all will be committing the appropriate level of resources, sufficient to tackle the health and safety priorities in local areas.

It’s at the workplace that results can be delivered and as regulators you need to encourage, facilitate, and punish where this proves necessary – if you like, catalysing improvement and castigating failure.  Nationally and locally based regulators must work together effectively, giving a seamless feel to their work. Local authorities are frequently accused of inconsistency in enforcement and I know that you are prepared to respond to these claims by working strategically with the Executive.     

Clearly, there is currently a lot of work ongoing by all regulators, working with the Better Regulation Executive, in pursuit of the Hampton ideals. Issues of communication, consistency and proportionality are at the centre of this work and health and safety enforcement is already seen as moving in the right direction. It is vital that we take the business world with us on this journey, recognising that those who create the risks are often best placed to manage them. Education and advice is as important as ‘cracking the whip’, working with business reduces their burden but also helps to achieve much more effective solutions to workplace hazards. Out with the old and in with the new, alternative interventions, new ways of working for the 21st Century. 

There’s a range of proposed new legislation amongst which, is the Local Government White Paper, which has a focus upon more flexibility for local authorities but a clear expectation that they will deliver against the agreed targets. One of the most significant aspects is the need to further develop Local Strategic Partnerships and in particular making best use of Local Area Agreements. 

At this point let me tell you a little more about the Health, Work and Well-Being Strategy. It is part of our wider work on health and welfare reform – where we are helping people who were previously left behind to get back into the labour market. But let’s be clear – a very important role is to help people stay in work and manage their health conditions. 

We want to get a million more older people and 300,000 more lone parents into work and also reduce the number on incapacity benefits by a million.

We know that work is good for you.  Not just good for you financially and socially, but good for health and well-being too – we published an important evidence review last year that confirms this fact.

But the heart of the problem is that too many people are still falling ill, taking time off work and eventually losing their jobs and having to claim benefits.  And too many people are still injured or made ill by their work.

We must tackle this head on and you all have a role to play. 

Our strategy has a clear purpose: to improve the health and well-being of the working age population, to help more people to be fit, healthy and in work, and to raise the profile of health and work in society.

The benefits of the success of the strategy are for all to share.  Not just the obvious benefits of a healthier, happier and more productive society but tackling this challenge will also reduce social exclusion, tackle poverty, enable regeneration and growth and bring communities together.

One of the key pillars of the strategy recognises that government can only do so much, and that success will only be achieved by the involvement and commitment of a wide range of stakeholders.  In particular, we need local government, employers, trade unions, the general public, healthcare professionals, insurance companies and voluntary organisations to play their part. We need them engaged with each other.  Only by working together to joint goals, focused on the needs of the local population, will these groups reach their potential. It is local action that will breed success.  We need to learn from examples of activity underway. Not just learning what they are doing and whether it works.  But also why? 

What was the motivation and what brought people together in the first place?  What can we do to encourage others to follow these examples? In most parts of the country these partnerships simply don’t exist.  Local authorities aren’t leading the way on this agenda; health and employment services remain divorced; and local employers and other stakeholders remain disengaged.

Local authorities and local strategic partnerships must take these issues seriously and get involved in driving the strategy forward.

Local Area Agreements provide the opportunity for Local Strategic Partnerships to set themselves challenging targets to ensure more people are active in the labour market and able to contribute to local economic prosperity. 

We can only really deliver and make a difference if the agenda is embraced at regional, sub-regional and local level. And as I said you all have a clear role to play.

There are some excellent examples across the country where this is happening.  For example, the Healthy Leeds Partnership, part of their Local Strategic Partnership and in Bradford, where the Bradford Area Occupational Health and Safety Forum are working hard to try and tackle this agenda.  These are just two examples, there are others but we need more.

In the coming months, my officials and I are going to look in more detail about how we might use these mechanisms and encourage more of these partnerships around the country. I want to be able to provide practical tools to help support partnerships locally. We need to share best practice and examples of what works and what doesn’t and why; and what the outcomes and benefits are.

There are many ways for you all to get involved and huge benefits to be gained by everyone.

I want again to recognise the support provided by local authorities and HSE in helping the Health and Safety Commission to tackle the health and safety priorities and appreciate your combined efforts. I’d like to thank you for listening to me and hope you find the rest of your conference enjoyable as well as valuable.