The SWITCH Forum AGM and seminar took place at yesterday at
Sibbald Training, Blackridge, West Lothian. The family run and owned training
company kindly hosted the event at their purpose-built training facility for
which SWITCH is very grateful as without this type of support, we would not be
able to put on events like this. “Sibbald Training is a family run business,
and it has been delivering training for over 45 years. They offer Over 200+
training courses, assessments & vocational qualifications are offered by a
team of experienced instructor. They hold accreditations from the leading award
bodies allowing Sibbald Training to support a wide range of sectors including
construction, utilities & civils, engineering, logistics &
distribution, and manufacturing. They have been an active member of SWITCH for
the last couple of years.”
Charlie Devine of Dundee City Council, and former SWITCH
Forum chair, welcomed everyone to the event and thanked our sponsors. He
introduced Jim Brown of Optimum Eco, the SWITCH Forum chair, who gave the
audience an update on SWITCH Forum activities across 2024. The forum volunteers
hosted monthly webinars on subjects as diverse as Vapes and the dangers of
batteries, the ESA annual Heath and safety survey and statistics, robotics,
mitigating driving hazards, promoting awareness of mental health and well being
issues, and many more interesting and relevant topics. The group also
relaunched their promotional materials on violence and aggression against front
line staff, updated the competency framework, liaised and collaborated with
WISH Forum and posted many articles and links through social media to up to
date and relevant topics for practitioners in the sector. The audience received
updates from the H&S working group and the ET&C working groups on their
activities on subjects machinery maintenance and safety checks, traffic
management and the groups continued work University West of Scotland who run a
course specifically designed to provide an understanding of the statutory
framework for health, safety and environmental, while developing a range of personal
and professional skills required to succeed in the ever-changing waste and
resource industry.
Both updates highlighted key issues which still face our
sector. Firstly, we have made significant progress on health and safety, but we
still need to do more. Secondly, we have an aging workforce and problems
recruiting and tracking young people to our sector. Finally, new products and
new legislation create new challenges and a need for greater understanding of
the risks materials like lithium-ion batteries, ensuring the sector remains
aware of risks their workers face each day and how to mitigate and remove those
risks where we can. Also making sure we plan and develop routes for young
people to become aware of the opportunities in the sector and how to access
them. Some of the guest speakers tackled these issues head on.
Sibbald Training
Neil Ritchie, Commercial Director at Sibbald, presented with
Nicky Carroll, Programme Manager for Developing the Young Workforce Glasgow on
the work they have done recently with school leavers in the Glasgow area to
improve the knowledge of school career advisors, designing and developing a way
to allow pupils to get a real life experience of what opportunities are
available in building and construction and to provide them with a real life
understanding of what would be expected of them and the skills, knowledge and
experience they would gain on the way.
Most school leavers would likely imagine that the main jobs
in construction are brickies, chippies, sparkies and plumbers. Many may think
that the only opportunities for these jobs lie with sole traders and micro
businesses. To an extent this is true, but they are not aware of the challenges
the larger construction companies face encouraging young people to enter their
work forces and also being aware of the career opportunities that these
companies can offer.
The Work Aware program reacted to this disconnect between
lack of awareness in pupils and career advisors and industry need. Work
Aware is a joint initiative with Developing the Young Workforce Glasgow, FARE
and Glasgow City Council and funded by Inspiring Scotland which seeks to
inspire and inform school pupils who may be at risk of disengaging from school
or who have no idea what type of career they wish to pursue after secondary
school by using Glasgow as a classroom to really bring their curriculum and
learning to life through multiple practical on-site visits with employers and
specific ‘meta-skill’ employability workshops.
Through these interventions, young people will travel to
organisations and areas of the city that they might otherwise not usually be
aware of or have contact with and have keyworker support to help them identify
the skills required and how they relate to their current subject choices in
order to support them to progress into a meaningful post-school destination
which best suits their interests with a wide variety of employers. This
programme allows for those organisations who seek to engage young people to
inform them of the huge variety of roles and opportunities available within
their sector, how to access them and how to progress within them so as to
identify talent, fill skills gaps and to really provide meaningful and
sustainable progression routes for our young workforce.
Working with industry Work Aware has managed to:
- Provided a series of work experience visits for young people to help them observe and understand the real world of work
- Enabled travel to new areas of the city and wider city region, breaking down geographical barriers
- Provide access to role models and people in work who have similar experiences and background
- Enabled participation in interactive demonstrations and tasks
- Increase awareness of careers and jobs that are available to them
- Provide bespoke SCQF Level 3 employability award for pupils who took part in the program
The parallels between the construction sector and the
resources and waste sector are obvious – aging workforce, need to attract new
and younger people to the sector and a general lack of awareness as to the
diverse job roles and careers paths available to individuals who decide to
enter the sector.
There is a lot which could be learnt from this successful
program and SWITCH hopes to learn from this program and use it to develop
something similar for the resources and waste sector.
Barry Wilkes, HSE
Barry Wilkes of the HSE presented on a review of their
year’s activities and gave insights into factors which still require
addressing. He once again highlighted that good progress had been made but
several dangers and failings still exist. The most common reasons for NOC
(Notice of contravention):
- Machinery guarding
- Poor traffic management systems
- The maintenance of lifting equipment (chains, pulleys,
and lifting equipment in general)
- Management of dangerous materials and chemicals (mainly
gas cylinder storage)
- Working at heights
- Poor welfare facilities
And in term of prohibition notices, the following areas are
of concern:
- Machinery guarding (especially conveyors but also
balers and trommel screens)
- Poor transport plans and management
- Dangerous lifting gear and equipment
Lack of adequate welfare facilities is a shame on our
sector. This is a basic human right and a disgrace that there are still sites
which do not cater for staff welfare adequately. The mixing of humans and heavy
plant and equipment creates huge risks and not having adequate transport and
vehicle/ pedestrian segregation plans in place is asking for a death or life
changing injury to occur. Finally, there is a need to ensure that we give
health as much as an emphasis as safety. Maintaining a healthy and mentally
strong workforce is good for everyone. HSE will be paying close attention to
health issues such as muscular skeletal disorders, skin and respiratory
disorders, depressions, stress and anxiety and hearing impairment.
Barry also gave an update on their ongoing work with WISH
and equipment/ vehicle manufacturers into bin lifting equipment. Lifting gear
manufacturers have worked productively with the HSE and others to design and
develop new systems and retrofits to ensure that the lifting equipment can
differentiate between a bin and a human being to avoid the potential for
operatives to be lifted by either the bin or the lifting clamps and dragged
into the back of collection vehicles. HSE hope to report to all local authority
CEOs in the next few weeks on this update and requirement and to engage with
the sector to make them fully aware of the changes required.
Finally, Barry updated the group on the HSE research into
POPs WUDS. The environment agencies have provided regulations to tackle the
issue of POPs WUDS from an environmental protection point of views and
management point of view, but HSE are concerned with the danger to human
health. HSE carried out an extensive literature review and carried out field
analysis. This is difficult as there are no UK or global standards for limits
of POPs.
The outcomes are interesting as it suggests the sector
should be paying closer attention to bioaerosols in general. Firstly it is hard
to find a laboratory able to do the testing. Secondly, the results themselves
showed:
- At all sites
exposures to inhalable dust were below the 10 mg/m³ value at
which any dust is defined as hazardous to health in the COSHH Regulations.
- At all sites
exposures to PBDEs were significantly below non-binding exposure
standards identified.
- At 4 sites
exposures to endotoxin were significantly above the Dutch
recommended health based occupational exposure limit.
- At 4 sites
exposures to inhalable bacteria (including actinomycetes) were
considered to be low to medium level, in comparison with WISH
criteria with high levels observed at one site.
- At all sites
worker exposures to inhalable fungi (including Aspergillus fumigatus) were
considered to be low to medium level in comparison with WISH
criteria
The next steps will be to analyse more bulk samples, write a
scientific paper and then:
- Drafted position
statement on processing of WUDS
- Need to speak to
EA/SEPA/NRW
- WISH/SWITCH meeting to
determine most suitable mechanism for cascading guidance to industry
Graham Martin
Graham Martin of Albion Environmental gave a great insight
into the chemistry and dangers of battery fires as well as some thoughts on
construction responsibilities and competency. His experience had come from the
tunnelling and the use of electric vehicles for construction and maintenance.
The dangers of electric battery cells are pretty well known but the stages the
battery failure go through are not so well understood. A battery can fail
through penetration or crushing, overheating, short circuit or simply aging as
well as internal or external exposure to heat.
When the battery fails it discharges large volumes of
hydrogen and methane which are flammable but also quantities of carbon dioxide,
carbon monoxide and sulphides -all of which are asphyxiants. The battery
internal cells then fire one after the other creating a runaway fire and large
amounts of toxic smoke.
Key things people should consider are:
- Where do you charge your
Electric Vehicles?
- Will they set others
off?
- Is your Fire Risk
Assessment still valid?
- Is your Emergency
Evacuation Plan still valid?
- Will they take down your
facility
Finally referring to the Construction (Design &
Management) Regulations 2015, Graham highlightedcompany
responsibilities. Under the Act, Regulations 2 defines “construction work”
means the carrying out of any building, civil engineering or engineering
construction work and…… likely includes a lot of work carried out in
our sector.
This is especially so when you consider the definition of
structure. The example given was leggolat concrete blocks used for storage bays
and sectioning off work areas. They are commonplace in our sector. Above two
blocks high mean they should be designed by a competent person for the
materials to be stored within them and for the operations the structure will be
used for.
After lunch delegates were able to take a tour of the
Sibbald facilities and to continue to network.
The feedback on the day was that it was a very worthwhile
event, and delegates will take back learning and greatly enjoyed the talks
which they found very useful. Everyone thank ed Sibbald for their generous
support and for being such wonderful hosts. It also highlighted the relevance
of the SWITCH Forum wortk, the benefits the organisation has brought to the
sector and also the challenges and opportunities the sector faces when consider
health and safety as well as education, training and competency. The forum
looks forward to another busy year in 2025, meeting SWITCH Forum members and
working with others to ensure that everyone in our sector comes into work safe
and healthy and goes home safe and healthy and is supported to enjoy a
rewarding and beneficial career.