Health and Safety Policy

2 Start Training (2 Start) recognises its legal and moral responsibilities to persons who may be adversely affected by its activities.
2 Start is committed to ensuring, by all reasonably practical means, the health, safety and welfare of its learners, apprentices, visitors, employees and contractors involved with its activities. 2 Start will seek to ensure that its legal duties and policy objectives are always complied with.

Start is committed to creating a culture of Health and Safety within which all employees, learners, apprentices and visitors are protected from harm, injury, occupational illness and disease.
All foreseeable risks associated with 2 Start activities will be identified and removed or controlled through a process of risk assessment and management.
Overall responsibility for Health and Safety within the organisation lies with the Managing Director, Paul Moon.

2 Start aims to set and maintain high standards of health and safety performance to ensure the health & safety of all of our employees, apprentices, clients, partners and visitors.

This will be achieved by:

This policy relates to all activities of 2 Start, including all training provision.
All references to “learners” below should be recognised as pertaining to “apprentices” and vice versa.
This policy applies to all stakeholders including employees, learners, apprentices, employers and visitors to a 2 Start site. For the avoidance of doubt, “employees” shall refer to all direct employers, contractors and volunteers.
This policy should be read in conjunction with the Safeguarding, Prevent and Radicalisation Policy.

It is recognised that individuals and groups of individuals have responsibilities for health, safety and welfare at 2 Start. The individuals and groups identified below are expected to have read and understood 2 Start policies and procedures for ensuring health, safety and welfare and to conduct their duties in accordance with them.

Health and Safety Manager

The Health and Safety Manager is responsible for:
Day-to-day management of all health and safety matters in 2 Start in accordance with the Health and Safety Policy:

Senior Managers

Senior Managers are responsible for:

All Employees

All employees have a general responsibility, as far as reasonably practical, to ensure the health, safety and welfare of themselves and others who may be affected by anything they do or fail to do.

Employees have a responsibility for: –

Training Undertaken on 2 Start Premises

Where training of apprentices is undertaken on 2 Start premises, the approved organisational procedures, relevant to the nature of tasks, activities, working environment involved with the training, will apply.

All apprentices will be provided with information relevant for their health and safety at induction. This will include:

Training undertaken on Employers’ Premises
Where training of apprentices is undertaken at Employers’ premises, the prime responsibility for the health and safety of the apprentice lies with the host Employer. However, 2 Start has a duty of care to take reasonable measures to ensure apprentices are not put at undue risk when working for employers who engage with us.

To fulfil this duty of care, 2 Start will undertake a Risk Assessment of the employers’ premises prior to an apprentice starting work to ensure that employers understand their responsibilities to apprentices and have a robust health and safety management system in place relevant to the apprentices. These responsibilities include those related to the age of specific apprentices on programme, including restrictions to hours of work and specifically to the use of MHE.

2 Start will further carry out annual checks of employers to monitor their ongoing suitability for the delivery of apprenticeships in terms of their management of health and safety and fulfilment of their responsibilities as outlined in section 5 of this policy.

Additional risk assessments are carried out in instances where apprentices are pregnant, vulnerable or have specific needs. These are completed in collaboration with employers and support the employers’ legal obligations to employees around pregnancy.

2 Start staff visiting employers’ premises are required to feed back to the Apprenticeship Manager any concerns they have regarding health and safety in an apprentice’s workplace so appropriate action can be taken. Such action ranges from further engagement meetings to apprentices being removed from programme until issues are resolved. 2 Start is committed to a collaborative approach to Health and Safety, however, in the most extreme cases, 2 Start reserves the right to report employers who do not respond to feedback around safety, to HSC.

2 Start works with employers to provide a thorough induction to new apprentices with a heavy focus on Health and Safety. 2 Start will continually review this induction as part of their approach to quality assurance and provide guidance and feedback to employers on how to improve this process.

Regular meetings regarding apprentice welfare take place and assessors and trainers are expected to report on the Health & Safety of the apprentices at this meeting to allow any concerns to be properly resolved.

2 Start

2 Start is responsible for:

Employers

The Employer has the prime responsibility for the health and safety of Apprentices at its site and must ensure all relevant legislative requirements are complied with. In particular this includes, but is not limited to:

Apprentices are responsible for:

Where an apprentice is absent from work due to ill health, it is the responsibility of the apprentice to inform their workplace and 2 Start in line with the Absence Policy. Any support mechanisms required to facilitate the return to work of the apprentice will be discussed and arranged by 2 Start and Workplace in a collaborative approach.

Where an apprentice is absent from training with 2 Start due to ill health, it is the responsibility of the Apprenticeship Manager at the relevant site to inform the employer of their absence, the reason for this and any steps that need to be taken to facilitate the apprentice’s return to learning / work.

Where an apprentice has an accident at their workplace, they must report this accident to their manager/supervisor and follow all workplace procedures to record the accident. It is the responsibility of the employer to inform the Apprenticeship Manager responsible for the Apprentice that the accident has occurred, and they will arrange any required follow up actions as needed.

Where an apprentice has an accident at 2 Start premises, they must report this to either their Tutor/Assessor or Apprenticeship Manager as soon as possible and this will be dealt with by a trained First Aider. This will be recorded in the Accident Book, and 2 Start will inform the Employer at the earliest opportunity.

Each 2 Start site has trained First Aiders to deal with any accidents.

First Aid

2 Start has assessed the need for first aid provision and has identified that 3 fully qualified first aiders holding the First Aid at Work Certificate at each site of operation.
Further staff hold first aid qualifications as required by additional activities undertaken. Coordinator: Paul Moon is responsible for overseeing the arrangements for first aid within 2 Start.

The duties include ensuring:

Accidents

The Health and Safety Manager will be responsible for reporting all accidents in accordance with legal guidance.

The Health and Safety Manager will be responsible for recording (as a minimum) the following occurrences:

Accident Investigation

All accident reports will be seen by the Operations Manager who will decide if an investigation is necessary. Investigation reports will be entered onto the On-Line Accident Reporting System.

Reports of fatalities, major accidents and over-three-day incidents are forwarded to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as required by the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR). www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/

Fire
All staff are responsible for ensuring that learners and visitors evacuate in an orderly and timely fashion in the event of the alarm sounding. This Policy will form part of the Induction for new staff and will be issued by email to all staff at the beginning of every year.

Fire Exits
All fire exits are signed. All classrooms display the table of exit routes along with the evacuation procedure. The assembly area is the front car park.

Electricity
2 Start will undertake to inspect and test all portable electrical appliances by a competent person at least once every two years. All test certificates will be kept in the Operations Managers Office for the duration of the life of the appliance.

Personal items of electrical equipment should not be brought into the site for use by staff or learners. If a personal item is required to be used on site for a one-off type of event then permission must be sought from the equipment safety coordinator and the equipment must have a current portable appliance certificate and be used with a residual current device. Where possible rechargeable battery type pieces of electrical equipment should be used.

PPE
The need for PPE will be determined during the Risk or COSHH Assessment process. Where identified as necessary PPE will be provided without cost to staff or learners.

Heads of Department will be responsible for the purchase of PPE ensuring that it is of the correct type, is suitable for the purpose and of the correct size to ensure that the fit is comfortable for the wearer. In addition, Heads of Department will ensure that suitable arrangements are in place for the storage, cleaning and replacement of PPE.

When issued with PPE; staff and students are required to wear it correctly. Staff must take all reasonable precautions to ensure that PPE is stored and maintained properly.

Display Screen Equipment
Relevant staff will be issued with a DSE self-assessment form to be completed when starting employment at 2 Start, together with DSE guidance. The assessment will be followed up by the school DSE assessor for comments and recommendations, and forwarded to Line Manager, who will note actions planned and taken.

Assessments will be reviewed following significant changes, incidents or cases of DSE related ill health. DSE guidance is available to all staff in Staff Shared Area. This guidance is also applicable for staff working at home and should be followed when setting up the workstation.

The Control of Hazardous Substances
The Health and Safety Manager is responsible for ensuring that COSHH assessments are seen and understood by those staff who are exposed to the product/substance.

The Health and Safety Manager is also responsible for ensuring that any updated COSHH assessments received are seen and understood by those who are exposed to the product/substance and that the COSHH file is kept up to date.

The Operations Manager is responsible for ensuring that COSHH assessments are also obtained from contractors on site (both regular contracts such as cleaners and caterers and from builders, decorators, flooring specialists etc) where persons may be affected by their use on site, or the storage of such substances/materials may need to be controlled. In addition, any hazardous substances / materials being used by artists, crafters etc must have appropriate COSHH assessments before being used within 2 Start.

All staff must ensure that they do not use any potentially hazardous substance without first familiarising themselves with the requirements of the COSHH assessment.

Manual Handling Operations means any transporting or supporting of a load (including the lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving thereof) by hand or bodily force (Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992).

2 Start will prevent musculoskeletal injury to staff as a result of manual handling by reducing the risk to the lowest level possible.

The assessment and reduction of risks from manual handling aims to achieve:

The organisation will eliminate, as far as is reasonably, practicable, the need for its employees to carry out any manual handling tasks that involve a risk of injury.

The risk to staff will be assessed and documented where manual handling operations cannot be avoided.

The Operations Manager, will ensure:

All employees must:

RIDDOR

RIDDOR requires that various types of incidents are reported, and you need to know what these are so that you are in the position to make the relevant reports if necessary. It also requires for reports to be made within specific timescales, which are a legal requirement.

Duties under the regulations (Refer to RIDDOR for full details on what to report, when and how to do it).

Death or major injury – Someone in authority must notify the enforcing authority immediately (HSE). (Telephone – 0845 3009923)

Over Seven-day injury – Notify using a completed accident report form, within 15 days.

Disease – If the disease is a reportable work-related disease, the enforcing authority must be notified. (Telephone – 0845 3009923).

Dangerous Occurrence – If something happens that does not result in a reportable accident but could have done, it may be a dangerous occurrence and must be reported by the quickest practicable means (Telephone – 0845 3009923).

The details above are given to make you aware of the regulations only, however for current guidance and understanding you should refer to your site Health & Safety Officer will be able to give assistance in defining if RODDOR applies and with reporting if such events occur.

Alternatively, further information can be found on ww.hse.gov.uk

Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH)

Provides guidance on:

Full information and guidance on legal requirements can be found on the following websites:

• https://www.hse.gov.uk/
• http://www.legislation.gov.uk/

It is not intended that any employees within 2 Start will be required to use substances that may be hazardous to health, but full training will be provided in this eventuality. External cleaning contractors will be vetted to make sure that any staff undertaking cleaning duties within company premises have been fully trained on the safe usage and storage of equipment and cleaning agents and materials that may constitute a risk to health. Data sheets and control methods will be requested by the business to ensure that safe systems of work are always in place to minimise the risk of injury and harm to its employees.

In light of the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020, 2 Start commits to the following in the event of any future Pandemics:

2 Start will always adhere to and follow all Government advice and guidance issued to protect and support the Health & Safety of its’ workers. This includes (but is not limited to)

All new staff will complete a full Health and Safety induction which will include the following:

All new apprentices will complete a full Health and Safety induction which will include the following:

A full Health and Safety assessment will be undertaken of the employers working environment prior to the commencement of any apprentice. This, as a minimum will include a review of all risk assessments and polices and a physical review of the environment. Employers will be engaged by assessors during progress reviews around the health and safety contents of the programme and the needs of apprentices. Reviews of the environment will be continuous throughout the programme and feedback provided to employers as required.
As part of the sign-up process with employers, this policy is promoted to ensure employers are aware of their responsibilities with respect to Health and Safety.

The policy is made available to all stakeholders on the company’s website and is supported by regular direct communications around health and safety considerations. This will be increased (as required) in line with macro/ micro events.

Employers will be regularly engaged to provide feedback pertinent to the actual environment apprentices are operating within.

Staff undertake mandatory refresher sessions on Health and Safety to ensure their compliance with this policy.
All programmes of learning include focus on Health and Safety as part of the induction process, the regular apprentice review process allows for 2 Start staff to monitor and express concerns about the Health and Safety of Apprentices at any time.

Revisions to this Policy will be introduced to and discussed with staff at scheduled 2 Start Communications Days.

This Policy is available to view on the 2 Start intranet system, to which all Employees have access.

Staff, Apprentices and employers are made aware of the organisation’s contacts for expressing any concerns relating to Health and Safety, as well as the organisation’s Complaints Policy. Both staff and apprentices are encouraged to call out unsafe practices, both in the learning environment and in Apprentices’ workplaces.

Apprentices should highlight any Health and Safety concerns with their trainer/assessor relating to either their working or learning environment. They are issues with the contact details for their trainer/assessor at induction. If they feel unable to raise these with their trainer/assessor they should raise them with the Apprenticeships Manager.
Where Health and Safety concerns are raised with a trainer/assessor they should be escalated to their Line Manager. The Line Manager should acknowledge receipt of the concern within 3 working days in writing to the Apprentice.

The Line Manager should work to resolve the concerns and inform the apprentice of the outcome within 10 working days of acknowledging the concern. They may need to engage with the apprentice’s employer to resolve the concern. If there is an immediate risk to the apprentice, they should be removed from the workplace and advised not to attend until the concern has been satisfactorily resolved.

The Board should be informed of any concerns reported to Health and Safety and the progress and resolution of these.

Where employees have Health and Safety concerns, they should raise these with their Line Manager who should follow the above points.

Failure to comply with any par to any part of this policy may result in disciplinary action. For employees, this could include dismissal from the organisation. For employees this could result in dismissal from the organisation. For learners this could result in removal from the programme.

The Senior Leadership Team will be responsible for monitoring and reviewing the Policy.

Monitoring will include assessing how this policy, and any supporting action plan, are working in practice, reviewing them annually, and considering and taking action to address any issues.

Where there are any legislative changes to UK Government Policy on Health and Safety the review date of this policy will be brought forward accordingly to ensure any changes are reflected within this policy.
This policy was last updated on 13th January 2023 when minor additions to the Apprentice absence process were made.

The policy is scheduled to be reviewed by 12th January 2024