Decision details

The Head of Safety, Health and Wellbeing, Mike Koumi, presented the Annual Health and Safety report which set out health and safety performance for the period 2019/20 and sets the priorities for the period 2020/21.  The Committee noted that Barnet had been achieved an excellence award for the revised London Healthy Workplace Award.

The Committee questioned whether more could be done to ensure completion of mandatory health and safety training audits.  It was reported that staff turnover could have an impact and that some officers might not be desk-based which could impact on their ability to complete training.  Members were advised that there were other types of training available to those members of staff.

It was noted that performance in health and safety audits varied across different services and it was questioned if an overall compliance of 87% was good performance.  It was reported that the level of compliance was generally very high including for services such as Street Scene, but there were of course areas for improvement. 

Responding to question, officers reported that the health and safety team had worked closely with services and schools on a Covid secure return to activities and continued to provide advice and support.  It was noted that the health and safety team coming under Public Health has assisted with this.

The Committee were advised that comprehensive arrangements had been put in place to respond to the increase in working from home due to the pandemic. 

RESOLVED that the Committee note Barnet Councils Annual Health and Safety Report as set out in Appendix 1 and approve the priorities for the period 2020/21 as outlined in section 3.