Perth & Kinross Council has reduced the number of accidents among its
staff by a third in four years.
The council has achieved this by training its senior managers to improve
their awareness of health and safety issues and creating a manual of its health
and safety procedures, which is distributed to all of its working sites.
Council sites are given different risk ratings and those in the high-risk
bracket, which include secondary schools and construction sites, are inspected
annually.
Nearly 50 high risk site managers have been put through an internal safety
course in the past two years.
Directors from the council’s 12 service departments also have to present an
annual report to the authority’s corporate health and safety committee
outlining the achievements of the past year and the action plan for the next.
Neil Doherty, health and safety adviser for the Scottish council, said,
"The key element in the scheme’s success is the involvement and role of
the elected members and council’s directors. This has shown that the council
does take health and safety seriously."
