REPORT TO: POLICY & RESOURCES COMMITTEE - 13 JUNE 2011

REPORT ON: OPERATING MODEL RE-DESIGN - REVIEW OF HEALTH &

SAFETY FUNCTION

REPORT BY: DEPUTE CHIEF EXECUTIVE (SUPPORT SERVICES)

REPORT NO: 297 - 2011

1.0 PURPOSE OF REPORT

1.1 The purpose of the review was to investigate the current operating arrangements for
health and safety and to determine if a centralised model would be more efficient. This
report summarises the findings from that review.

2.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

2.1 It is recommended that:

1. A new centralised operating model, as outlined in Option B below, is implemented

by 1st July 2011.
2. One Health & Safety Officer post is deleted.
3. A standard job description and person specification is drawn up for Health & Safety
Officers and an agreement made on the level of professional qualification required.

3.0 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 Adopting the preferred centralised model, re-aligned to the new organisational
structure, will realise an estimated cash saving of around £40,000 per annum in salary
costs (by the deletion of 1 Health & Safety Officer Post).

4.0 THE 'AS IS' POSITION

4.1 The Council as an employer has a duty to protect the health and safety of all
employees and those affected by their work activities. Accordingly, the principal aim of
the Council's Health & Safety Policy is to provide and maintain a health and safety
culture in which the opportunities for accidents and occupational ill-health are
eliminated.

Health & Safety at the Corporate Level

4.2 The policy states that a Chief Officer should be appointed to champion and lead health
and safety and to allocate roles and responsibilities for health and safety performance
within the Council. That Chief Officer is the Head of Personnel. Reporting to him is a
Corporate Health & Safety Section staffed as follows:

Job Title FTE

Health & Safety Co-ordinator 1
Senior Health & Safety Adviser 1
Health & Safety Adviser 1
Health & Safety Assistant 1
Clerical Assistant 0.57

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4.3 This corporate section has 5 key objectives (taken from the Annual Health & Safety
Report 2009/10):

 to lead the Council forward by providing health and safety policies and guidance
that provides clear support and direction to achieve best practice, recognising legal
compliance as a minimum standard;
 to ensure that all levels of management, and employees, are sufficiently competent
to discharge their duties with due regard for health and safety;
 to facilitate the integration of health and safety considerations into the Council’s
decision making process, so as to ensure that resources are appropriately and
effectively allocated by all levels of management;
 to promote and co-ordinate the development and implementation of health and
safety plans to improve standards, and their implementation, for the benefit of all
who may be affected by the Council’s work activities;
 to monitor and evaluate the health and safety performance to motivate
management to take effective measures to reduce health and safety losses and
improve performance.

4.4 This section also develops and delivers corporate health and safety training for all
Council staff. They delivered training to over 700 employees in 2009/10: an increase of
just over 10% compared to the previous year. This demand was met by a
corresponding reduction in the amount of time spent by the team auditing health and
safety performance in individual departments.

4.5 The Council Health & Safety Co-ordinator (and team leader) attends the Operational
Council Management Team on a monthly basis to provide a corporate overview of
health and safety performance, including the study of accident and occupational ill-
health incidents/statistics/audit reports and to update them on policy issues and
implementation of the corporate health and safety action plan. He is also responsible
for the production of the Council's Annual Health & Safety Report.

4.6 There is also a Corporate Health & Safety Committee, with Trade Union representation,
which meets quarterly. The Committee is consulted with regard to the development of
corporate policies and guidance. The specific functions of the Committee are to study
accident and occupational ill-health incidents/statistics and audit reports and to assist in
identifying the need for safe systems of work.

Health & Safety at the Departmental/Operational Level

4.7 At an operational level each Director has responsibility for Health & Safety Policy
implementation within their department. Departments are required to actively monitor
and undertake inspections of their own workplaces to identify and address matters that
could give rise to accidents or occupational ill-health. They must make certain
continued attention is given to ensuring that risk controls are developed and
implemented using the Council's approved risk assessment process and that clear
systems and procedures are in place for training employees in health and safety
matters.

4.8 The Health & Safety Policy places significant emphasis on the importance of effective
departmental Health and Safety Committees and nominated Health & Safety Co-
ordinators. The work of the departmental committees is akin to that of the corporate
committee. The role of the nominated Health & Safety Co-ordinators is to promote and
facilitate health and safety communications through the departments' senior
management teams. Co-ordinators also act as link person between their department
and the Corporate Health & Safety Section. Co-ordinators spend on average (based on
information collected from departments) no more than 10% of their full time workload
on health and safety work. They are not required to have any health and safety
qualifications.

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4.9 The Council Health & Safety Co-ordinator meets with the departmental Co-ordinators
on a quarterly basis in a bid to develop a consistent approach to compliance with Council
policies, to consider accident trends and to identify and discuss training issues.

4.10 The following departments also employ dedicated Health & Safety staff, who in some
cases, but not all, are also their department's Health & Safety Co-ordinator:

Dept Job Title FTE

Social Work Health & Safety Officer 1
Leisure & Communities Health & Safety Officer 1
Waste Mgt Health & Safety Officer 1
Education Health & Safety Officer 1
Education Health & Safety Assistant 1
DCS Health & Safety Officer 1

4.11 These appointments have been made by Directors, based on the level of perceived
health and safety risks within their departments. Each officer has a unique department
focussed job description although their main responsibilities are the same, i.e. to support
their director to implement the Health & Safety Policy, enabling their department to be fully
compliant with health and safety legislation.

4.12 Officers have generally built up a high degree of department/service specific expertise in
health and safety matters and they have a range of qualifications, including NCs, NVQs,
Diplomas and NEBOSH Certificates in Occupational Health & Safety.

4.13 These Officers report to a line manager within their respective departments. They maintain
a professional link to the corporate team through quarterly meetings and by liaising with
them ad-hoc on matters of policy and guidance. They can call on the corporate team at
any time for assistance and advice and the team have provided cover in the event of long
term absence of departmental health and safety staff. The Council Co-ordinator has no
management responsibility for these departmentally appointed staff.

5.0 BUSINESS CASE FOR A NEW OPERATING MODEL

5.1 From the information gathered for the purposes of this review there is no evidence to
suggest that the current operating model is 'broken' nevertheless the review has raised
two key few questions:

 Are the risk factors on which it was decided that certain departments required a full
time Health & Safety Officer still relevant?
 Would a centralised operating model be more efficient?

5.2 Since commencing this review a revised organisational structure for the Council has
been agreed by Committee. The specific changes which will have implications for the
current operating model are the creation of:

 a new Dundee Leisure and Culture Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation

(SCIO) and the transfer of the appropriate staff into that organisation and
 a new Environment Department that will include Dundee Contracts, all ground
maintenance, waste management and environmental services.

5.3 The following table provides an estimate of the proportion of the Health & Safety
Officer's workload within the current Leisure & Communities Department and where this
work will lie in the new organisational structure:

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 Leisure & Culture SCIO 18%
Corporate Services (Communities Division) 27%
Environment Department 40%
General Admin 15%

5.4 The new Environment Department will, in addition to the 40% of the Leisure &
Communities Department's current health and safety activities, assume responsibility
for all health and safety activities previously managed by Dundee Contracts Services
and the Waste Management Department.

5.5 The Health & Safety Officers in both the Leisure & Communities Department and
Dundee Contracts Services have applied but been deferred for Voluntary Early
Retirement. The officer in Waste Management has not applied. The post-holder in
Dundee Contract Services has particular skills and knowledge of the very specialist
construction regulations which must be complied with.

5.6 The following table shows the level of dedicated health and safety staff assessed as
required in each of the revised departments:

Department Level of Risk Dedicated Health & Safety Staff Required

Corporate Services Low None
Education Medium 1 Health & Safety Officer
1 Health & Safety Assistant
Social Work Medium 1 Health & Safety Officer
City Development Low None
Environment High 2 Health & Safety Officers
Housing Low None
Dundee Leisure & Medium None *
Culture SCIO
* The current Leisure Trust has a contract in place with an external provider for the supply of specialist
health & safety advice and a Service Level Agreement with the Corporate Health and Safety Section.

5.7 This level of assessed risk has the effect of:

 reducing the required staffing complement by 1 full-time Health & Safety Officer i.e.
the post presently in the Leisure & Communities Department and
 reviewing the Service Level Agreement to ensure the Corporate Health and Safety
Section can provide advice and support for the functions which will transfer to the
new Dundee Leisure & Culture SCIO.

5.8 Would a centralised operating model be more efficient?

Two options for a centralised model were considered:

Option A: Transfer the departmental Health & Safety Officers to the Corporate Health
& Safety Section from where they are line-managed by the Corporate Health & Safety
Co-ordinator.

Option B: Transfer the departmental Health & Safety Officers into the Corporate Health
& Safety Section and out-post them to their current/reconfigured departments where an
assessment has concluded that a dedicated Health & Safety professional is required.
Day to day line management would be provided from the department to which they are
out-posted but their professional management and development would be managed by
the Corporate Health & Safety Co-ordinator.

5.9 An options appraisal of both models was carried out and compared to the status quo.
The particular strengths of Option B are as detailed below:

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  This would strengthen the role of the Corporate Health & Safety Section and
support a stronger corporate overview.
 This would allow corporate health and safety priorities to be better managed.
 The current departmental Health & Safety Officers would benefit from having a
manager from within their profession to guide their professional development.
 Health and safety expertise would be maintained in departments to ensure that
health and safety provision is not adversely affected.
 Health & Safety Officers would maintain links with operational staff within linked
departments.

6.0 CONCLUSIONS / RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1 From the information gathered there is little doubt of the value of dedicated Health &
Safety Officers to those departments at high or medium risk. The current post-holders
have developed a high degree of departmental specific expertise in health and safety
matters and this is greatly valued.

6.2 Adopting a more centralised operating model would however support a stronger
corporate overview. Option B would allow for this without diminishing either the
responsibilities held by Directors for health and safety or the specialist expertise that
has been developed within departments It is therefore recommended that Option B is
adopted as the preferred operating model.

6.3 This would involve:

 deleting one Health & Safety Officer post i.e. that presently in the Leisure &
Communities Department ;
 transferring all of the remaining departmental health and safety staff into the
Corporate Health & Safety Section, and subsequently;
 out-posting them to their current/re-configured departments.

6.4 In accordance with the level of risk assessed in each of the new departments 2 Health
& Safety Officers should be out-posted to the Environment Department; 1 Health &
Safety Officer and 1 Assistant to the Education Department and 1 Health & Safety
Officer to the Social Work Department.

6.5 Day to day line management of the out-posted staff would continue to be provided from
the department to which they are out-posted but their professional management and
development would be managed by the Corporate Health & Safety Co-ordinator.

6.6 A standard job description and person specification should be drawn up for all Health &
Safety Officers and an agreement made on the level of professional qualification
required for each post.

6.7 The success of the proposed arrangements should be reviewed after 12 months to
determine if resources have been adequately allocated in proportion to the expected
levels of risk.

7.0 TIMESCALES AND TRANSITION ARRANGEMENTS

7.1 To ensure a successful transition to this model by 1st July 2011, the date of
implementation of the new organisational structure, a detailed implementation plan has
been drawn up. This includes:

 consultation with the relevant trade unions;

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  consideration for voluntary early retirement or redeployment of one Health & Safety
Officer;
 reviewing the Service Level Agreement to ensure the Corporate Health and Safety
Section can provide advice and support for the functions which will transfer to the
new SCIO;
 preparation of a standard job description and person specification for the post of
Health & Safety Officer.

8.0 POLICY IMPLICATIONS

This Report has been screened for any policy implications in respect of Sustainability,
Strategic Environmental Assessment, Anti-Poverty and Risk Management. There are no
major issues.

An equality impact assessment has been carried out and will be made available on
the Council website http://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/equanddiv/equimpact/. There are no major
issues.

9.0 CONSULTATIONS

The Chief Executive, Depute Chief Executive (Support Services) and Director of Finance
have been consulted in preparation of this report.

10.0 BACKGROUND PAPERS

None.

Patricia McIlquham, Depute Chief Executive (Support Services) 13 May 2011