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The main purpose of Health and Safety is very simple – to protect people from harm. These people might be ministers, pastors, leaders, employees, volunteers, visitors, friends groups, congregation members or contractors. People could suffer an injury, suffer from ill-health because of the work they do or be affected by an emergency such as a fire in a building.
The reasons for good safety fall into three broad categories:
- Moral and Ethical - there is a moral obligation to take care of other people
- Legal - poor safety provision can lead to both criminal proceedings and civil action
- Financial - poor safety costs individuals, organisations and society as a whole
There are a number of overriding reasons why we need Health and Safety outlined on this page for you to make up your mind which is most important to you in your situation. All reasons lead to the same thing - Health and Safety is an essential part of every Church and Place of Worship.
1. Suffering an accident can be distressing
OK, there are different kinds of accidents: some injuries are minor (like a paper cut to a finger) which might be a bit uncomfortable for a while, but other accidents could endanger life. Accidents can be distressing to the person who suffers the injury and even a minor injury can cause a bit of discomfort. More serious accidents can cause severe distress and misery, and can be the cause of long-term mental health problems like depression.
Most people would not wish to be responsible for someone else's injury or illness. This is a clear moral reason why accidents should be prevented.
2. Seeing an accident can be distressing
If there is a severe accident, perhaps leading to long-term hospital treatment, disability or death, there might be witnesses. It can take a long time for people to forget about such horrific scenes. In fact some people never forget about horrific things that they have seen, especially if they were a child at the time. This could lead to the witness suffering ill health themselves as a direct result of the things that were seen.
There is also an impact on the family and friends of someone who has suffered a major injury, such as the loss of a limb, where the person might need additional support and care to carry on their life. Similarly, death can have a major impact on many people. A single injury can have a massive impact onto the community as a whole.
The press and media coverage of a serious accident can have a massive effect on how an organisation is perceived in a town, city or region. Alone, this is a good reason why Health and Safety is so important, not least to Churches and Places of Worship that should be seen as caring - it is in fact woven into the very fabric of most belief systems.
3. Health and emergency service costs to society
The impact of injuries and workplace accidents can be severe on society as a whole. Add to this the cost of running the emergency services that respond to accidents and dangerous events and the total costs to the taxpayer is enormous. It is clear that much of this is wasted because accidents, fires and other dangerous events are avoidable.
4. Legal requirements – Criminal law applies
It is in fact a legal requirement to ensure the safety of people. This is underlined by a piece of legislation called The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. People who fail to ensure other's safety (be it through what they do or what they fail to do) could find themselves in court, faced with a fine and / or prison sentence – a criminal record. This legislation applies to Churches and Places of Worship.
It is interesting to note that the Act itself only gives us general duties and is not very specific. Regulations add some detail to what is needed, but the onus is on those people that run and manage premises to ensure people's safety by a decision making process called Risk Assessment.
Similarly, with fire safety law, there is a far-reaching piece of legislation called the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. This places duties on any person responsible for a building to ensure the safety of people using the premises against fire risks.
There are legal duties that mean that the safety of everyone needs to be considered – it does not matter how many employees there are or how old the building is. In fact, a Health and Safety Inspector has the legal right to enter premises and has a number of other wide-ranging powers at his or her disposal as well, all for the purpose of enforcing the law.
Many people know it is an offence to steel the belongings of another person, but do not realise Health and Safety law is also Criminal Law. A good reason to take safety seriously is to keep a conviction-free record!
5. Legal requirements – Civil liabilities mean people can sue
If someone suffers and injury due to the negligence of another, a claim for compensation could be made in the civil courts. This can have serious financial implications after awards are made, costs paid and legal expenses covered. This can be avoided though good Health and Safety.
One of the central elements of the legal Tort of Negligence is sometimes referred to as the "Neighbourhood Principle" – taking reasonable steps to ensure the safety of those that can reasonably be expected to be affected by your action or inaction. This is where term "Duty of Care" comes from. The key is that reasonable measures need to be in place to fulfil this duty.
This Neighbourhood Principle has deep roots in the Christian principle of loving your neighbour. A failure of this duty of care can lead to extensive costs and fines, and could lead to unwanted publicity in the media.
6. Insurance costs can escalate and cover could be restricted
Many people have their premises and activities covered by various insurance policies. Many insurance providers assess each organisation to decide the risk to them, in other words how likely it would be that a claim would be made.
An organisation that has a poor safety record is likely to pay a large insurance premium, just like a driver with zero no-claims discount would have to pay more than someone with five years no-claims discount. In fact some insurance companies might even refuse to give cover or might include some exemption clauses into the policy if they feel the risk to themselves is too high.
It is clear that the costs of insurance cover will rise if Health and Safety is neglected.
7. Costs of accidents can be significant
It is hard to estimate the costs of accidents that have happened in the past, let alone try to put a price to one that has yet to happen. The reason is that many costs are hidden while others are just overlooked.
Some of the costs have been listed in other sections above, but it needs to be understood that accidents and emergencies do cost money. Sometimes, this is a high figure but even the use of a plaster from the first aid kit costs money. Consider some of the costs below:
Staff might need to be paid sick pay while they recover;
Temporary cover might need to be brought in;
Equipment and property might need to be replaced if it is damaged;
There might have been equipment (like fire extinguishers) used and need replacement;
The premises might need to be closed while repairs are undertaken or an investigation takes place.
Some people might argue at this point that their organisation is run by volunteers so these issues don't apply. Although wages might not be paid, there will be direct costs if there is an accident or fire. It also does not consider the non-financial costs of not having a volunteer available when they are most needed – such as a fund raising event that has to be cancelled.
The costs of poor Health and Safety outweigh the costs of doing Health and Safety. A good enough reason by itself so why run the risk?
Still not convinced?
A short video has been produced by the Health and Safety Executive about how Health and Safety (or rather lack of it) has impacted real people. Watch the HSE's video.
So what needs to be done?
The first thing to realise is that there are generally no hard-and-fast rules in Health and Safety. Despite what the press might have everyone believe, there are not that many black-and-white rules. The most important thing is to consider what could cause harm to people, who could be affected, how they could be affected and what could be done to prevent harm to them. This is Risk Assessment!
There are many pointers in the rest of this Website to help decide what needs to be done, however, always remember to think about your premises, your congregation and your situation. What works in one place might not work somewhere else. This is why Risk Assessment is one of the most important tools to master.
What is Health and Safety not about?
There are many stories in the press of things being banned, from kids playing conkers in the school playground to Christmas decorations being banned in offices and factories to people being banned from applying plasters to a cut on a child. Ask any Health and Safety professional and they will tell you that none of these decisions have anything to do with Health and Safety. Most of the time, these decisions are not within the spirit or letter of the law, and go against the moral ethos of Health and Safety. In fact, Health and Safety is often used as a convenient excuse!
However, it is important to always keep in mind that you need to prevent harm to people in a way that balances the risk (the likelihood and severity of harm) against the time, effort, trouble and money it would take to reduce that risk. Reasonable measures are required to prevent harm and minimuse the outcome of any accident or emergency. Most of the time, this takes a bit of thought, some common sense and not being afraid to adapt things if needs be. This is what Health and Safety is about.
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