IOSH Asks for Health and Safety Awareness in School Curriculum
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has laid down several challenges for the authorities to make the UK a safe place to work. It has listed these in its new manifesto- “Creating a healthier UK plc”, which was launched at the house of Lords recently.
According to IOSH, the manifesto brings out the ‘Big Four’ tasks faced by the UK, which are as follows:
Achieve better health by better work; Create a society that understands risks much better; Extend help to small firms in management of risk; Extend help to people in terms of health and safety advice.
According to Rob Strange, Chief Executive of IOSH, their manifesto is more than just a theoretical plan. It is a call to action, he said. It encompasses, what they believe, should be done to make UK’s work environment healthy and safe for the employees.
Strange further added that in the last year around 230 workers lost their lives due to poor working conditions, close to 300,000 suffered from injuries and more than 2 million were suffering from the ailments whose root cause lied in the workplace.
Strange requested the government and other bodies to come forward and take initiatives to achieve the tasks listed in the manifesto, as this would lead to a reduction in the number of mishaps.
Strange commented that two things that are critical to the improvement of UK’s health and safety record are involvement of young people in matters relating to health and safety, and making sure that all the firms are equipped with competent health facilities. Furthermore, UK needs a greater number of its schools and colleges to include health and safety awareness in their curriculum.
To avoid the repercussions of a visit from HSE officials companies should bring themselves and their employees fully up-to-date with the latest H&S regulations. The iosh managing safely certificate is a highly reputable course run by Workplace Law Training and is a good first step to improving your companies H&S culture.
