The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has launched a new overarching, five-year strategy called Helping Great Britain Work Well.
The strategy aims to tackle workplace ill health whilst streamlining legislation and guidance, enabling businesses – especially SMEs – to take the right actions easily and efficiently.
The HSE intends for this plan to focus on the areas that need the greatest improvement, but not at the expense of the work that has already been done. Six strategic themes have been identified:
- Acting Together: There needs to be broader ownership of Health & Safety.
- Tackling Ill Health: Work-related ill health must be addressed and the costs of ignoring it must be highlighted.
- Managing Risk Well: The commercial benefits of Health & Safety and a proportionate approach to risk need to be more widely recognised.
- Supporting Small Employers: Too many small and medium-sized organisations do not know that simple and straightforward advice and guidance is available to help them manage their Health & Safety responsibilities.
- Keeping Pace With Change: Everyone needs to “design-in” effective risk management for new and emerging technologies.
- Sharing Our Success: Britain and British industries will benefit from promoting our Health & Safety approach around the world.
Some 23 million working days are lost each year because of ill health, costing individuals, employers and the state around £9 billion a year. So reducing workplace ill health is a must for Britain’s well-being and prosperity.
Further information can be found on the HSE’s website here.
More details and plans on how the HSE will be implementing this five-year plan are likely to be published in the coming months. We will keep you informed.
