HSE day at Myerscough college

[kipperfeet]

Hi all, did any one here attended the HSE day at Myerscough on Tuesday 2nd sept?

 

There were over 100 companies represented there so maybe someone did?

 

Just wondered what any one thought and if it was usefull?

 

It was a pilot day to bring as many companies in the north west together as possible for a brief overview of health and safety issue's within the industry. An amazing turn out with over 100 companies looking at key activites that we do every day with 25 minute slots for each.

 

not designed as teaching but more reminding and updating Arb companies of a few basics as well as other areas of the job that we might not of thought of.

 

let us know your thoughts if you were there?

[skyhuck]

This one

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2871&highlight=invitation

[kipperfeet]

Oh yes, well spotted sky huck.

 

Looks like the normal negative feed back of anything to do with the HSE then.

 

For the ones that thought it was to stop a visit from the big baddies, and shut them down for not wiping there bottoms properly and washing there hands before eating their butties, the truth is, they only have one person in the area covering both arb and forestry and agriculture. They have been very "reactive" to deaths and serious injuries as apose to "proactive" in trying to prevent them.

 

With the fact that minimal people have the time to update or practice simple safety issues (their words, not mine, but apparently true on the day) they wanted to do something for companies to come together and to get people thinking about things, but not teach them their job. It also gave them an idea of how many would turned up out of the invited to gauge the interest in something like this happening again as voluntary as appose to mandatory.

 

Not all working in the industry are as up to date about the job as the people on here.

 

Tricky one for the instructors to do as it was always going to be a snake pit. Every one wants answers and no one likes being told what to do!

 

From experience, if you tell someone they have to do there job "this way" they will tell you to "pi@@ of because i've been doing it that way for 20 years"

 

It was also tricky because there was no idea of content or the level to aim it at given by the HSE. The instructors were left to decide themselves how to approach touchy subjects in front of 300 people potentially already negative because they have had to take a whole half a day out of there busy year to be told what they can and can't do.

 

The problem is - Accidents just don't get reported because every one in this industry is scared that they will get shut down or another silly piece of legislation will come out to make the job we all enjoy even more difficult. In fact, because they never get reported, questions, simply never really get answered properly. A work related DEATH on a farm in Cumbria not so long ago went unreported to the HSE!

 

It's a shame that it was a wasted oppertunity for a proper forum really because it is very unusual to get that amount of contractors in one place at one time. But time is money and all that. I think the HSE wanted a nicey nicey approach as apose to "we are b@st@rds and want to make your life as difficult a possible" which is what they are sometimes perceived as by some.

 

 

Arb and Forestry has, again become the most hazardous job to be doing according to statistics so it's not surprising that the HSE are wanting to make sure that that the good people of the tree world are keeping them selves as safe as is possible.

 

Still, the food was ok and it was nice to see so many faces that haven't been seen for a while.

 

Feel free to discuss!

[bob]

i did not go to this one but went to one that sounds similar a few years ago and got a lot out of it

there are a lot of folk out there that are anti hse and legislation ect ect

and do not see that HSE are actually there to help us

and are trying to regulate and police the industry for our benefit

if we all worked within guidance this would be a safer industry

i would imagine there was a lot of work and money spent on these days

hopefully some folk will post some constructive points rather than slating everything