Research conducted by System Concepts has made a significant contribution to two of the Health and Safety Executive’s recent high profile campaigns: ‘Preventing Slips and Trips in the Workplace’ and ‘Better Backs’.

Injuries from slips, trips and manual handling were identified as the two most frequent causes of compensation claims in a project System Concepts conducted for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).  Detailed analysis of around 500 compensation claims made through Trade Unions were analysed, revealing that these two types of injury accounted for over a quarter of all claims, resulted in an average award of over £4,000 in compensation and took 2 to 3 years to settle.

The report recommended that these findings were used to:

• Promote further accident reduction initiatives
• Identify ways of raising the awareness of risk amongst employees.

Neal Stone, who led the HSE team investigating the impact of liability insurance in driving health and safety improvements, was closely involved with System Concepts during the research.

He commented “The insurance research, which was intended to help us better understand the composition of employer liability insurance claims both by industry and category of ill health or injury, was challenging given concerns over confidentiality and voluminous claims records.  The timing of this research was critical, coming as it did hard on the heels of significant increases in insurance premia and the resulting government-led review of Employers Liability Compulsory Insurance (ELCI). The thoroughness of the System Concepts research contributed significantly to our knowledge of the real costs of injury and ill health.”   
 
System Concepts’ expertise in human factors was used in two subsequent projects which aimed to identify practical strategies for implementing these two recommendations. The first project investigated people’s perception of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), including back pain, and one of the main problems associated with poor manual handling techniques. The second looked at the impact of human factors on slip and trip accidents. 

Better Backs

System Concepts reviewed relevant literature, conducted a telephone survey of 200 people and ran focus groups to gain a broad picture of people’s perceptions of risk from musculoskeletal disorders in a wide variety of industries.

They found that, in general, people were surprisingly well informed about the main risk factors and the likelihood of suffering back pain, but the technical acronyms MSD (musculoskeletal disorder), ULD (upper limb disorder) and RSI (repetitive strain injury) were less well understood.

Trusted sources of information included the HSE and medical professionals, while face-to-face training, in working time, was the preferred way to receive information about back pain. 

• The report recommended the following strategies for effective communication:
• Use popular terms such as back pain rather than technical acronyms
• Promote awareness of the risks amongst young people
• Provide support for organisations to develop their own safety culture
• Target material and approaches to different industry groups.

HSE used this information when they developed their Better Backs campaign including mass media advertising, campaign packs with posters and presentation material for companies to use at their own events, and lots of printed and web-based material offering advice in a fun and easily accessible format. www.hse.gov.uk/betterbacks/

Slips and trips

For this project, System Concepts collected detailed diagnostic information on slip and trip accidents from a wide variety of industries over an eight-month period.  Rigorous analysis revealed that human factors played a significant role.  Most of the incidents could have been avoided with a greater awareness of slip / trip risks, better identification and reporting procedures, and more effective control, monitoring and supervision. 

The detailed analysis and recommendations have helped the HSE to formulate a major campaign to combat slips and trips in the workplace, including a nationwide information and awareness campaign, industry-specific training courses and risk assessment toolkits.  All this information, including a copy of the research report, is available at http://www.hse.gov.uk/slips/