Organisation create online interactive safety courses for remote workers.

The British Safety Council have developed and launched a series of interactive online courses for remote workers looking to continue their health, safety and environmental learning during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Same Tutors

'Live-Online' allows students to connect remotely to the courses using a PC, laptop or tablet and interact with the same tutors who deliver the British Safety Council's face-to-face teaching.

The enhanced modules were developed following student feedback to an original suite of learning delivered at the start of the pandemic. Mike Robinson, the British Safety Council's Chief Executive explained how the comments influenced their decision to make the modules interactive with real-time tutor assistance.

“At the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis the British Safety Council launched a series of free online resources to help employers and employees adapt to new ways of working and the feedback we received has been very positive." he said. "Live Online now takes that one step further, for people that want structured support from a tutor without having to be in a classroom."

British Safety Council’s report makes the case for urgent action on the impact of air pollution on outdoor workers.

The British Safety Council has launched a report Impact of air pollution on the health of outdoor workers which provides compelling evidence to recognize ambient air pollution as an occupational health hazard in Britain. In the report, the charity presents the demands that spearhead its campaign to limit the dangers of air pollution to the health of outdoor workers.

Air pollution, linked with up to 36,000 early deaths a year in the UK, is considered the biggest environmental risk to public health. Research from King’s College London suggests that more than 9,400 people die prematurely due to poor air quality in London alone. Ambient air pollution is linked to cancer, lung and heart disease, type-2 diabetes, infertility and early dementia.

Several pilot schemes are beginning to monitor and measure the levels of air pollution experienced by people working and living in London. Their findings will be instrumental in developing recommendations for reducing people’s exposure to air pollution in the capital.  

However, at the same time, the government and regulatory bodies such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), continue to demonstrate a lack of interest in relation to regulation and guidance on air pollution.  

In March 2019, the British Safety Council launched its Time to Breathe campaign, which is focused on the protection of outdoor workers from air pollution. The cornerstone of the campaign is Canairy, the first mobile app that gives outdoor workers and their employers insights into pollution and how to reduce staff exposure to it. It has been created in co-operation with King’s College London. Canairy draws on the London Air Quality Network (LAQN) pollution map at King’s and the worker’s GPS to calculate an individual’s exposure to pollution on an hourly basis.  

The British Safety Council’s report Impact of air pollution on the health of outdoor workers is the next step in the campaign. It gathers available evidence about the causes and consequences of air pollution in Britain. It also reviews international examples of initiatives set up to measure air pollution in different locations and their recommendations for risk reduction.

In the report the British Safety Council is calling for:

1. The UK to adopt the World Health Organisation’s exposure limits for the main pollutants;
2. Government action to ensure ambient air pollution is treated as an occupational health issue and adopt a Workplace Exposure Limit for Diesel Engine Exhaust Emissions (DEEE);
3. Improvements to pollution monitoring across the UK, so that all regions can have the same accuracy in emissions data as London;
4. Recognition that protection from the dangers of air pollution should be enshrined in law as a human right.

Lawrence Waterman, Chairman of the British Safety Council, said: “The impact of air pollution on people working in large cities is starting to be recognised as a major public health risk. However, we are yet to see any true commitment to addressing this issue by the government and the regulators.

“The Time to Breathe campaign, together with our recent report, is a call to action for policymakers, regulators and industry leaders. The social and economic implications of ambient air pollution are clear. It must be recognised as an occupational health hazard, much like some toxic substances such as asbestos. Breathing clean air is not a privilege but a basic human right for the thousands of people who are undertaking vital work outdoors.”

In a new report the British Safety Council says our understanding of changing risks to health, safety and wellbeing needs to improve, in a new report about the future of work

The public debate on the future of work has centred so far on the likely shape of the workplace and its implications for both employers and employees. There has been far less focus on what this might mean for workers’ health, safety and wellbeing. When wellbeing has been considered, the discussion has centred on the present, rather than preparing us for the challenges of the future. Yet, the impact of automation on the workplace will be more fundamental than is commonly understood, with 11 million jobs predicted to be lost in the next 20 years in the UK. As we are already seeing with some ‘gig’ working, it may undermine such basic human needs as social identity, economic security and a sense of belonging.

These issues have been examined by the Future risk: Impact of work on employee health, safety and wellbeing report commissioned by the British Safety Council from RobertsonCooper researchers. It reviews the existing literature on this subject and makes a number of recommendations. While providing an overview of the landscape of work, the report explores the changes that employers and employees are likely to experience over the next 20 years. It focuses on the risks of these changes to the health, safety and well-being of the workforce.

Professor Cary Cooper CBE, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at the University of Manchester, founder of RobertsonCooper, said: “We know that work is changing, which is why there is currently so much conversation about the future of work. However, we know less about the risks this might bring to the health, wellbeing and safety of employees, so it’s a challenge for businesses to prepare for this.”

The main themes explored by the report are:

• Implications of ‘anytime, any place’ work. A move away from standard work practices, hours and location will challenge the relationship between employers and their workforce. “We are currently seeing loyalty between employers and employees decreasing, which means that retaining healthy, high performing employees is even more important. Organisations of the future need to trust their employees and manage by praise and reward,“ explains professor Cooper.
• Need to build resilience. The future world of work will place new pressures and forms of stress on employees. Working alongside intelligent machines and robots, which never stop, outperform humans and are incapable of social interactions, will require an entirely different set of skills. This may strip away everything good work in traditional social environment offers employees, such as a sense of identity and belonging, as well as social support. That’s why employers will need to introduce specialist training and wellbeing programmes to help their employees gain skills that will build their resilience and help them to cope in new circumstances.
• Forward-thinking education. New jobs in partially-automated, remote or less secure workplaces may require a greater variety of ‘soft skills’, including creativity, leadership, flexibility and social skills, as well as skills related to new technology and the ability to collaborate with intelligent machines and robots. School and training bodies should start developing such skills and this process should continue beyond the compulsory education system. Such training must teach employees how to look after themselves, as well as how to take responsibility for their own health, safety and wellbeing.
• Updating regulatory systems to protect modern workers. In modern workplaces, where humans will work alongside robots, and companies operate across borders, the answer to the question of where ownership of risk lies, i.e. who should take responsibility if something goes wrong, will be of crucial importance. As employment contracts are increasingly diffuse (people in the gig economy are often not classified as workers), companies may wish to avoid the costs of sickness absence or liability insurance. The government should look at all measures to protect the self-employed and gig workers.
• Understanding future risks. These fundamental changes to work and the work environment present huge risks to employers, employees, the economy and the environment. For example, the fast pace of innovation, insecurity around employment status and a drive for efficiency are putting increasing pressure on people, which can lead to stress, which people working remotely may not be able to handle, particularly if they are older. The current understanding of these risks is poor in places. The report, while identifying the risks which have particular relevance to employee health, safety and wellbeing, calls for further research into this area.

Matthew Holder, Head of Campaigns at the British Safety Council, said: “At a time when work is rapidly changing, whether through technological innovation or types of employment, there is an urgent need to have a more strategic view on what research says about the future of work and risk, and how these two issues are related. Future risk: Impact of work on employee health, safety and wellbeing tells us that the state of this research needs to improve if we are going to take action to enhance people’s physical and mental wellbeing.

“I’m also pleased to see the report go beyond this ‘call for more research’ and make concrete recommendations how Government, regulators, businesses and the trade unions, the educational system and organisations like the British Safety Council can act today to prepare us to face the risks of tomorrow.”

The report can be downloaded at britsafe.org/futurerisk-report

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