Summary of the Health and Safety Co-Ordinators Meeting
Conducted on Thursday 17th March 2016 - Jubilee – Room 155 - 10:00-11:30
1
New Team Member Introductions
Wendy is currently working on completing all of the audits and inspections for
residential and academic buildings
Lisa is currently working within the Life Sciences departments.
Wendy Vorster - [email protected] or ext 3553
Lisa Haws – [email protected] or 0748 405 1837
2
Update Of Asbestos Survey Programme
Nic explains that the asbestos survey schedule has experienced some delays and as
such will now be co-ordinated with the building managers to arrange the testing. Once
dates have been agreed they will be arranged with the co-ordinators to ensure
someone is available to assist where necessary. The Building Managers will be the key
contacts during the re-survey programme. All dates are proposed, and can be altered to
accommodate examinations and events.
3
Audit Programme 2016
Wendy explains to the attendees that she has now completed the audit schedule dates
and will be conducting these throughout 2016, with Lisa Haws conducting the Life
Science Audits. Wendy will be conducting audits of each of the schools documents
against the USHA Health and Safety Management Profile, which during 2016 will audit
the following areas; Leadership, Planning for Emergencies, Health and Safety
Arrangements, Risk Assessments and Risk Control.
A copy of the USHE HASMAP is attached for your reference. If you have any questions
please contact Wendy Vorster.
4
Reporting Defects - Service Centre Process
Nic confirms the process of how to report all defects through the service centre and
explains that his sidewards step in to asbestos management may mean a delay in
issues answered, so should always be sent directly to the Service Centre. As such
please CC [email protected] for any issues that pose a
significant risk to health or safety.
Comments: Work orders are being logged with the Service Centre by the coordinators. The WO is then being closed as completed, but on inspection of the job it is
either a temporary fix has been made or the job is not to a satisfactory standard.
Response: Nic will follow this up with the Estates Team. The Coordinators are
reminded to report to the Service Centre any job that has not been fully closed.
5
Evac+ Chairs
Nic explains that 60 Evacuation Chairs have now been purchased and are due to be
installed around campus. Once installation has taken place a list of the locations will be
added to the Health and Safety webpages. Training sessions will be arranged once
installation has taken place, so it is requested that lists of staff members to be trained
are composed.
Comments: The process of PEEP Management was raised, with regards to the
responsibilities of creating them.
Response: No further action or comment was noted following the previous meeting,
other than Martin Combs will now be conducting the training course and is currently
creating a new presentation. Revised PEEP training will be rolled out to all staff, dates
to be confirmed.
6
DMS Update - How To Use
The Deaf Messaging Service is now live and stickers have been placed in buildings to
assist with logging on to the system. The student union has also circulated some
information to their users.
Comments: An issue was raised regarding text messages being received during the
fire alarm testing each week.
Response: Fireco have been on site and conducted updates to the software which
should prevent this from happening again. Martin Combs will follow this up with Fireco.
7
School Invitations To H&S Committee Meetings
Nic explains the requirement for the schools to invite a member of the QSHE Team to
their H&S Committee Meetings as this gives the option of having their local issues
passed up to University Committee level if appropriate.
Comments: Responsibilities between SEF and the University Committee Meetings are
questioned.
Response: NC confirms that although the Manager of the QSHE Team is invited to
attend the Health, Safety and Environment meeting, it is a University owned meeting.
SEF involvement at the local level gives the schools the chance to have health and
safety advisors available to answer issues.
Any Other Business

The Health and Safety webpages have now been updated and as such some of the
links saved in favourites may no longer work. Please visit the homepage
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/hso/ or the A-Z Section
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/hso/hsoatoz to replace these links.

We have an IOSH Managing Safely starting in April which has a few spaces
remaining. This course will run on the 14th, 15th, 21st and 22nd April and will run from
9.30-5pm on each of the days. We have split the course days over two weeks to try
to assist with work loads. If spaces are not filled on this course we will have to
postpone and will start running a waiting list.

Newsletters are now being created and are being added to the Health and Safety
webpage. These are much more condensed than previous copies circulated. They
can be found at http://www.sussex.ac.uk/hso/policies/hsonewsletter
 Comments: It is requested that meetings be created from this meeting.
Response: QSHE agreed to produce a meeting summary to circulate to the group.
 Comments: Traffic on campus is mentioned and the parking process and dangers
of traffic are discussed.
Response: NC confirms that Chris Wadey (Transport Manager) has been working
on improvement plans consisting of working with operation Crackdown
(http://www.operationcrackdown.org/) Speed Testing, and the route of the buses on
campus. NC will take the concerns back to Chris Wadey.
 Comments: It is questioned who has the responsibility of completing initial
inductions within the schools.
Response: Schools are responsible for the completion of staff general health and
safety induction sessions.
 Comments: Accidents on Sussex Direct do not appear to be being allocated to
people anymore and the follow up process does not seem to be happening.
Response: NC confirms that there will only be an allocation or follow up if the
incident form has not been given enough information. The incident system is looked
at daily to ensure any incidents can be followed up promptly.
 Comments: Financial allocation for DSE is raised, with the query being that there is
no budget within SEF, so where does the money come from.
Response: NC confirms that it is down to the schools to pay for University staff
DSE Equipment. It is mentioned by a co-ordinator that for students there is a
Disabled Student Allowance which will assist with the cost if accepted. If not then
there is a service which will refer students to the University for assistance with
costs.
 Comments: Following a recent DSE Assessors course, some concern was raised
by attendees with regards to the content of the course.
Response: NC confirmed that all attendees wishing to re-book or discuss a further
training requirement are to contact Claire Dart at
[email protected] , who will then ensure sufficient training
is available.
 Comments: The process of driving at work is questioned and as to whether you
must provide a driving licence and business insurance.
Response: NC confirms that the process set by the University is that these
documents should be provided once a year, which will allow staff to driving for work
purposes.