FSE brings health and safety best practice to the forefront

13 Dec 2018

The Faculty of Science and Engineering has been working towards creating a safe workplace and ensuring all staff understand the role they play in maintaining health and safety standards - action from Staff Survey 2017

There are lots of interesting and innovative activities, experiments and events that take place within FSE and whilst it is the Faculty’s responsibility to provide a safe working environment, it is also paramount that we each understand our role in protecting ourselves, our colleagues, students and the wider public.  

In response to the last staff survey, FSE appointed an Acting Health and Safety Manager who implemented of a number of processes and coordinated a range of resources to support staff.  

In each School and Research Institute there is a School or Institute Safety Advisor. These health and safety professionals are a source of support for both academic and PSS colleagues.  In FSE, a School Safety Advisor’s network has been established and enables the SSAs to share any local issues and utilise the expertise that exists within the Faculty, to share best practice.  

There is also now a dedicated health and safety section on staffnet.   This section is growing rapidly and provides a central repository for information and guidance.  On here there is information on how to report an accident, details of first aiders, a selection of ‘how to’ videos covering topics such as safe soldering and use of hydrofluoric acid. There are also links to the Faculty-wide Health and Safety Sharepoint, a link to the new chemical inventory system (LabCup) and other resources such as the new standardised chemical risk assessment proforma.  

We are continuing to develop and grow this pool of resources and will shortly be delivering a health and safety academic awareness module in collaboration with the Faculty eLearning Team.