When bakers Goodfellow & Steven wanted some help with health and safety issues at their Dundee-based factory, they weren’t quite sure where to turn for advice.

When bakers Goodfellow & Steven wanted some help with health and safety issues at their Dundee-based factory, they weren't quite sure where to turn for advice.

After a visit from the Health and Safety Executive, the company got in touch with the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives. For the past three years, Goodfellow’s have benefited from expert assistance from their dedicated adviser, Jane Duffy.

“We had an initial visit from the Health and Safety Executive, and they pointed out a couple of areas we needed to improve on,” recalls factory manager Rob Sinclair.

“That was the initial shock, and we knew we had to sort it out. They made recommendations, and they wanted to see what we would do to rectify it.”

Rob, who leads a team of 50 staff who all play their part in manufacturing cakes, croissants, sandwiches and pies, adds that it wasn’t easy to work out what they were being asked to do – until Jane stepped in.

“Health and safety-wise, at that time, no one had any inkling about what people were talking about,” he says. “When the HSE came in, they said ‘this has to be done’, and we didn’t know where to start. Jane helped us to prioritise what we needed to fix.”

Jane first visited the factory after Goodfellow’s contacted the Healthy Working Lives Adviceline, on the recommendation of the Scottish Association of Master Bakers.

“They had a few health and safety concerns,” she recalls. “There were a few issues around machinery, with cuts and burns, and there were a few noise and manual handling issues. There was also an issue around flour dust.”

Jane’s first priority was to help the management team to understand what the health and safety recommendations actually meant for their business, and then she offered some practical guidance on how to avoid or at least minimise risks in the workplace.

“For example, with flour dust, there needs to be proper control measures in place,” she says. “You have got to try to control the exposure at source, for example by enclosing processes that could cause flour dust to enter the breathing zone and to implement simple measures such as hoovering rather than sweeping.”

Jane adds that Goodfellow’s were far from unusual in having difficulties with making sense of health and safety issues. “The feedback we consistently get is about the amount of red tape for small and medium businesses – not just health and safety but in tax and maternity rights. It’s a whole gamut of things.”

Jane, who has a background in occupational health and is also qualified in health and safety, started work as an adviser in 2004, and finds that many employers recommend her to contacts in other businesses.

She adds: “Employers are generally very welcoming and invite us along. They know that we don’t have any enforcement powers and it’s purely advisory. It’s also free and accessible.

“What I try to do is have a feel for what they do and what they already have in place – we are looking for a benchmark. We will go through some of the paperwork and look at what they have got, and advise on what they need to have in place. We will also have a walk around and see if there are any issues in the workplace.”

In the case of Goodfellow’s, support through the initial workplace assessment, tailored advice and follow-up visits has helped the company to address the HSE’s concerns and make real progress, adds Jane.

“I’ve been working with Goodfellow’s since 2005 – there are still things to be done and we recognise that,” she says. “But we have got to look at the resources that are available and they have done an awful lot.

“It’s a credit to Rob what he has managed to improve – it’s a different place from what it was.”