Iain Rodgers, HWL Adviser
In his previous job in environmental health, Iain Rodgers used to visit employers to make sure that they were complying with the law. But now that he is a Healthy Working Lives Adviser, he is enjoying the opportunity to play a more supportive role.
“I trained as an environmental health officer for nine years – I worked in Northern Ireland for a year and worked for the Edinburgh City Council,” he says. “But occupational health and safety was my interest, and my preferred role was providing advice and support.”
Iain, who started as a HWL Adviser in occupational health and safety in May 2007, now helps small and medium enterprises with one-to-one guidance on the legislation that applies to their business. And he understands that employers can easily get bogged down by health and safety issues.
“There’s lots of different legislation out there, and some will apply to some businesses, and not to others,” he explains. “The Health and Safety at Work Act applies to everyone, but other pieces of legislation will apply to different work activities.
“So it’s about ensuring they are aware of the legislation that applies to them. We will also provide them with current advice on good working practice. What we try to do is tailor our support to their needs.”
Most of Iain’s referrals come through the HWL Adviceline, which employers and employees can use to obtain free and confidential advice about occupational health and safety. Many employers use the Adviceline to request a Workplace Visit, which Iain or one of his colleagues can carry out at no cost to the business.
“Most of all our visits come through the Adviceline,” he says. “Large businesses tend to have a lot of in-house expertise, so our main emphasis is on small to medium enterprises.”
The focus of the Workplace Visit is to identify any potential hazards to staff or clients, and then help the employer to reduce the risks of accidents or ill health, he explains.
“Whenever we go in, we would sit down with the manager and we would get an exact idea of what the organisation is about,” says Iain. “We would go through some questions to get an idea of how complicated they are, and then what we would do is have a good look round their premises.
“At the end of that, we would do a good summary of the visit and that would be followed by a structured report. Our report is structured in red, amber and green so there are priorities, and in the summary of the report, we would give them an overview of the visit and incorporate advice on good practice.”
He adds that the report aims to give employers the information they need to start addressing any problems. “The report tells you exactly where you have fallen down and where you need to improve,” he says. “We would have links for further information, and in most of my reports I would also give them information about the HWL Award Programme.
“Once we have put to bed any concerns about health and safety, then just working through the report might build their confidence. From this they may then want to look at the wider health agenda, and that’s really what the Award Programme captures.”
If there is a common problem that all employers tend to worry about, then it’s grappling with the idea of risk assessment, says Iain. “Quite often businesses haven’t fully understood the concept, and that’s where everything stems from,” he says. “They either put in too little control or too much control. But what you need to do is identify who is at risk, and then ensure that if hazards can’t be eliminated, that the risks are well-managed.”
Whatever he advises an employer during a Workplace Visit, Iain is able to reassure them that their details will remain confidential and won’t be passed to any other agencies.
“We are not an enforcement authority, and we don’t liaise with the enforcement authorities,” he says. “We are part of the NHS, and we are here to provide free and confidential advice.
“If you are one of the businesses who are reluctant to contact an enforcement authority that is the benefit of having the likes of ourselves.”
Iain hopes that his own enthusiasm for his new role will help to encourage employers to do more to promote safer and healthier workplaces.
“It is very wide-ranging job and you get to meet a lot of different organisations and interact with different people. It’s a job I enjoy, and hopefully that comes across when I am out on visits.”
