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Posted By artisdeeian
Hello everyone.
Could anyone help me in regards to the legal aspects of a Stress policy. In other words do we have to have one in place or is it a case of being at the responsible Manager's discretion as to whether they establish one or not?
Ian.
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Posted By J Knight
Hi,
There isn't any legal requirement to have a stress policy; it might be something you need, or you could just put it in your general RA documents. How you choose to deal with it would depend on things like the size and complexity of the organisation, the extent to which other things get policies written about them, the nature of the work and so on. We for example don't have a stress policy, we have something called workplace wellbeing which belongs to HR but which invokes H&S type solutions where stress rears its ugly head,
John
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Posted By craig davies
i to am developing a stress policy / questionaire etc and have based it on the HSE guidelines. The info is very thorough and it is worth taking a look.
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Posted By jackw.
For information, The HSE put an improvement notice on an NHS trust in England-- main reason (although i believe the attitude of the CE did not help), they did not have stress risk assessments in place.
Cheers
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Posted By Jean Chamberlain
The HSE gave 5 improvement notices to a NHS trust, they included, stress, DSE, Manual Handling, Violence and Aggression in the workplace. The Trust worked with the HSE and the CFSMS to put together appropriate and acceptable paperwork. One organisation I worked for called their stress policy 'Psychological Well Being'. An employee reported the same organisation to the HSE for not managing stress appropriately, I was contacted as the Health and Safety Adviser by the HSE. I was asked for a copy of the policy, and what other activities we had in place to address stress in the workplace. It is worth remembering that this is one of those areas that the HSE are targeting.
Finally, on another occasion a county council were taken to court, and lost their case because they didn't have a stress policy in place. It is an identifiable risk, therefore, should be treated as seriously as manual handling. Just think about all the time the HSE has put into their risk standards.
Jean
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Posted By Jean Chamberlain
Oops, sorry I meant Management Standards. Have a look at the HSE site to evaluate how seriously they take this subject.
Jean
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Posted By J Knight
Hi Folks,
Although Jean is right in principle, a stress policy is not a legal requirement. The case against West Dorset Hospitals NHS Trust was based on lack of effective stress management (we went to meet the HR Director cos he used to work for us), and it is entirely possible to effectively manage stress without a 'Policy' as such.
My former employer, for example, has no H&S policies at all apart from the General statement and the statement of organisation, all their other H&S documentation goes under the name of procedural arrangements, which is actually what HASAWA talks about.
Stress (or at least, workplace stressors) can be an identified hazard of most workplaces, and arrangements should be in place to deal with it; whether these arrangements are described in a separate policy document is open to choice,
John
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Posted By Jean Chamberlain
John, you have made some very good points. I didn't actually say that there was a legal requirement for a stress policy. The trust with the 5 improvement notices, that I was referring to was in the West Midlands. I was simply contextualising my experiences with the HSE. Policies are useful from the perspective of having a framework that all can see and refer to when nec. A policy means that the organisation has thought about the subject and probably discussed it with a wide range of parties with an interest in the subject. I am inclined to favour the HSG 65 approach. However, what ever you call the arrangements in place to support the Health and Safety Policy, they should provide a means of measuring performance and be a key part of the health and safety management system.
To quote Drucker - 'You can't manage what you can't measure'
Regards
Jean
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Posted By Raymond Rapp
It is my understanding that organisations are supposed to manage employees health, including mental health (HASWA 74) as in occupational stress. Therefore I cannot see how you can effectively manage stress without some form of assessment and documentation.
The truth is, many organisations do not manage or measure stress levels in the workplace, partly due to the complexity of the issues. Indeed, some are still trying to come to terms with new and revised h&s legislation.
I always thought that the former NAW Regs were the least understood and implemented of all h&s legislation. Now of course superseded by the management of stress.
Ray
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Posted By J Knight
Hi Jean,
Agree, and in fact 'what doesn't get measured doesnt get done'. I suppose I'm reacting to the pressure that we are under to produce policies for every special interest hazard identified; RoSPA want an occupational road risk policy; Suzy Lamplugh want a lone working policy; HSE want a stress policy; but in fact in all three of the cases above effective management can be achieved by the use of tailored guidance and an effective RA policy. Arguably this is a more effective, and probably a more efficient approach,
John
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