Posted By S J McCubbin Hi Everyone I am interested in hearing how people have approached implementing the new smoke free legislation with reference to night staff in care homes. Our night staff have to remain on on the premises at all times and until now have had a smoking room. Our draft policy favours a site-ban on smoking meaning that staff would have smoke outside the perimeter of the premises but I have heard that night workers in Scotland protested due to personal safety concerns and were allowed to carry on smoking on their premises. Does anyone have any views to share on this? Many Thanks

Posted By Merv Newman They don't have to go "off the premises" A smoking area not substantially enclosed will do. This means something like a two sided bus shelter. Then again, how do you deal with the problem of a smoker who takes 10 minutes every hour for a fag and the non-smoking employee who gets nothing apart from the legal tea and lunch breaks ? I say count the fag breaks against the tea and lunch breaks. 20 minutes for two fags ? There goes your coffee break and ten minutes off lunch. Another 2 fags and 20 minutes in the afternoon ? You've just lost tomorrows lunch break. Either that or 20 minutes pay. Smoker's choice Merv I'm a pipe smoker myself. 10 seconds and you can get all the nicotine you need

Posted By S J McCubbin Thanks for your help. Thats just the sort of information I was looking for. Sharon

Posted By J Knight Hi, Jack is right about the actual wording of the law of the Scottish regs, but I think the English ones are worded slightly differently. They say 'A designated room that is used as accommodation for persons aged 18 years or over in the premises specified in paragraph (2) is not smoke-free.' and it's that bit about the room being used as accommodation for persons etc which I think means we can't let staff use the smoking rooms. Certainly the guidance from DoH in England is very stringent, and makes stipulations which are lacking in Scotland, such as the idea that Residents' smoking rooms can't be used for other activities. So be a bit careful about this. We are not going to allow our staff to smoke indoors, even in smoking rooms, and we haven't allowed indoor smoking in either of our Scottish services. One of these is urban, one is three miles down a single track road from the nearest village; so each plays on different sorts of night-time fears. But we haven't had any sort of issues raised by our staff, and as far as we know they do go outside, John

Posted By J Knight Rob, There's much more to this than mad H&S professionals and prejudice. We are taking the view we are because we know what would happen in terms of staff relationships if we didn't. And in any event, its not my decision, this was decided by operational managers for operational reasons; if I don't tell you to stop smoking you shouldn't tell me how to run a Care Service (not that I know, I'm just the Safety Bloke) ;-) John

Posted By Peter Leese Spot on Rob.

Posted By J Knight Hi Peter, The only criterion was that we were given it, and that was quite a long time ago. Its a good service, but we wouldn't put it there now. Problem is that they're not easy to shift/relocate/redevelop. Makes the job interesting though; oh, by the way, did I mention that its a 17th Century Stately Home on a grand scale with a fabulous wood-panelled music room complete with pipe organ? Like I said, interesting, John