Posted By jackie Good morning everyone, I need some advice or should i say ammo to argue against yet another classic NHS internal restructure. The problem is i have been line managed and responsible for reporting H&S at Directorate level and now with this new restructure of my Directorate I will be operating health & safety within the Intergrated Governance Team which sits below executive level. In other words i have no direct link to the executive level where many of the decisions are made. I feel this move will only further dilute health & safety from the Trust board. Equally, by joining the Integrated Governance Team, which is heavily patient focused and not staff focused as is my role, i feel slightly thwarted in my capacity to function in my Health & Safety role as there could be a conflict of interest if i join the Intergrated Governance Team - as how can i audit my own team without causing conflict should i need to report the IG Team are underperformimng in H&S? Oh the joy! Any advice as to what my arguments could be or what my angle should be when i face my Director on Monday would be so so appreciated? Is there anyone else in a similar position? God bless the ole NHS eh?!? Kind regards, Jackie

Posted By Chris Packham To add to Warren's comments, are your senior managers aware of the Corporate Manslaughter Act? How would they respond if a failure of the health and safety system resulted in an employee being killed? Perhaps this might make them think again Chris

Posted By Raymond Rapp Jackie There is also the small matter of Directors' Duties, which is being promulgated via the IOD/HSE 'Leading health and safety at work' document. Although at present a voluntary code the HSE have implied it may be enforced through legislation in the near future. Ray

Posted By Kieran J Duignan Jackie In stating 'I need some advice or should i say ammo to argue against yet another classic NHS internal restructure', you indicate you are assuming that the proposed restructure will have a net adverse set of outcomes. Adopting a military metaphor appears to be an indication of a choice on your part of a relatively limited range of options. Whatever the structure of an organisation, the cultural issues are open to influence by those who chose appropriate metaphors and tools. So, my 'advice' is that you replace metaphors of 'ammo' with more creative tools of intervention and learn to operate at an equal or higher level of cultural competence than those you wish to influence. The history of organisational change indicates how much more fruitful influencing the cultural agenda is than investing your energy in structural battles or turf wars. As the IIRSM now appears to be leading the safety profession on the frontlines of cultural influence, you might find it useful to study the behaviour of some IIRSM members of Council - Dr. Peter Griffin in particular, who has been a model of influencing as an OSH leader and practitioner and choosing battles very, very carefully (without being reluctant to stand by employees of one of the organsations he worked for against their and his own employer in accordance with his professional ethics). RAther than misdirect time and energy on structural small print, he concentrated on cultivating a fertile network to draw on and contribute to.

Posted By jervis First thing Kieran in english please blimey! Jackie i work for the nhs as a union safety rep for UNITE . I totally understand where you are coming from where i work is very patient only for health and safety . They just done a huge programme on slips and falls all patient based. Wnen i mentioned about staff they said thats a different issue we are an NHS trust so patients first . For non believers i have minutes of the meeting. You mention a conflict of interest well stick to your guns as they have a duty of care for staff as well as patients.

Posted By jervis I consider my self told of.

Posted By ColinPink hello, Having been in health and safety and risk management in the nhs i think the Governance team is probably the best place to be as long as Health and SAfety has a good Exec Lead to highlight things to the board. if you look at the NHSLA acute risk managment standard its clear that the vast majority of risks are clinical which is why the governance team focusses on that and i would be surprissed if you get 1/5 of the incident reports that patient safety incidents generate Keep playing the game make sure your high level risks are on the risk register, make sure you refer to the effect on "standards for better health submission" and compliance. You should still have a direct report to an exec, make sure they chair the H+S committee. work hard with the front line nurse managers thats where most of the staff are, get them raising concerns too. If you can get the Governance Manager worried about a risk to compliance the board will notice. Hope that helps