You say you've communicated the findings of the risk assessments - you don't say you've acted on them. What about actions to reduce the manual handling risks - redesign of the work to reduce the extent of manual handling, mechanical aids and so on?

Manual handling is a significant issue in my organisation's work environment and we had carried out all of the usual assessments and training and had brought in a number of external specialist to provide a more objective approach. Although this had some effect, MH continued to present problems. We had the advantage of using an external company to carry out secret shopping exercises on our behalf and had asked the assessors to keep an eye of the manual handling behaviour of the staff and realised that most of the advice and training was being ignored. We followed this up by commissioning an independent ergonomist to carry out some assessments at various sites in relation to general work practices and requested that he provided a specific focus on manual handling behaviour. Although the ethics of these two approaches may be scientifically questionable, the information provided has been very useful and has resulted in a series of video and elearning training packages( not as expensive as I had feared), which involved staff in realistic situations that we hope will improve the observance of manual handling techniques and training by staff.

quote=MPH]Our single biggest H&S issue (as with many other companies) is that of injury / lost time resulting from Manual Handling activities. We have carried out all of the following: • Risk Assessed our activities and communicated the findings and Safe Systems of Work to all staff • We have fully trained internal instructors who deliver face to face training to all of our people at maximum intervals of two years. • For all incidents and accidents we carry out in depth investigations to determine root causes and implement identified corrective measures. Despite all this, Manual Handling related issues continue to occur. Can anyone suggest what more we could / should be doing. Thank you.

My comments relating to ethics were not in relation to the use of the ergonomist, who would not have accepted such a remit, but should have focused solely on the gathering of the initial information that led to using his speficic skills. The information provided by the more formal assessment resulted in the subsequent changes to the training practices. No slight on ergonomists was intended.

MPH, What has your staff turnover been like historically?

My thanks to you all for your input, some interesting thoughts. Mike