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sarah.blakeway@outlook.com  
#1 Posted : 11 August 2022 09:11:13(UTC)
Rank: New forum user
sarah.blakeway@outlook.com

We have agency staff who sign off with their agency if they have any health conditions, but we don't currently undertake full hearing / HAVS screening before they start with us as we do with our regular employees. At what point do other organisations ask agency staff to complete the full screening process- 12 week point? Also how do people retain the information from when the staff are agency workers compared to full staff? Obviously if we start screening agency staff it will result in a significant delay which circumnavigates the purpose of having agency staff! All thoughts appreciated - Thanks 

lukewildsmith  
#2 Posted : 11 August 2022 09:39:39(UTC)
Rank: New forum user
lukewildsmith

Originally Posted by: sarah.blakeway@outlook.com Go to Quoted Post

We have agency staff who sign off with their agency if they have any health conditions, but we don't currently undertake full hearing / HAVS screening before they start with us as we do with our regular employees. At what point do other organisations ask agency staff to complete the full screening process- 12 week point? Also how do people retain the information from when the staff are agency workers compared to full staff? Obviously if we start screening agency staff it will result in a significant delay which circumnavigates the purpose of having agency staff! All thoughts appreciated - Thanks 

I don't fully understand your question, do they have health conditions or do they not?

I would suggest in my opinion to treat your agency staff equally with your normal employees.

sarah.blakeway@outlook.com  
#3 Posted : 11 August 2022 10:02:25(UTC)
Rank: New forum user
sarah.blakeway@outlook.com

Originally Posted by: lukewildsmith Go to Quoted Post
Originally Posted by: sarah.blakeway@outlook.com Go to Quoted Post

We have agency staff who sign off with their agency if they have any health conditions, but we don't currently undertake full hearing / HAVS screening before they start with us as we do with our regular employees. At what point do other organisations ask agency staff to complete the full screening process- 12 week point? Also how do people retain the information from when the staff are agency workers compared to full staff? Obviously if we start screening agency staff it will result in a significant delay which circumnavigates the purpose of having agency staff! All thoughts appreciated - Thanks 

I don't fully understand your question, do they have health conditions or do they not?

I would suggest in my opinion to treat your agency staff equally with your normal employees.

So far no-one has notified of any conditions, we would love to treat the agency staff the same as our staff however the issue is around the delay in doing so. Hence asking if anyone else does the process fully for agency staff. We would not be able to simply call an agency and have staff arrive the next day for duty if we needed to go down the health sureveillance route with our third party provider, it would take at least a couple of days but in many cases that would be too long. 

Just trying to gauge what other organisations in a similar situation do - in my previous roles we have done the same as we do here, but the push is more focussed on equality for agency staff now. 

antbruce001  
#4 Posted : 11 August 2022 10:16:08(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
antbruce001

Sarah,

This is addressed in Regulation 15 of the Managment Regs - to some degree. 

However, Reg 15 is concerned about the provision of information which includes the need to inform 'employees' of the need for Health Surveillance. It does not include any requirements relating to who should provided the Health Surveillance, either their employer (Agency) or the worplace employer (Company).

What the company must do is ensure the same standards are applied to the temporary workers as to their own staff. If your staff doing the same job need pre-work or on-going Health Surveillance then so do temporary workers. Who undertakes the Health Surveillance is a matter of agreement with Agency. But ulimately its the Agency that carries the 'default' duty to ensure it is provided once they have been informed of the need for it. You may have some liability under Section 3 if you allow people to work you who have not had the required Health Surveillance.

Hope it helps.

thanks 1 user thanked antbruce001 for this useful post.
sarah.blakeway@outlook.com on 11/08/2022(UTC)
bigpub  
#5 Posted : 17 August 2022 12:36:13(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
bigpub

If they are agency staff they are not your employees. Perhaps you should insists that their employer does this and reprts any concerns to you.

Kate  
#6 Posted : 17 August 2022 13:51:16(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Kate

I don't see any value in expecting the agency to provide health surveillance.  For one thing they are not familiar with the working conditions that are making the surveillance necessary and have no power to improve them.  For another, even if they agreed to do it, they would just charge it back to the client and no doubt take a cut for it.

Kate  
#7 Posted : 17 August 2022 13:54:54(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Kate

In the past, I have included long-term agency staff in health surveillance on the same basis as employees.  However the key to this is "long-term".

chris42  
#8 Posted : 17 August 2022 15:31:45(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
chris42

https://www.hse.gov.uk/health-surveillance/faqs.htm

I run an employment agency. What are my health surveillance responsibilities?

If the agency workers you supply are your employees, you are responsible for any health surveillance needed. Before placing a worker with a user business, you need to check whether they will be doing work that requires health surveillance. If health surveillance is needed, you might be able to arrange for the user business to do health surveillance on your behalf – but you are still responsible for making sure that any necessary health surveillance is done and for keeping health records if the workers are your employees.

The user business is not legally required to do health surveillance for workers who are not its employees, and if you can't get the user business's agreement to do so, you will need to organise any necessary health surveillance yourself. Following the guidance on this site will help you do this.

thanks 3 users thanked chris42 for this useful post.
Kate on 17/08/2022(UTC), RVThompson on 18/08/2022(UTC), antbruce001 on 22/08/2022(UTC)
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