Key Health and safety legislation

Manual Handling
Here is someone information for employers and employees in the health and social care sectors involved in moving and handling, particularly those who assess moving and handling needs and carry out handling activities.
Moving and handling is an important part of the working day for most employees; from moving equipment, laundry, catering, supplies or waste to assisting residents in moving.
The moving and handling of people is a regular task in health and social care, which if not done safely, can cause serious injury to service users and staff.
Poor moving and handling practice can lead to:
Back pain and musculoskeletal disorders, which can lead to inability to work
Moving and handling accidents – which can injure both the person being moved and the employee
Discomfort and a lack of dignity for the person being moved
You must take action to prevent or minimise the risk of injury.
What you need to do - Moving and handling
If risks from moving and handling are to be accomplished successfully, there must be support from those at the higher arc of the organisation, whatever its size. This can be expressed in a clear statement of policy – supported by organisational arrangements – to ensure that the statement is realised. Key elements include: recognition of the risks commitment to introducing precautions to reduce that risk a statement of clear roles and responsibilities an explanation of what is expected from individual employees arrangements for training and providing / maintaining equipment arrangements for monitoring compliance a commitment to supporting people who have been injured in connection with their work

Employers must reduce the risk of injury to staff and people using care services by: avoiding those manual handling tasks that could result in injury, where reasonably practicable assessing the risks from moving and handling that cannot be avoided putting measures in place to reduce the risk, where reasonably practicable
Employees must: follow appropriate systems of work and use the equipment provided co-operate with their employer and let them know of any problems take reasonable care to ensure that their actions do not put themselves or others at risk
Do I need a manual handling policy?
Health and social care providers carrying out a wide variety of moving and handling activities may need to create a moving and handling policy.
Key elements should include: a statement of the organisation’s commitment to managing the risks associated with moving and handling people and loads details of who is responsible for doing what details of your risk assessment and action planning processes a commitment to introduce measures to reduce the risk arrangements for training arrangements for providing and maintaining handling equipment details of your systems for monitoring compliance with the policy and for regular review information for staff on reporting pain and injuries
Carrying out a risk assessment
Moving and handling risk assessments help identify where injuries may occur and what to do to prevent them. It should be possible to complete the majority of assessments in-house as no-one knows your business better. The person carrying out the assessments must be capable to identify and address the risks from the most complicated handling activities you carry out. This usually requires specific training.

Identifying the risk
Activities that may increase the risk include, for example: assisting in person transfers aiding treatment assisting in carrying out daily activities (such as bathing) with individuals who will have specific needs
. Two types of risk assessment are usually needed:
1. Generic assessments to consider the overall needs of the setting, looking at: the type and frequency of moving and handling tasks overall equipment needs staffing the environment what moving and handling would be required in