The Employer's Responsibility 

Under the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 and the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996, employers must consult with employees on health and safety matters, and this includes fatigue.

Consultation involves employers not only giving information to employees but also listening to and taking account of what employees say before they make any health and safety decisions.

Managers can make a real difference by being open to the fact fatigue is a significant risk and encouraging conversations with their staff when it arises. 

Managers can also consider how best to tackle the six key areas of work design (identified by the HSE); if not properly managed, these can contribute to poor health, lower productivity and increased accident and sickness absence rates.

The six key areas are:

• Demands – this includes issues such as workload, work patterns and the work environment
• Control – how much say the person has in the way they do their work
• Support – this includes the encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues
• Relationships – this includes promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour
• Role – whether people understand their role within the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles
• Change – how organisational change (large or small) is managed and communicated in the organisation

The HSE Stress Workbook (hse.gov.uk) sets out an approach which can make a real difference.

Support Plans/Work Place Adjustment Passports

Fatigue cannot always be directly linked to workplace activities and there may be occasions where an officer requires additional support to help them through a difficult period in their life.  Support Plans and Adjustment Passports are excellent tools which could be used to support an officer with those additional challenges.

A Support Plan is developed to help someone to succeed and should not be seen as a tool to address specific performance or behavioural concerns.

A Support Plan should be written in first person from the supervisor to the officer with defined specific timeframes tied to specific steps needing to be accomplished while the support plan is in place. It establishes a partnership between the supervisor and officer. The officer committing to carrying out the defined steps within the established time frame with the supervisor committing to providing identified resources, training, review, feedback, etc.

During the plan period, supervisors will be expected to conduct check-in meetings as defined within the support plan to provide feedback regarding their progress. The supervisor should document the employee’s progress during the support plan and conduct a closure meeting at the conclusion of the plan period.

Workplace adjustments passports are similar in nature but are longer lasting.  They should be available to all officers and are not reserved for those with a diagnosed disability or condition. They are for all officers, staff and volunteers who face institutional, cultural, social and personal barriers in carrying out their roles.  More information is available via the following link Workplace adjustments passports | College of Policing

Analytical Tools

Regulation 5 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR), requires employers to plan, organise, control, monitor and review their health and safety arrangements. It is therefore important employers ensure they gather sufficient information to understand the specific issue and the causes of risk. 

If suitable and sufficient risk assessments are to be put in place, it is necessary to be able to understand the hazards associated with each role and activity, who will be impacted by these, and the level of harm expected.  There are many ways of achieving this some of which are shown below:

• Near Misses (attach link to near miss policy)
• Injury reports (see Recording Injuries information)
• Survey  – informal interviews and discussions, Federation Surveys and other  questionnaires.
• Accident / Injury / Near miss investigations (see the Investigating accidents and incidents: A workbook for employers, unions, safety representatives and safety professionals HSG245 (hse.gov.uk)).
• Biomathematical modelling to assess fatigue ( see link RR446 - the development of a fatigue / risk index for shiftworkers (hse.gov.uk))
• Complaints to Federation
• Workforce engaging via Health and Safety Reps (see Consulting with the Workforce information).
• Personal experience

Recording Injuries 

Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations, known as RIDDOR.  Details of RIDDOR requirements are shown on the following link what must be reported.

If you have more than 10 employees, you must keep an accident book, Social Security (Claims and Payments) Regulations 1979.  However, this best practise is recommended for you because:

• keeping records of incidents helps you to identify patterns of accidents and injuries, so you can better assess and manage risk in your workplace
• records can also be helpful when you are dealing with your insurance company
• make sure you protect people's personal details by storing records confidentially in a secure place.

Consulting with the workforce

Under the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 and the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996, employers must consult with employees on health and safety matters.

Consultation involves employers not only giving information to employees but also listening to and taking account of what employees say before they make any health and safety decisions. If a decision involving work equipment, processes or organisation could affect the health and safety of employees, such as any proposed changes to shift working arrangements, the employer must allow time to give the employees (or their representatives) information about the proposals.

The employer must also give the employees (or their representatives) the chance to express their views. Then the employer must take account of these views before reaching a decision.