Top health and safety status for Council

The standard is internationally accepted as a method of assessing and auditing occupational health and safety management system and is based on stringent legislation.

To achieve it the Council carried out a series of audits to establish a baseline for health and safety performance, before refining and improving management processes and introducing strict policies and controls to meet the criteria.

Congratulating the Council Mayor Brenda Stevenson said: “The result will not only benefit our employees, it will also benefit the public in terms of using leisure facilities and accessing other council run properties and public events. Improved services also enhance efficiency which impacts on costs, so the benefits of this certification are significant on a number of levels.”

Health and Safety Officer, Oonagh O’Doherty said the award had set a new precedent, adding: “We are delighted to have become the very first council to achieve this standard”.

“Staff at every level in the council have worked extremely hard to refine current practices in areas such as risk assessment, accident prevention, absenteeism, safe systems at work, and training for staff in health and safety.”

Occupational Health and Safety is a major concern for organisations in every industry. The OHSAS Standards covering OH&S management are intended to provide organisations with the elements of an effective management system which will help them achieve Occupational Health and Safety and economic objectives. By adopting more rigorous Health and safety practices organisations can reduce workplace accidents and sickness to cut related costs and downtime.