Getting the best health and safety practices in place and making sure you have adequate insurance are key concerns when setting up and running a sharing or a repair project.  Best practice advice in the sector has evolved based on insurance requirements,  general health and safety legal requirements, quality policies and practices and peer to peer learning. A positive safety culture is paramount.

This article draws on the expertise and experience of members and insurance professionals to provide guidance on this important topic.

Being Safe & Legal – online information session

Sue Briggs explains how to encourage a safety culture within your organisation and shares her top tips for ensuring safety is always a high priority. (00.02:4 – 00.17.2) . Sue spent 20 years as a consultant in Behavioural Safety in the oil and gas industry and now applies this learning to her work running repair mongers The General Store Selkirk.

John Mitchell from Wessex Insurance discusses what insurance is advised and how projects can assess, manage and mitigate risk. (repair cafes 00.21.0 -00.40.0.  Sharing libraries 00.40 – end).  John has been instrumental in developing new insurance products in areas the insurance industry traditionally does not like.

Summary of Sue’s Top Tips to encourage a culture of safety

  • Have clear processes in place, including the right tools and the right safety equipment.
  • Talk about safety a lot – make sure it is always high on the agenda.
  • If you are the leader/ manager remember what you do will be mirrored by your team.  What you pay attention to or ignore will strongly influence the safety culture.
  • Openness – be prepared to talk about and learn from mistakes with accountability but not blame.
  • Get comfortable with intervention – if something doesn’t look right or feel safe be prepared to challenge it.
  • Tidy, tidy, tidy – and then tidy some more.

Tool Library insurance

We also have a short (6 minute) follow up interview with Chris Hellawell talking about his experience of insurance and risk mitigation throughout his 10 years of running Edinburgh Tool Library.

 

 

Health and Safety links and best practice approaches

  • If you employ staff, you have a legal duty to do what is “reasonably practical” to ensure your health and safety and that of others who may be affected by what you do.  See more about your legal duties here.  You also have a legal requirement to have Employer’s Liability Insurance if your organisation has paid staff. Some insurers require this for volunteers, and we would advise that this is best practice. See Zero Waste Scotland advice on insurance.
  • Zero Waste Scotland’s Revolve Reuse Knowledge Hub  has wider guidance on your legal obligations along with a wealth of detailed resources for risk assessments, product safety and quality checking procedures.  This includes useful guidance on visual and function tests for product safety for tool libraries which can also be applied in relation to repair and maintenance of items.  There is also information on Fire Safety and First Aid.
  • Sample risk assessments are listed in our set up guides along with other useful template documents and advice on best practice procedures. Contact us for details.
  • Healthy Working Lives has a useful tool to assess your strengths and weaknesses in Health and Safety and advice to create a Health and Safety Action Plan.   Their website also has lots of further advice about managing the health and safety of your organisation.  Healthy Working Lives – Public Health Scotland

Insurance best practice approach

We would advise talking direct to a broker and being clear about your activities so that you know everything you do is covered.  It is good practice to review the detail of your insurance cover annually when it is renewed and also inform your insurer broker if anything about your project changes – who you are working with, where you are working, and what you are doing.

Two insurers popular with our members are:

Best practice advice is to have the following insurances in place.

Repair Projects

  • Employers Liability.
  • Public Liability Insurance.
  • Products Liability.

Sharing Projects

  • Employers Liability.
  • Public Liability Insurance.
  • Contents insurance.

FAQs

What PAT testing certification is required by Insurers?

It is always best to check with your insurer.  We have found insurers to be happy with the PAT testing certification provided to Share and Repair Network members by PASS Ltd.

How should projects check that a repairer is a safe and competent person? Responses from Share & Repair Network members:

“A clearly defined induction process, with a post repair functionality test by supervisor.”

“An initial interview, with a written record detailing experience, followed by induction.”

“Mentoring by an experienced repairer for a few sessions to assess skills. Clear introduction to risk assessments within induction procedures, including signing to acknowledge they understand and will comply with all guidance.”