To minimise farming accidents H&H Insurance Brokers, launches innovative health and safety support package for those working in the farming and rural sectors.
An innovative service H&H Safety, aimed at safeguarding agricultural livelihoods and helping farmers to adhere to current legislation, has been launched today at Agri-Expo by one of the UK’s leading rural insurance advisers, H&H Insurance Brokers.
With heavy machinery, unpredictable weather and livestock, farms are by nature hazardous places and this new range of health & safety and risk management services, developed specifically for the rural and farming community in partnership with IRM Safety, aims to make this a thing of the past.
These services, including practical training courses and the introduction of a programme of policies and procedures, come under the banner of a dedicated new brand – H&H Safety – Risk Management Made Easy. All are tried and tested and are 100% compliant with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regulations.
H&H Insurance Brokers has led the way to develop this portfolio of ‘one-stop-shop’ health and safety service packages for the farming industry that can be tailored to specific requirements and delivered flexibly by a specialist team. The suite of services has been designed for all sizes of farm business from small family farms to large estates. It covers all areas of health and safety and includes at Premier Level:
- Development and maintenance of bespoke health & safety management system for your business
- Access to online health and safety documentation
- Development of further documents during the contract period
- Health & Safety telephone support.
- Initial audit and inspection of business
The Elite Level offers an upgrade to include:
- Detailed audit action report
- Creation of fire risk assessments and emergency procedures
- Development of annual health and safety action planner
- Supply of relevant safety notice signage
- Act as a ‘competent person’ in relation to health and safety.
Philip Pagin Rural Sales Manager at H&H Insurance Brokers, who has been leading the H&H Safety programme, explains why as a company they felt it was so important to support farmers with this initiative: “Historically there has been inequality between farmers who have taken health and safety very seriously and protected against risk, and those that haven’t and just paid it lip service. This has resulted in the amount paid for the premiums remaining the same, despite the fact they not all are managing the risk equally.
So, in launching H&H Safety, our aim is not only to provide a value-added service, but to give farmers the tools to do a better job and ensure a safer place to work for all.”
“These services available have been specifically designed to help farmers to manage and evidence their risk and prioritise health and safety so that they are meeting their obligations within current legislation. As a result, some insurers are already giving indications that they would lower premiums for those that take part as the risk is significantly reduced.”
For example, the Health & Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require all employers to provide first-aid equipment and facilities in the case of injury or illness at work, but it is a grey area as to what it means to the farming community. After all, we are not talking about a cut finger, lots of the industry are lone workers with complex machinery, so it is imperative to educate on safety to prevent injury or worse.
In response, H&H Safety has developed amongst other bespoke training programmes, a farm-focussed first aid course, which provides practical scenario-based training to lead farmers through various incidents that could happen in a farm environment and the best course of action to take.
In addition to practical training courses, the new service will assist farmers with all health and safety processes to make it as straight forward as possible. Its purpose is to ensure that agricultural business owners have a helping hand to develop a management system for their individual needs with various tools available online as well as access to an online document service specific to the subscriber’s needs.
This development comes at a time when the HSE, the body that governs workplace legislation, puts farmers under the spotlight by announcing they must better manage their workplace risk or face the consequences of penalties. Greater onus will be put on farmers to ensure that they are protecting themselves, as well as their workers, in order to comply with legislation and ultimately prevent death, injury or ill-health.
Philip adds: “The value in our new service is that it will focus farmers on the importance of Health and Safety in the agricultural workplace, their legislative responsibilities and of course it brings more fairness within the business as farmers who take health and safety seriously will be rewarded for their commitment.”
The HSE remains very much focussed on preventing the misery and inconvenience that comes from not protecting health and safety compliance, especially as most incidents are completely avoidable. Knowledge Transfer is also key and simple measures and common sense from education on the subject can make a real difference and with support of extra services such as the ones within H&H Safety, farms can meet health and safety legislation, but much more importantly, be safe places to work.
H&H Safety is a trading name of H&H Insurance Brokers, who offer independent advice on all aspects of rural and business insurances, working in partnership with IRM Safety, who provide health and safety support to businesses across the UK.
For more information on the services covered by H&H Safety or details of the First Aid Course for Farmers on Wednesday 11 December, please contact the team on 01228 406290 or email us directly.