The importance of correct Manual Handling
Manual handling is responsible for a third of all UK workplace injuries.
Those injuries include musculoskeletal complaints such as back problems, strains to arm and leg muscles, and overextension of joints such as knees and elbows.
Activities that can cause injury includes:
- Lifting;
- Putting down;
- Pushing or pulling;
- Carrying; or
- Moving loads.
Put into financial terms, workplace injuries cost UK businesses approximately £18 billion every year. While that figure may seem abstractly large, it is also one that can be reduced with regular health and safety reviews, simple changes to processes, and additional equipment to alleviate the burden on your employees.
You, as an employer have a legal duty, as included in the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992, to assess the risk of injury from hazardous manual handling and minimise or eliminate it where reasonably possible.
That legal duty extends to employers of any size.
Safety services:
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As experienced providers of clear, easy-to-understand wellbeing support, our team will be more than happy to discuss how they can help you.
How Loch Wellness can help:
Our health and safety specialists invite you to share the burden of responsibility for safe manual handling with them.
By undertaking a health and safety review, together we can understand current compliance. To help us in our understanding, we can undertake specific risk assessments, such as:
- Manual Handling Assessment Charts (MAC);
- Risk Assessment of Pushing and Pulling (RAPP); and
- Assessment of Repetitive Tasks (ART).
Having identified areas of improvement, we can help you to implement changes that might include:
- Redesigning your processes to avoid load movement;
- Automating processes;
- Introducing additional equipment to assist with moving the load; and
- Introducing training to improve load movement techniques.
In an age of liability, it’s important that you get manual handling right. We can help you to do so.
Loch Training & Wellbeing
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How often should manual handling training be given in the UK?
The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 outlines the responsibility of employers to reduce hazardous manual handling, but it does not cover the regularity of training. A good rule of thumb is to provide refresher training at least once every two years.
Training should be appropriate to the employee’s role and cover the duties they are expected to perform. Loch Wellness can help you to plan a training programme that is suitable for both your organisation and the roles that it contains.
What are some simple ways to improve manual handling?
Simple ways to improve manual handling might include reducing the load weight, providing the employee with additional equipment that can assist with carrying, reducing the carry distance, and automating parts or all of the process.
What is an annual health and safety review?
An annual health and safety review can assist you with your obligation to provide a safe working environment for your employees by assessing all aspects of your organisation’s health and safety. That might include your manual handling processes, fire safety, food safety, and general workplace policies and processes.
Every employee has the right to work in an environment where any risks have been assessed, minimised and, where reasonably possible, eliminated. A health and safety review, undertaken by Loch Wellness, is an efficient, minimally disruptive way of assessing your fulfilment as an employer of that obligation.
