We keep a close eye on any proposed legislation from the HSE that may affect your business, although we also keep an eye of their strategic plans, which can give us a good idea of the kind of areas that are likely to be tackled in coming years (e.g. EU Directives etc).

At the end of March, an HSE senior management team presented a future plan to the HSE Board, which included a couple of items of interest.  Although the paper focussed on specific risk areas, post 2011 strategy is summarised as "the creation of healthier workplaces through improved standards of occupational health management", which is positive from an occupational health provider's perspective.

However, the thinking within the HSE as to how this may develop in practice is shown in posts 10-13 pages 14/15, which indicate a desire to move towards some kind of enforcement framework and statements such as "consequences of poor health management should be just as 'costly' as poor safety management" are concerning from a business management perspective.

The full HSE Business Plan for 2010-11 has also recently been publsihed and Objective 2, page 14 shows a continued focus on musculo-skeletal disorders and work-related stress, so the indications are that the HSE may continue to assert it's role in workplace health, rather than just safety.

Although the documents are showing an interest in becoming more involved in workplace health, the steps taken so far by the HSE are encouraging from the viewpoint of helping buisnesses manage their health risks better, for example, with the recent launch of a free tool (link below), developed in association with the CIPD and Investors in People, to help managers check whether they have the right behaviours to reduce stress at work - it's aim is to help managers reflect on their behaviour and management style.

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