RISK ASSESSMENT - 20.10.2022

Care home charged with health and safety offences

A care home in Bristol faces trial after a resident was killed at their facility. Why is this a health and safety matter, is it relevant to you and what can you do to prevent a similar prosecution?

The incident

Jason Conroy (C) was a resident in a care home in Bristol, which provided residential care for adults with autism and Asperger’s syndrome. In October 2014 he strangled a fellow resident Melissa Mathieson (M) and has been jailed for life.

HSE involvement

The HSE has announced that it’s charged Alexandra Homes (Bristol) Ltd (AH) and former care home general manager Yvonne Hin (YH) following M’s death.

The company, along with YH, face two charges contrary to the Health and Safety at Work etc.Act 1974 (HSAW) . Firstly they are charged with failing to ensure the health, safety and welfare of employees from ”potential assault from residents” between 13 February and 13 October 2014. Secondly it’s alleged that they failed to provide adult care services accommodation for residents so as to ensure those affected, including M, were not exposed to the “risks from assault by C”. The trial will be heard in the Crown Court on 31 October 2022.

What point is the HSE making?

Under s.2 HSAW an employer has a duty to ensure the general health and safety of its employees and s.3 HSAW refers to a duty placed upon an employer that the same applies to non-employees who may be affected. This could be considered a harsh intervention by the HSE, especially as the incident was eight years ago. But it sends a strong message to businesses that if they are not putting controls in place where a risk is foreseeable, they will not fail to act. In AH and YH’s case it was likely that an incident could occur and they had failed to take steps to prevent it.

Keeping everyone safe

By undertaking risk assessments, documenting them and ensuring control measures are in place and effective you will be going a long way to meeting your obligations. Don’t forget that if you are protecting your staff from foreseeable risks, it will naturally follow that others who are not employed by you such as residents, members of the public, contractors, etc. will also be protected.

Tip. In your assessment remember to focus on anyone that can be affected by your acts or omissions.

Suitable and sufficient

Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 you must ensure that your risk assessment is “suitable and sufficient”. To satisfy interested parties and meet the suitable and sufficient test, the risk assessment should:

identify the significant risks and ignore the trivial detail that will not result in harm
identify and prioritise control measures
identify those who might be affected and be appropriate to the nature of the work
identify a time period during which it is likely to remain valid.

Tip. Use our risk assessment management checklist to make sure that you have covered each foreseeable hazard for your business so that nothing is overlooked (see The next step ).

For our risk assessment management checklist, visit https://www.tips-and-advice.co.uk , Download Zone, year 21 issue 4.

The care home is being prosecuted as it had failed in its duty of care to protect both staff and residents from risk of violence. To avoid a similar fate, make sure you have suitable and sufficient risk assessments and controls in place to protect everyone.