Introduction

Little Village  is committed to ensuring that its activities are safe and it will do whatever it can to provide for the health, safety and welfare of all volunteers, members and visitors ensuring that risks to volunteers, members and visitors are minimised at all times. It will observe the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (“HASAWA”) and all relevant regulations and codes of practice made under it.  

The Stock Manager at each Little Village site has overall responsibility for health and safety at the relevant site, and for ensuring that Little Village fulfils its legal responsibilities. Little Village recognises that it is the duty of the Stock Managers, members of staff  and volunteers to uphold this Policy and to provide the necessary funds and resources to put it into practice.

This policy will be reviewed annually by each site and the Board of Trustees. 

Little Village Responsibilities

The Stock Managers at each site responsible for the implementation and monitoring of health and safety policies and recommending changes where necessary are: Barbara Chewings (Camden), Jo Colliss (Wandsworth) and TBC (Southwark). Sophia Parker, Chief Executive has overall responsibility for Health & Safety as delegated by the Trustee Board.   

All accidents or unsafe incidents will be investigated by the relevant Stock Manager as soon as possible and then reported to the Site Director. 

Little Village is responsible for

• Assessing the risk to the health and safety of volunteers, members and visitors and identifying what measures are needed to comply with its health and safety obligations;
• Ensuring that venues or vehicles used for events and donating are safe and minimising risk to health including safe ways of entering and leaving;
• Ensuring that equipment is safe and well maintained;
• Providing information, instruction, training and supervision to volunteers in safe working methods and procedures as required;
• Ensuring that all employed members of staff interacting with the public are Disclosure & Barring Service (“DBS”) checked and making all volunteers aware of the Little Village Child Protection Policy;
• Encouraging volunteers and members to co-operate in ensuring safe and healthy conditions and systems by effective joint consultation;
• Establishing emergency procedures as required. 

Volunteer Responsibilities

Little Village Volunteers are responsible for ensuring that:

• They are aware of the contents of this safety policy
• They comply with this policy
• They take care of themselves and others who may be affected by their actions or omissions
• They report all accidents, or unsafe situations, and any near misses (things which could have led to an accident), to the Stock Manager or another member of staff at once.
• They are aware of the precautions they need to take as noted on the relevant risk assessments. 
• They record accidents or near misses at work in the accident book.
• They are aware of all fire procedures for the area in which they are working.
• If they identify anything which they think could be in any way unsafe, they will report it.

Risk Assessments

The Stock Managers will ensure that all premises and tasks are assessed in line with the current relevant legislation. Assessments will be repeated when there is a

• An event to organise
• change in legislation
• change of premises
• significant change in work carried out 
• transfer to new technology

or any other reason which makes original assessment not valid. 

Training 

To comply with legislation and to promote the health, safety and welfare of volunteers, health and safety training will be provided as follows:

• at inductions
• on the introduction of new technology
• when changes are made to venues
• when training needs are identified during risk assessments.

Resolving health and safety problems 

Any volunteer with a health and safety concern must first tell the relevant Stock Manager.

If, after investigation, the problem is not corrected in a reasonable time, or the Stock Manager decides that no action is required but the volunteer is not satisfied with this, the volunteer may then refer the matter to the Site Director. This must be in writing.

If the volunteer is still dissatisfied, the matter will be entered on the agenda for the next meeting of the trustees.