Ahead of a webinar on the topic tomorrow, panellist Dr Karen McDonnell from RoSPA on why slips, trips and falls should no longer be ignored.
According to statistics from the latest Global Burden of Disease study, falls are the single biggest cause of accidental injuries in the home, with the number of annual deaths nearly doubling in England from 3,667 in 1990 to 7,274 in 2019.
In addition, slips, trips and falls are the most common cause of injury at work, causing on average 40 per cent of all reported major injuries and costing employers over £500m per year.
They cause untold misery and pain to thousands of people every year as well as having a huge impact on the economy – so why are they so often brushed under the carpet and thought of as “inevitable”?
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has made fall prevention its number one priority and is calling on businesses and the health and safety community to join us in our mission.
Two organisations that are already working with us to prevent falls from happening are insurance company, RSA Group, and housing association, Trent & Dove.
Dr Karen McDonnell, Occupational Health and Safety Policy Adviser at RoSPA
RoSPA and RSA’s recent research into the area, contains new insights into what business leaders think about slips, trips and falls. The study found that more than half of decision makers think that workplace falls are inevitable and a third don’t see slips, trips and falls as an issue for their business. Shockingly, 10 per cent of business leaders are actively hostile to the idea of slips, trips and falls being preventable in the workplace.
However, there is so much that we can do to stop slips, trips and falls – and the needless harm they cause – from happening, and it doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. Last year, RoSPA and RSA launched a free resource which equips people with knowledge of the key causes of falls, the skills and confidence to prevent falls, as well as guidance on how to respond if someone experiences a fall. Fall Fighter is an interactive session that can be completed in just 15-20 minutes. By joining as an employer, charity or community group, you can do something positive for your employees, volunteers, their loved ones and the community.
Trent & Dove has already embarked on a pioneering new fall prevention project within the social housing sector, training their staff and partners using RoSPA’s Fall Fighter resource and raising awareness of the risk of falls, particularly to older people.
The company won the top honour at RoSPA’s Health and Safety Awards, the Sir George Earle Trophy, earlier this year for its highly engaged, driven approach to continually developing health and safety systems and is now aiming to show what can be achieved to prevent accidents in the home and improve the health, safety and wellbeing of the most vulnerable in society.
As well as educating staff, partners and customers about risks and consequences of falls, fall prevention home visits will be offered to all over-60s in Trent & Dove properties and those identified by frontline teams.
RoSPA, RSA and Trent & Dove will all be taking part in SHP’s webinar, Slips, trips and falls – emerging issues and methods of prevention, which takes place on Wednesday 26 October at 11am. Click here to register for the event, which is part of SHP’s Webinar Wednesdays series.
Find upcoming live, interactive webinars plus on-demand sessions to watch back at your convenience.
SHP runs regular health and safety webinars on a wide range of topics, from high level thought leadership, to legislation updates and technical guidance.
Click below to see what’s coming up and what you can watch right now...
