This partnership is timely as the British manufacturing industry navigates its way through COVID-19 and works to get its workforce safely back to production. Now more than ever it’s critical that effective COSHH management processes and procedures are in place to protect people and businesses.
UK manufacturing is a major player in the worldwide market, employing over 2.7 million people and contributing 25% of the
UK’s GDP. This vast sector poses health and safety related risks for businesses; in 2018/19 alone, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) reported that 79,000 manufacturing workers suffered with a work-related ill health issue, costing the economy a huge £468 million. Over 3,000 manufacturers were issued with enforcement notices, leading to 105 prosecutions and fines in excess of £21 million. Every day, business leaders in this sector are challenged with mitigating hazardous substance risk for their people and business.
Manufacturers across all sub-sectors of the industry work with hazardous substances as part of the everyday running of their business. In such a high-risk sector, maintaining an effective hazardous substance management strategy can be difficult; changing legislation and managing complex processes and procedures can be challenging, especially now with the emergence of COVID-19. The sector is keen to get its people back to work to support the survival of their businesses but must be certain to ensure that the workplace is COVID-19 secure. Effective hazardous substance management plays a significant role in this.
“Keeping people safe and healthy in the workplace has never been so important, particularly as we journey through the COVID-19 pandemic. Organisations have both a moral and legal responsibility to do the right thing by their people and with that brings additional pressure for health and safety teams across the UK. Having an effective COSHH strategy in place has a significant impact on the way organisations keep their people safe from the hidden risks of hazardous substances,” commented Helen Jones, Managing Director of the Certification and Software Division at Alcumus.
“Alcumus Sypol’s COSHH management software provides organisations who use hazardous substances daily, with an intuitive and user-friendly solution that can be easily adopted organisation-wide. Already used by 800+ organisations from the UK’s riskiest sectors, the software becomes a vital extension to the health and safety team. This software simplifies complex COSHH compliance matters, whilst improving business efficiencies and minimising the burden on in-house resource.”
The partnership adds a valuable tool to Make UK’s support package, providing confidence and efficiencies in managing risk alongside Make UK’s advisers and guidance resources. “It’s great we have been able to extend our relationship with Alcumus and now offer our members access to the Sypol COSHH management system. The number of pre-loaded assessments in the system is incredibly impressive and of immense value to organisations who have significant COSHH requirements,” commented Andrew Ward, Health, Safety and Sustainability Director at Make UK.
