Management Committee Handbook

There is a legal requirement to keep public areas safe. The responsibility for Health and Safety will be stated in your lease and minute of agreement for the building.

All Community Buildings must provide and maintain safe and healthy working conditions, equipment and work methods for all Building employees and users. East Lothian Council also seeks to ensure that all Buildings are accessible and safe for people with disabilities. ELC provides all necessary information and training to staff and maintains a programme to foster an awareness of health, safety, and welfare issues.

• The person responsible for taking charge in an emergency during opening hours is the janitor, if there is one, or Connected Communities staff member
• A trained First Aider should be always on duty.
• An appointed person should maintain the First Aid Box.
• All members of staff are responsible for reporting accidents and near-accidents to their line manager and on Sphera.
• Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans should be in the place for any person (s) who have a physical or visual impairment and require assistance in an evacuation.
• All employees should be aware of the recommended procedure for the treatment of injuries involving the loss of blood to avoid the risk of spreading infectious diseases such as HIV / Aids and Hepatitis. Safe disposal kits should be accessible on site.
• Connected Communities staff and members of the Management Committee should be aware of the location of the First Aid Box and Accident Report Book.

 

Good practice

General fire safety

See the section 6.1 Fire Compliance

Hygiene and welfare

• Facilities Management or Connected Communities staff are responsible for cleaning the toilets and sinks and emptying rubbish bins.
• All employees and users of the building are responsible for washing up cups and plates and leaving kitchens clean and tidy after use.

General cleanliness

• Facilities Management or Connected Communities staff are responsible for cleaning floors and work surfaces.
• The janitor, if there is one, or Connected Communities staff member are responsible for keeping public areas tidy and for cleaning up any dirt or spillages.

Floors, gangways, and position of furniture and equipment

• Floors, gangways, and spaces underneath furniture must be kept clear of trailing cables and other obstructions.
• Furniture and equipment must be positioned so that they do not pose a hazard to passers-by and so that wheelchair users are able to have safe access to all equipment. Filing cabinets and cupboard doors should be kept closed

Safe practices

• All employees should move around the building and open doors with due care and behave with consideration towards others.
• All Building employees should ensure that users behave in a safe manner and that children do not cause hazards for themselves or others.
• All employees should follow Manual Handling procedures and take care that users do not run the risk of injury through bad lifting techniques or failure to use trolleys.

 

Building safety

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 is the main item of safety legislation that applies to all our activities and establishments. It is supported by regulations covering key workplace hazards. Both the Act and the regulations require all employers to manage their facilities in such a way that they do not give rise to any conditions that may jeopardise employees’/non-employees’ health, safety, and welfare.

For each East Lothian Council (ELC) building a Head of Establishment (HOE) (and Deputy) must be appointed and a Line Manger.  This will usually be Facilities Management, Centre Head, Community Development Officer, or Connected Communities Manager.

The role of the Head of Establishment is to:

• Ensure the Building Safety Arrangements Plan is completed and reviewed annually, co-ordinating with other Line Managers as appropriate.  This document lays out arrangements for managing Key Health & Safety Tasks within the building and grounds and agrees who will take on roles such as First Aiders/Fire Wardens/Responsible Person etc and how tasks such as inspections will be undertaken.
• Function as a representative of the building in meetings as appropriate, with other Council Services such as Engineering Services and Strategic Asset Capital Planning Management
• Monitor key health & safety activities to ensure these are completed raising it with the relevant Line Manager or Service if not. 
• Subject specific tasks as identified on the topic pages.
• Chair a User Group for multiuser buildings
• Other occasional tasks

The Role of Line Managers is to:

• be primarily responsible for the Health & Safety of their staff and customers/clients within the building
• act on concerns raised by HofE
• participate in the annual review of the Building Safety Arrangements Plan ensuring their Service conduct fair share of shared duties
• ensure that their staff have time and, where appropriate, training to perform these duties.

ELC buildings can be divided into six types and the detail of how Health and Safety is managed will vary.

Multiuser Buildings – these are buildings where more than one service operates from.

Single Service Buildings – these are buildings which are operated by a single service.  There may be other staff in the building providing support such as Facilitates Management staff.

Unmanned Buildings – these are buildings where no staff are based. Examples include Village Halls.

Partially staffed buildings – these are buildings where staff are based but staff many not be present at all times during the working day.  For example, depots.

Mothballed buildings – these are buildings where no staff are based, or activities undertaken.

Buildings with long term lets – buildings owned by ELC but on long lets, normally leased to other parties.

 

Building leases, after school clubs and events

ELC may lease a building or part of a building to the management committee and the lease will specify various responsibilities on the parties. There may also be a minute of agreement outlining any additional responsibilities.  The leases are in ELC owned buildings that may either be unmanned or where there may be minimal or no ELC staff present out of core hours. 

The management committee may choose to allow other organisations to have events in the building, these will be referred to as “External Events” in this section. When authorising, it is the management committee’s responsibility to vet and review the organisation hosting the event and the External Event.

External Events may be regular such as Afterschool Clubs or one-off events such as use of Village Halls.  External Events authorised by the management committee are the responsibility of the management committee and not ELC. In addition to this section, the Council will give sets out in the flow chart below the various things the management committee should do when allowing a third-party organiser to hold an External Event.

EVENT INSURANCE CONSIDERATIONS - DOWNLOAD

 

For External Events, the management committee will need to think about some of the key health and safety duties, such as Fire Evacuation Co-ordinator, and may wish to do it themselves or arrange for the third party organising the External Event to do it. 

Where an External Event is being held in a building with large numbers there is a requirement for the event holder to have events insurance. The management committee should also either appoint stewards to function as health and safety and first aid points or arrange for the event holder to do so. These would be key people in the event of a building evacuation or incident.

To meet the requirements of ELC’s insurance, regular bookings where there are no ELC staff present in the External Event the organisation organising the External Event will need to become a Trusted Keyholder. There are separate ELC processes for this.  This includes an induction of the building to cover Health and Safety, fire alarms, fire evacuations and building security.  Trusted Key Holders are limited for exceptional use of a building and will be reviewed with an annual update on the Trusted Key holder.

Other matters to bear in mind when External Events (of whatever nature) take place are as below. The management committee should be aware of these requirements and get confirmation from the organiser of the External Event, that they have complied with these requirements.

 

1. Protection of vulnerable adults

If the External Event consists of children, young people under 18, the organisation organising the External Event must have a child protection policy and comply with the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 (PVG Act). The management committee should make sure that the organisers comply with the relevant and appropriate Scottish disclosure under the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 (as may be amended from time to time). The organiser should also comply with all obligations under the PVG Act, which includes, but is not limited to, to ensuring that all management committee members, staff, leaders, helpers, employees or sub-contractors involved with the booking comply with the PVG Act and/or other disclosure requirements.

Please seek your own advice on this matter, but for information from Disclosure Services  email: disclosures@volunteerscotland.org.uk More information is available at: https://www.volunteerscotland.net/for-organisations/disclosure-services/

 

2. Licences and public liability insurance

The organiser of the External Event is responsible for obtaining all necessary licenses to carry out their proposed activity in the building e.g. sale of goods, public entertainment, consumption of alcohol, etc. Failure to do so may result in the event being cancelled.

The organiser of the External Event must also ensure that any third party they engage e.g. caterer, band, etc, has their own public liability insurance and appropriate licences.

The Council, as the landlord of the lease, shall have no responsibility or obligation in relation to this section.

 

Safety awareness plan

Each building will have an appointed Head of Establishment (HOE), usually either Facilities Management, Centre Head, Community Development Officer, or Connected Communities Manager.
In shared use buildings HOE’s are responsible for convening a quarterly user group meeting for all groups who use the building with responsibility for users or building areas.  This meeting will discuss health and safety matters relating to the building including repairs

 

Building safety arrangements plan

This sets out how Health and Safety will be managed within a shared building

• Name of Building  
• Services based within building & representative
• Other non ELC groups using the Building
• Head of Establishment

 

	Responsible Person (s)
User Group
Building Risk Assessment
First Aid Provision
Fire Safety
Asbestos
Statutory Checks
Security
Gritting
Property Repairs
Inspections
Lets - who manages
Lets - arrangments during out of hours