Committee Report Checklist
Stage 1
Report checklist – responsibility of report owner
|
ITEM |
Yes / No |
Date |
|
Councillor engagement / input from Chair prior to briefing |
Yes |
23/04/2026 |
|
Relevant Group Head review |
Yes |
DH – 16/04/2026 |
|
MAT+ review (to have been circulated at least 5 working days before Stage 2) |
|
|
|
This item is on the Forward Plan for the relevant committee |
Yes |
18/2/2026 |
|
Reviewed by |
|
|
|
Finance comments (circulate to Finance) |
NB |
23/04/26 |
|
Risk comments (circulate to Lee O’Neil) |
LO |
27/04/26 |
|
Legal comments (circulate to Legal team) |
LH |
23/04/26 |
|
HR comments (if applicable) |
|
For reports with material financial or legal implications the author should engage with the respective teams at the outset and receive input to their reports prior to asking for MO or s151 comments.
Do not forward to stage 2 unless all the above have been completed.
Stage 2
Report checklist – responsibility of report owner
|
ITEM |
Completed by |
Date rec’d |
|
Monitoring Officer commentary – at least five working days before MAT |
L Heron |
23/04/26 |
|
S151 Officer commentary – at least five working days before MAT |
T. Collier |
21/4/26
|
|
Commissioner engagement |
J. Kingston
|
15/04/2026 |
|
|
No issues |
|
|
Comments in S. 7 |
||
|
Confirm final report cleared by MAT |
|
|
|
Title |
Corporate Health and Safety Policy (2026-2027) |
|
Purpose of the report |
To make a decision |
|
Report Author |
Karine Codd – Principal Health, Safety and Insurance Officer |
|
Ward(s) Affected |
All Wards |
|
Exempt |
No |
|
Exemption Reason |
N/A |
|
Corporate Priority |
This item is not in the current list of Corporate Priorities but still requires a Committee decision. |
|
Recommendations
|
The Committee is asked to: · Approve the revised Corporate Health and Safety Policy for immediate adoption · Authorise the Chief Executive to agree minor variations to the revised health and safety policy. |
|
Reason for Recommendation |
Members are asked to adopt and commit to the revised Council’s Corporate Health and Safety Policy to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of staff, its members and the Public. |
1. Executive summary of the report (expand detail in Key Issues section below)
|
What is the situation |
Why we want to do something |
|
• Review of the revised Corporate Health and Safety Policy |
• To ensure we comply with statutory regulations. |
|
This is what we want to do about it |
These are the next steps |
|
• To seek approval from the Committee for the revised Corporate Health and Safety Policy, as attached in Appendix A. |
• This report recommends that the Committee approves the revised Corporate Health and Safety Policy to ensure compliance with current legislation, align with the Council restructuring and strengthen safety management. |
2. Key issues
2.1 The purpose of this report is to present the findings from the recent review of the Spelthorne’s Corporate Health and Safety policy.
2.2 This review was conducted to ensure compliance with current legal and regulatory requirements, assess the effectiveness of existing measures and identify opportunities for improvement in safeguarding employee wellbeing and operational safety.
2.3 The existing Spelthorne Borough Council Corporate Health and Safety Policy was signed by the previous Chief Executive in June 2024. The Policy requires review to reflect the change of appointment. Furthermore, the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 recommends at least an annual review of the Policy.
2.4 The core framework remains unchanged; however, minor updates have been made to improve clarity in keys areas such as the updated risk management approach and relevant groups. This ensures consistency across the document.
The yellow highlight is the amendments to the previous original version and the turquoise highlight relates to amendments to the revised version of the Corporate Health and Safety Policy following the circulation of the report and the Policy.
2.5 Summary of changes and amendments made.
A summary of the changes and amendments made as a result of this review is as follows:
Section 1- Health and Safety Statement of Intent – Additional reference to our statutory requirements, responsibilities and risk management
Section 2– Organisation and Responsibilities – Reviewed to reflect the Council, Deputy Chief Executive, members and Directors of Subsidiary Businesses role and responsibilities to reflect effective leadership.
Section 2– Corporate Health and Safety Team and Service Health and Safety Leads – Roles and responsibilities reviewed to reflect clear definition and separated into two sections.
Section 2 – Employees/volunteers – Additional comment to emphasis re-assurance to employees for raising health and safety related concerns.
Section 2 – Health, safety, risk and insurance Group and Management Team+ (MAT+) reviewed to reflect changes in governance assurance/risk management
Section 3– Risk assessment - additional comments to emphasis the hierarchy of risk control
Section 3– Monitoring and performance – Performance will be monitored and reported to senior management through regular detailed reports.
Section 3- Occupational Health – Reference is now included to work related stress and management thereof.
Section 3 – Review of policy – Review frequency of the Policy amended to comply with statutory regulations.
2.6 The overall Corporate Health and Safety Policy is supplemented by specific policies and procedures where applicable. Our health and safety documentation includes risk assessments, monitoring checklists, instructions and written procedures, as necessary.
2.7 The Corporate Health and Safety Policy has been circulated to all relevant stakeholders for review and feedback. In recognition that health and safety responsibilities extend to Members, formal adoption of the Policy by Members is required, following its recommendation by Officers.
3 Options appraisal and proposal
3.1 Option one (the preferred option) – Members approve the revised Council’s Corporate Health and Safety Policy (2026-2027) which is attached at Appendix A.
As a public and member lead organisation, members are signing up to the Council’s commitment to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of staff, members and the Public.
Further, to agree that the Chief Executive approves any minor variations required to be made to the adopted Corporate Health and Safety Policy without its referral back to Committee.
3.2 Option two – Members ask for amendments to the Policy.
3.3 Option Three – Members do not adopt the Policy. Failure to adopt a revised policy leaves the Council vulnerable to prosecution and improvement/prohibition notices. A pro-active approach to health and safety is crucial to reduce costs to accidents, litigation and insurance premiums.
4 Risk implications
4.1 Reviewing the Corporate Health and Safety Policy is essential to provide governance assurance, ensure legal compliance, effective risk management and the protection of employees and others.
5. Financial implications
5.1 There are no financial implications outside the existing budget.
6. Legal comments
6.1 The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 impose certain obligations on the Council in relation to the health and safety at work of its employees and the organisation, including a requirement to have in place a general policy.
6.2 This report assists the Council in discharging the relevant statutory requirements
6.3 Matters relating to Health and Safety are within the remit of the Corporate Policy and Resources Committee (part 3(b) of the Constitution.
Corporate implications
7. Commissioners’ comments
7.1 Confirmed that no issues raised.
8. S151 Officer comments
8.1 The S151 Officer confirms that there are no direct financial implications arising from the report.
9. Monitoring Officer comments
9.1 The Monitoring Officer confirms that the relevant legal implications have been taken into account.
10. Procurement comments
N/A
11. Equality and Diversity
The implementation of controls to protect health, safety and welfare by their nature considers people’s specific needs and diversities.
12. Sustainability/Climate Change Implications
12.1 The implementation of the policy has no relevancy for sustainability or climate change issues.
13. Other considerations
N/A
14. Timetable for implementation
14.1 Immediate – Spelthorne’s Corporate Health and safety Policy has already been consulted internally across the organisation.
15. Contact
Karine Codd = Principal Health, Safety, and Insurance Officer
Tel :01784 446270
Please submit any material questions to the Committee Chair and Officer Contact by two days in advance of the meeting.
Background papers: Previous Corporate Health and Safety Policy, signed June 2024
Appendices:
Appendix A Revised Corporate Health and Safety Policy (2026/2027)
Appendix B Previous Corporate Health and Safety policy (2024/2026)