H&S Bites 4: Information sharing and avoiding silos

H&S Bites 4: Information sharing and avoiding silos

We continue with our “H&S bites series” looking at some of the largest health and safety fines imposed over the last 12 months and the practical lessons that flow from them, as well as some interesting trends identified by our Health & Safety specialist team, part of our wider Corporate crime, investigations and inquiries team.

This week’s article examines how inadequate information sharing systems can have catastrophic consequences for health and safety.

Key facts

• A 96-year-old care home resident sadly died after choking on food when she was left unsupervised by an agency worker for up to 20 minutes, despite her care plan requiring a specialist diet and close supervision during meal times.
• The Health & Safety Executive (“HSE”) identified that agency workers did not have access to residents’ care plans, leaving agency workers without a full understanding of individual care needs.
• HC-One Limited (the care provider) pleaded guilty and was fined £1.8 million. Post incident, it introduced changes to ensure regular staff, who have better knowledge and understanding of residents’ care plans, were always on shift to support agency workers.

Practical points: avoiding information siloes 

• This incident highlights how failures to share critical information can have fatal consequences.
• It stresses the need for robust systems to prevent information silos which, if present, can risk undermining adequate health and safety.
• The information contained within key documentation aimed to keep individuals safe is more than “paper compliance” — organisations must ensure the content of such documents are properly understood and communicated to those expected to put such information into practice. 

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Read the previous article in our series: H&S Bites 3: What is an adequate risk assessment?

This article was written by Jordan Coulton, an Associate in our Health & Safety specialist team