SHE Forum

Notes of Meeting

Thursday 20^th April 2006 - Engineering Board Room

1. Present: Chair: Joseph Gordon JG, Jane Blunt JB, Piete Brooks PB, Gerry Walker GW, Chris Lewis CL, Hannah Crooks HC, Martin Vinnell MV, Sara Cooper SJC, Lisabeth Yates LY, Alison Johnson AJ.

2. Apologies: David Plumb DP, Sarada Crowe SC, Martin Whiteland MW, Linda Hinton-Mead LPHM, Keff Tibbles KT, Mags Glendenning MG, John Hulme JH, Will Hudson WH.

3. DREAM

   GW outlined DREAM. It is a Departmental response document aimed at getting a department back up and running as quickly as possible after an incident - an everyday useable document. It is designed to contain plans, location of hazardous materials, salvage plans for the recovery phase, contact lists, emergency response team and any particular fire team response. All information to be readily available on site.

   They estimate that there will be 160 documents. Departments supply information to Fire Safety Unit, who then will roll them out to the Department.

   Unresolved questions are where they will be held in the department and the level of security required.

   PB asked about shared buildings - a document will cover a whole building.

   JG asked about effects on surrounding buildings such as schools, hotels, etc.

   Response at a site level is something the Emergency Management Team (EMT) will be looking at.

   EMT originated from something that has been part of University Policy for some time, and policy is evolving from a document written in around 1994.

   If information is required by the Emergency Services and it is not available at site there needs to be another copy. Security will keep a copy in two locations, with a high level of security.

   While the concept was agreed to be excellent, concerns that were raised were

   • Discriminating between hazard and risk is crucial in this document, and we have not seen a good worked example of this or a specification.
   • The level of detail to be included and how discriminating people will be in compiling their document - too much information is as bad as too little and this needs a uniformity of approach.
   • The size of the document - in an emergency you need a relatively small amount of information, readily to hand.
   • Key holders - currently information comes from several sources, and the names put forward may not be the ones that are needed - e.g. most times in Physics keyholders are called out to floods. Different people would be required for different emergencies
   • How is the document to be kept up to date?

   It is acknowledged that it is crucial for the Fire Brigade to have the information they need to do a dynamic risk assessment on the spot. It is important that they can be sure from whom they should seek that information. The information needs to be matched to their need.

   It was asked if the Fire Safety Unit would agree to put on a presentation to DSOs and Fire Safety Managers to explain DREAM, what it is, what it is designed to do for a Department and the Emergency Services. This would enhance the uniformity of approach and assist in the process.

   JG asked if other organizations are doing similar exercises - CL stated yes, for different reasons.

   MV told the meeting how in their school they have compiled `research critical boxes' which are stored off site. These contain samples of key items such as cell lines, from which the department could recover in the shortest possible time if their premises were destroyed.

   GW had heard that, following a fire in which the Brigade had had to rescue disabled persons at a refuge, the Insurers are looking into the possibility of reducing their payout on the grounds of the additional fire damage that was done during the time that it took to effect the rescues.

4. Remit of SHE

   There had been some disagreement about the precise wording. Two issues have arisen - one is that CL would like to share as much as he can with the group, but cannot give the group everything as he reports to the Security Committee. It was emphasized that only documents with an H&S dimension were intended to be circulated. He was asked to supply some words that would clarify this.

   The meeting agreed that all documents for University-wide H&S guidance must be made available to the group. The recommended means was by circulation of the title and a précis, so that people who wished to look at them could ask. SC was asked to review the wording with DP.

   It was proposed to review the remit on an annual basis.

5. Training on Confrontational Situations

   CL reported that Peter Hardy is a trained trainer for the Security Industry Training Organisation. He can train people on a number of issues e.g. dealing with conflict. He could open Peter's expertise to the rest of the University, but not straight away. There may be spaces on the course in October.

6. Visit to Security Control Centre

   It had been suggested that visits could be arranged to the Control Centre. CL would like to facilitate this, but needs to check the requirements against the Data Protection Act. Only about 3 people at a time can be accommodated.

7. Next Meeting: 25^th May, Engineering Board Room.

   Possible topics:

   • Engaging with Academic Staff

   • Honoraria

   • Job shadowing/job swapping.

   Action Sheet

   Action Point	By Whom	By When	Completed	Notes
   Draft remit	SC	Next meeting		Currently awaiting CL input and SJC to speak to DP to resolve remaining difficulties.
   Agree to chair, secretary	Forum		Agreed	Remove from action sheet,
   Ask Richard Philips if he would like to join the forum	MW
   Send comments on fire document to GED	DP
   Use DSO briefings to disseminate information across the University	All	Ongoing
   Ask Peter Hardy to speak to forum on training for confrontational situations				CL has indicated some places may be available in October.
   Ask for visit to Security Control Room	CL			CL offering to facilitate
   Report back on EMT desktop exercise	WH, JB
   GED to be asked to speak to the Forum about DREAM and SIMPLE			20/4/06	Briefing given to the group by GW.
   Forum requests that Fire Safety Unit do a presentation on DREAM to Fire Safety Managers, DSOs and other key parties	GW