Chris Gidlow - Health and Safety Officer
Chris Gidlow - Health and Safety Officer at North Warwickshire Borough Council
We’ve spoken to people from across the region who are currently completing, or who have completed, an apprenticeship so you can find out more about the opportunities available. Chris is a Health and Safety Officer at North Warwickshire Borough Council. Chris has recently completed a Level 6 NVQ Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety Practice.
Read on to discover what they enjoy the most about their role and career in Local Government!
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If you like working with a variety of people from all sorts of services, have a passion for health, safety and welfare in the workplace, then this could be your ideal role.
I’m Chris. As the Health and Safety Officer at North Warwickshire Borough Council, it’s my job to help make sure we are compliant in all relevant health and safety legislation. There is a clear message that starts at the top, from the Chief Executive, to everyone; come to work and go home safely, and look after each other.
My remit covers our buildings, our council housing stock and leisure centres, and all our services including for example, parks, street cleaning, waste collection, car parking and revenues and benefits. That variety means I get to work with managers and staff across the council to make sure our health and safety policies and procedures are in place and up to date. Working for North Warwickshire Borough Council is really enhanced by the people I am fortunate enough to work with day in and day out. Everyone is so friendly and supportive, for me it is really positive to be able to connect on a personal and professional level with my colleagues.
The best thing about my job is that I’m always learning and finding something new to work on and a puzzle to solve. For example, a risk assessment for our grounds maintenance staff who use vibrating machinery, such as mowers and strimmers, flagged up the potential problem of HAVS (Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome) which can cause what’s known as ‘white finger’ and damage to hands and arms. Our response has been to fit all tools with monitors to record the level of vibration so our workers can see, via amber and red lights, when to have a break and stop using the equipment or change what they are working on. We can also spot if any machines are over vibrating and need to be adjusted at the depot.
For our waste crews, not only is there the manual handling and noise issues of handling waste, but there’s also the huge level of concentration needed to drive slowly and safely down streets, while the loaders collect and empty the wheelie bins. There’s a very real risk of loaders getting their clothes caught up in the bin lift and being pulled into the back of the lorry. All our lorries are equipped with emergency stop buttons and our loaders are trained to know where to stand and how to isolate the machinery. A current issue facing waste crews is the threat of violence and aggression by members of the public being ‘held up’ behind the lorries. We’ve more work to do to encourage patience of road users while our crews do their job.
We’ll try different approaches to communicate health and safety messages to our employees. Everyone completes online health and safety training, and we offer further training on specific issues for relevant staff such as working at heights, legionella (a risk for all our buildings) asbestos and fire safety. We’ve done manual handling sessions for the streets and ground maintenance crews at 7.30 am over a cuppa in the warmth of the council chamber, with a quiz at the end to check understanding, which goes down well. When lifting do you bend at your knees or your back? (it’s knees by the way - use your legs to lift and keep your spine neutral).
There’s always new legislation to respond to. The Fire Safety Act 2023 addressed issues of flammable cladding following the Grenfell Tower disaster and meant we updated our fire risk assessments for our multi occupancy low rise developments - communicating with residents about what to do in a fire is a crucial responsibility for us.
My role also covers health and safety issues relevant to our staff too and I’m based in the HR team. The shift to hybrid working, where staff work from home, as well as the office, involved creating training and awareness information on the set up of Display Screen Equipment (DSE) and safety tips for working at home – as well as training more staff to be DSE assessors.
We’ve also changed how we do our fire evacuation procedures. We used to do a roll call which worked well when our staff were all in the office, but now we ‘sweep areas’ by floors instead, and have trained everyone in the new improved arrangements.
Previous to the council I was working as a site manager in a Special Educational Needs academy. I really enjoyed the health and safety aspects of that role, so I was supported to continue my qualifications and in my two years with the council I’ve secured my Level 6 NVQ Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety Practice.
Personal development is great here, there’s an abundance of opportunity and I get involved with teams to help make the council even better; we even have an Organisational Development group where we bring various officers and managers together to work on projects. I’m also really excited to be part of the District Councils’ Network Staff Development programme, which will support my professional development and leadership potential, and I’m looking forward to learning from my colleagues from across the country.
I’m quite ambitious. I’d love to move into a senior management role and manage Departments or Divisions directly. In my role now it’s all about persuading people on health and safety – I’m happy to keep doing that, while expanding my horizons. There really are great opportunities in local government today.
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You can find out more about the roles North Warwickshire Borough Council have available, and more information about them as an employer on the North Warwickshire employer page.
