Our employees have access to a range of occupational health services, delivered by medical advisers, occupational hygienists and occupational health nurses.

Our occupational health department provides a comprehensive service, including health surveillance, treatment, preventative medicine through health campaigns, voluntary Fit for Life health checks, and measures such as counselling, and the promotion of wellbeing. We also offer physiotherapy, rehabilitation and support for employees returning to work after illness or injury.

Larger sites have well-equipped fitness centres and health and wellbeing are promoted through a Wellbeing Programme, with campaigns on a wide range of issues.

In December 2010 and January 2011 the Occupational Health team piloted “Wellpoint Kiosks” at Warrington and Kirkintilloch. The kiosks provide staff with an opportunity to obtain some basic health measurements, such as blood pressure, body fat and Body Mass Index, to influence and support a change to healthy behaviours.

Early indications on take up are very encouraging with more than 300 sessions being registered on the equipment. Following a review of the initial pilot, the intention is to lease one or two kiosks to reach the satellite sites not regularly served by Occupational Health provision, supporting our work on general employee wellbeing.

Also in 2010, the Eurest restaurant at Cathcart, won the Best Healthy Workplace Restaurant Award at the annual Daily Record Scottish Restaurant Awards, in Edinburgh.

Health Monitoring

Occupational Health monitoring – Number of employees

Work related ill-health can emerge over many years, so we maintain an occupational health risk register, which holds details of all employees who may be exposed to work-related health hazards such as noise, vibration and chemical substances. We monitor all employees on the register, to enable us to detect any signs of ill health at a very early stage.

In recent years the incidence of diseases such as noise-induced deafness and Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome has reduced considerably due to health and safety control measures.

In 2010 we conducted health monitoring of 1,715 employees on the occupational health risk register. Following a comprehensive review of the register, we have decided to move to biennial health surveillance.

During the year, on the advice of our Occupational Hygiene section, we also agreed to set in-house limits for exposure to lead. This follows the HSE’s decision to withdraw its advice on the dangers of working with lead after concerns were raised over the current UK lead in air exposure limit.

In recognition of international best practice our in-house limits will be set at 0.05mg.m^-3, following those currently being used in Denmark, Australia and the US. The current UK limit is 0.15mg.m^-3.

This change is expected to affect mainly contractor refurbishment projects where high-lead content paint is removed by shot blasting methods. Although the proposal is for a three-fold reduction, it is considered that it should be easily achievable utilising current control measures.

First Aid Arrangements

We have more than 500 trained First Aiders in the company and each year we hold an internal First Aid conference and competition. The 2010 event was held in September at our Dealain House Training Centre and included a presentation from our Lead Occupational Health Physician on casualty management.

In 2010 the winners of our internal First Aid competition, Energy Retail’s Christine Milroy, Linda Marshall and Angela Munro, won the team, prize at the Electricity Supply National First Aid Competition. The team members also won their individual categories.

The team went on to represent the Electricity Supply Industry in the UK Grand Prior First Aid Competition, competing against national finalists from other organisations including St. Johns Ambulance, Police and Fire Services in November 2010, finishing 3^rd overall.

Sickness Absence

Sickness absence levels have improved by around 25% over the last five years.

However, during 2010 the sickness absence rate rose slightly to an average of 9.9 days per employee, compared with 9.6 in 2009.

Our programme to tackle sickness absence includes supporting employees in returning to work after illness and running targeted wellbeing campaigns.