Watch your step

Watch Your Step

For my sins I am a season ticket holder for my local football team and I regularly attend the games at their relatively new football stadium. As I’m sure fellow health and safety professionals will agree, we never really turn off our hazard spotting radar even when relaxing and being entertained. No Handrails “Heart in my mouth”! One of the issues that intrigues me is the lack of any handrails on the stairways within the stadium. There is a plethora of handrails on the stairs leading to the concourse, but once inside there is a distinct lack of handrails on the stairway to get to your seat. Stadium safety is not an area that I have any experience in or received training for, but I imagine the lack of handrails is a legacy from  violence at football grounds in the past, or the need to move people horizontally in the event of an emergency, or possibly just to avoid spoiling the view of seated spectators. In any case I witness several ‘heart in my mouth’ moments as elderly spectators and young children navigate their way up and down the stairs. I struggle to think of any similar situation where the lack of handrails would be tolerated. A survey undertaken by the British Woodworking Federation in 2016 found that one third of the sampled population admitted to having fallen up or down stairs in the previous 12-month period.

Risk Assessment training

To demonstrate the judgement required when establishing the likely extent of injury during risk assessment training I show a photo of a stairway (with no handrails) and ask the trainees to assess the likelihood of someone falling on the stairs and the likely extent of any injury. Generally, the response ranges from -  not very likely to happen and if does it will be a fatality! I then ask the trainees how many of them had ever fallen on stairs. The realisation then is that falling on stairways is quite common but most of us live to tell the tale. However, there are vulnerable members of our society who may not survive a fall so well.

Residential Care Homes - Tragic incidents of fatalities

There have been tragic incidents of fatalities and serious injuries on stairways in residential care homes brought to our attention through prosecution of the care provider.

Some examples are:

A wheelchair bound resident died when he was able to open an inward swinging door and fall down the steep steps to the cellar. The door was equipped with a keypad lock and a self-closing device, but the lock and self-closing device were defective. The care providing company was fined £120,000 with £42,000 costs. A dementia suffering resident wandered through a first-floor fire escape door and fell down the concrete stairs and died in hospital 48 hours later. The escape stairway had no lighting and no handrails, the door to the stairway was not secure.

• The care providing company were fined £1.5 million with costs of £200,000.
• The Care Home Manager was sentenced to nine months in prison suspended for two years and ordered to pay £20,000 costs.

The HSE guidance for Health and Safety in Care Homes (HSG 220)

• The HSE guidance for Health and Safety in Care Homes (HSG 220) states that stairs should be in a safe condition, kept free of obstructions and well lit.
• If residents lack mobility and require extra support, then the stairs should have suitable hand rails on both sides.
• Ideally, stairs should not be steep, winding, curved, or have open risers.
• It may be appropriate to restrict access to some stairs, e.g. steep cellar stairs or upper floor levels where residents are at risk of falls.
• There should be individual assessments of mobility and access for each resident included in care plans.
• The assessment should consider the effect of age-related physiological changes, medical conditions, and medication.

Arinite’s Care Sector one page factsheet AFS 525 provides more information on the risks of falls from height.

Contact us

Arinite clients appreciate we provide practical, no-nonsense advice about what you need to do to establish and maintain a safe and healthy working environment. Our team of health and safety consultants take pride in keeping health and safety simple. If you need to call upon our expert assistance, or just for an informal chat, please call our office 0207 947 9581 and ask to speak with Brendan Tuite, or type an enquiry to: Contact us