6.4 HEALTHCARE - Martin Scott-Smith. Nothing to report.

6.5 ENVIRONMENT – Julian Davis. Julian had circulated his monthly report to interested members. Max reminded members that they could be added to this list by emailing himself or Julian.

6.6 OFFSHORE - Tam Boyd: nothing to report

6.7 RAILWAYS - Need a representative

6.8 CONSULTANCY - Derek Cawkwell: nothing to report

6.9 SAFETY SCIENCES - Steve Boucher: Nothing to report

6.10 TELECOMMUNICATIONS – Graeme Lyall. Nothing to report

6.11 EDUCATION – Allan Dick. Nothing to report.

Karen reported on the recent successful AGM (the second official one). There had been 69 different attendees over last year with 19 average per meeting. The new committee was underway. Budget for 2004/05 proposed and accepted by Branch Executive.

8.1 Roger Midson Challenge Trophy: Target shooting with air rifle/air pistol near Fenton Barns (Drem). Date agreed – 21 May afternoon. Unless anyone comes up with better idea.

8.2 Site Visit: East Fortune Airfield. £3 per person with group guide at no extra cost. Date agreed - Fri 25 June.

8.3 Secretary’s Sipper Golf Tournament: awaits report by G McGeorge on response from interested members.

8.4 AGM: Max outlined the arrangements for nominations – forms should be received one month beforehand i.e. at the next meeting and such nominations would take precedence over any received thereafter. Forms were downloadable from the website. All four principal office bearers were eligible for re-election. Three Executive members had come to the end of their two year period of service (Andy, Graeme and Roddy) and they were also eligible for re-election. The Branch Constitution was downloadable from the website. The meeting would be held in the West Building (to the NW of the main (Playfair) Building with a free buffet from 1230.

8.5 Member’s Presentations: members were reminded of the 10 minute slot available to them. There should be a presentation on Fellowship at the March meeting.

8.6 Russell commented on the recent tragic loss of life in the residential care home. Members agreed that there was too often a rush to judgement when such tragedies occurred and that we should wait for any report.

8.7 It was noted that the IOSH approved post-graduate course at Heriot Watt University set up for the HSE Inspectors now also had places available generally.

The speaker was very briefly introduced to the assembled members as she was in fact known to the bulk of those present, having been to the Branch on a number of occasions and had in fact presented a paper in January 2002 on a similar topic.

Hazel started by stating that she had been in the Council Meeting the previous day and had since attempted to modify her presentation in line with the last decisions made, while she was in the Airport Lounge – you can’t get much fresher with the information than that.

She also indicated that the Council Meeting had been the first to take place in the now completed extensions to the Grange, which now has a brand new entrance set in the middle complete with an Atrium which makes it all very impressive. It was interesting to note that having moved to the Grange out of 222 Uppingham Road in 1994, with this new development work, it would probably have been possible for ALL of the staff from 222 to have been able to occupy the space now given over to the Atrium entrance. – It just goes to show how much of a new era we are now in.

Membership

The graph which Hazel then showed indicated that the total membership of IOSH was now in the order of 27,500, with a steep rate of growth from the 1992 period when we saw the "6-pack" come into effect, but it now appears to have hit its plateau, with the growth slowing down.

Hazel then provided a graph showing the breakdown and growth of the levels of membership. Corporate Members had shown a steady growth from the 3.5k level in the early 1990’s to the current level in the order of 11.5k, whilst the Associate grade had risen steeply from 1,200 up to 13,200 in 1999, but had since then seen a drop to 7,000 as the number of Tech SPs has risen to 3,500. Currently there are somewhere in the region of 650 Fellows within IOSH and there is currently a push on to increase this number where appropriate and the hope is that this can be achieved ready for the Diamond Jubilee which is next year for IOSH and to link that in with further progress in the Charter for the Institution – but more on that later.

The current entry level for Membership of IOSH is the Affiliate, and this is frequently linked to an active interest in OSH possibly from Safety Training and following one of the routes from the diagram shown

It was interesting to note that of last years entrants to Corporate Membership – 54% had come direct via a higher education route, whilst 24% had gained NVQ level 4, and 22% had come in via the NEBOSH Diploma route.

IOSH actually has two strands –

• Professional Body = Membership, Regulatory role to the profession
• Learned Society = Where the professionals come together to discuss issues and maintain CPD as well. This year sees a New Learned Journal being issued. This side of IOSH has never been to the fore, but it is to be developed

There are now an increasing number of Specialist Groups, and they now number 14 =

• Construction
• Consultancy
• Education
• Environment
• Fire Risk Management
• Healthcare
• International
• Offshore
• Public Services
• Railway
• Retail
• Rural Industries
• Safety Sciences
• Telecommunications

We are here to promote health & safety in the workplace and we needed to strengthen the Learned Society side in order to gain the Royal Charter and now we want to go forward for Individual Charter – so that the members are chartered and not just the Institution itself.

Hazel then listed some of the developments which have taken place during the progress of IOSH which included =

• Introduction of RSP - 1989
• Introduction of CPD - 1992
• Mandatory CPD - 1994
• University courses come on stream - 1992 onwards
• National Standards by OHSLB introduced - 1995

Then the introduction of the Tech SP grade

• Upgrading for Associates
• Associate grade closed - July 1998

It was recognized that due to a lack of clarity within the employment world, where the various grades of membership were often confused, a Working Party was needed and established in 2000 to identify the core competence requirements for safety practitioners and a membership structure that would reflect the recognition of this. At the same time as the working party was proceeding the national standards in health and safety practice were being revised. IOSH participated in this activity.

The outcome of this work was a consistent standard involving unit in –

• Evaluate and develop own practice
• Promote a positive health and safety culture
• Develop and implement the health and safety policy
• Develop and implement effective communication systems for health and safety information
• Develop and maintain individual and organisational competence in health and safety matters
• Identify and evaluate health and safety hazards
• Assess health and safety risks
• Determine and implement health and safety risk control measures
• Develop and implement active monitoring systems for health and safety
• Develop and implement reactive monitoring systems for health and safety
• Develop, implement and test health and safety emergency response systems and procedures
• Develop and implement health and safety review systems
• Develop and implement health and safety audit systems

These being the core and a further four units were optional

• Contribute to health and safety legal actions
• Influence and keep pace with improvements in health and safety practice
• Develop and implement systems and procedures to minimise environmental impact of the organisation

A report was given to the IOSH Council in September 2001

The recommendations, which were accepted by Council, were –

• The national standards developed by the Employment National Training Organisation should be adopted as the core competence requirements of the Institution. The relevant parts of the standards for this purpose will be those identified by the Professional Affairs Committee;
• The Institution should adopt a membership structure that reflects the attainment of these competence standards. Only those categories that reflect competence should be allocated designations and post-nominal letters.
• The category of Fellow and entry to this category should be reviewed to encompass broader opportunities for entry;
• The Continuing Professional Development scheme should be reviewed to support current practitioners’ requirements and the needs of the future membership structure;
• The new proposals should be in place by June 2005

This in turn led to Full discussions by IOSH Council on June 17th 2003 and February 11th 2004 and the intention now is to have ALL this in place for approval at the AGM and then transferring to the new Membership Structure at the same time as gaining individual chartered professional status in July 2005.

Corporate Fellow CFIOSH

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Technician Tech IOSH

The intention here is to ensure that, at all of these levels, appointment will be on a "level playing field" – based on Qualifications, Skills and Experience. As such there is a need for extension from the original CPD (Continuing Professional Development) for an IPD (Initial Professional Development) to be undertaken prior to appointment.

• This is a well established concept for chartered professional bodies
• However it is new to IOSH
• All potential ‘chartered’ members are assessed to a similar level
• They will require a period to gain experience after initial qualification
• All candidates will be interviewed.

The original has now been in place for some 12 years and whilst it was good initially, it is now in need of revision. The revised CPD Scheme will include a more reflective approach to professional development and the activities associated with it.

It will feature on-line recording and a more flexible period for completing the activities.

Currently there are some 5,800 members undertaking CPD but we need to increase this level to 18,000. Hazel suggested that if you are not already registered for CPD that you do so in order to stay abreast of the developments as they happen as CPD will become mandatory for Member, fellow and Technician levels.

At CMIOSH level

• New accreditation requirements for HE qualifications produced by IOSH, introduced in September 2003
• Quality procedure accreditation requirements by QCA which affects NEBOSH and other organisations within their framework, demand that qualifications underpin the domain knowledge requirements of the ENTO standards

At Tech IOSH level

• Proposed level 3 accredited qualification and 5 years experience

Transitional Arrangements

• Arrangements will be developed to allow all current members to proceed to appropriate new categories of membership

It should be borne in mind that these are the proposed conditions but we are now entering into a period of consultation, so they may well change.

Hazel indicated that there should be a detailed article in the Practitioner within about 2 months time, but if anyone had any feedback or comment to make she was more than willing to take it now by contacting her on - [email protected]

10.2 Branch: 11 March: Cost of Accidents: trends, insurers' perspective, compensation trends: Jeff Bilton: - Zurich Municipal

10.1 District: 1 April : ‘Thinking of Moving’: Manual Handling Assessment Charts: Nancy Hamilton - Health and Safety Executive

11.0 CLOSURE: The Chairman urged members to mingle over tea and closed the meeting.