Last week saw the Dean from St Paul’s Cathedral in London resign, claiming that his position has become untenable after weeks of protests outside the cathedral.
Graeme Knowles, ex Dean of St Paul's whose position became untenable
His departure, due to the protests by anti-capitalists, meant that the Dean could not continue as he was in this highly prestigious role.
This had us here at The HSE Recruitment Network thinking about the implications of deciding who is ultimately accountable for situations beyond the control of a particular individual.
Strangely enough, the men in our office have managed to link this back to football (yes, shocking isn’t it). Blackburn Rovers fans are currently demanding Manager Steve Kean should be sacked after a recent run of four straight losses.
- Steve Kean, the Manager at Blackburn Rovers who fans want out!
But is that really Kean’s fault? Surely the players aren’t blameless? If we are to believe that the person at the top of any organisation is ultimately responsible for the downfalls of that organisation does that mean that these people should be forced into resigning or even fired?
People in senior Health and Safety positions have a lot of responsibility on their heads. The Health and Safety Executive states that under the law, employers are responsible for health and safety management and therefore, it is ultimately the responsibility of the employer to protect their employees.
However, with regards to Health and Safety, is this an impossible task? Health and Safety Manager’s implement health and safety measures and proposals and when things go wrong the blame will fall on them. But is it hard for H&S professionals to check that everybody is adhering to certain rules and regulations? Is it difficult to make sure people in organisations or businesses are following Health and Safety guidelines that have been so carefully laid out? Furthermore, could it be suggested that more blame may also be placed on individuals who don’t take note of general health and safety guidance?
This week has seen Michael Jackson’s doctor being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's lawyer who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter this week
Do you think that the blame should have been placed solely on Murray for dispensing the drugs to him? Or are there other people who should equally shoulder some of the blame such as his entourage or family?
A terrible accident at a meat processing company resulted in the position of Health and Safety manager becoming untenable. A cleaning team leader was very badly injured as she was inspecting a blender used to mix four tonnes of meat. Tragically she died from serious head injuries when a flap closed with substantial force.
The Health and Safety Executive investigated and found examples of insufficient training and supervision. You can read the full article here http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2009/coise2809.htm.
As is the case with all Health and Safety professionals in senior positions, they are ultimately responsible for all aspects of health and safety. As such, when accidents such as these happen their positions as a senior authority are usually unsustainable.
Do you believe the person at the top of the organisation is ultimately responsible for health and safety downfalls? Where do you think responsibility should lie?
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I still can’t believe Michael Jackson’s doctor was found guilty – medical negligence is a really risky subject.
If a doctor makes a mistake (and mistakes do happen) and it results in them being found guilty of manslaughter, who is going to want to be a doctor and put themselves in that vulnerable situation? I think this case creates a really dangerous precedent.
Great blog Jennie – really interesting subject.
Hi Jo
Watched the evidence in the Conrad Murray case and concluded that the outcome was 100% correct.
Dr Murray failed in the first principal of Duty of care in that;.
-He should not have administered Propofol as a sedative.
-Should not have administered it in a domestic environment – lacking the required recovery back up and monitoring equipment
-Should not have left MJ alone, having done so – in the knowledge that the drug can (and did) have adverse effects on breathing
-Did not immediately summon help from the emergency services until too late
So, did he owe Michael Jackson a DoC and was it broken. In both cases, unequivacably yes. Any professional is duty bound to deliver his/ an organisations responsibilities to the letter of the law/ agreed code of professional conduct. That’s why we go to Doctor’s rather than quacks.
Therefore, to reverse your question. If you don’t believe Dr Murray was responsible – who do you think was?
We could write the worlds best policy and procedures but at the end of the day if they are not driven down by Senior Management to Line Management down to the Employees and then enforced using responsibility and accountability then they may as well have not been written, so in short we all have a resaponsibility and accountabilities but the chain needs to be complete.
I agree Conrad Murray perhaps did make some errors of judgement but I don’t think a Voluntary Manslaughter verdict was the right one in this case – if this had not been about the world’s most famous pop star and it had not created the televised medical circus that it did, I doubt the same verdict would have been reached.
I studied Tort Law and unless there was a serious case of medical negligence then succesful claims were rarley brought in the UK against the NHS because of opening up a minefield of claims.
People in senior Health and Safety positions have a lot of responsibility on their heads. The Health and Safety Executive states that under the law, employers are responsible for health and safety management and therefore, it is ultimately the responsibility of the employer to protect their employees.
However, with regards to Health and Safety, is this an impossible task? Health and Safety Manager’s implement health and safety measures and proposals and when things go wrong the blame will fall on them. But is it hard for H&S professionals to check that everybody is adhering to certain rules and regulations? Is it difficult to make sure people in organisations or businesses are following Health and Safety guidelines that have been so carefully laid out?
Picking up on the thread – I think it’s missing a key point.
Health and Safety ‘responsbility’ does not just sit with the SHE manager – senior or otherwise. Health & Safety is everyone’s responsibility. The principle responsibility of the SHE manager is to advise the Board on the provision of safe systems of work and provide advice and guidance the Directors/senior/operations management on legislative requirements.
The orgnaisation (with said guidance) must then ascertain and quantify where the risks are apparent in it’s activities and put in place training, recruit competent staff and provide safe systems to mitigate (so far as is reasonably practicable) those risks.
The more onerous responsbility is on the Board of Directors – to follow and implement said advice
and the operational managers who actually supervise and put employees to work. It is for them to ensure the job/task is safe (with help and guidance where necessary from the SHE team). when matters go wrong it will be those individuals who will face the courts and only the SHE Manager if it can be shown that they followed incorrect advice given by that ‘professional’ that they might not have reasonably known was incorrect.
SHE advisors are called as such to reflect their role.