January 2025 round-up
The Social Housing Safety Network Scotland
The Social Housing Safety Network Scotland - providing a focus on tenant and resident safety
FREE Network Get Together: Policy and Procedure Workshops - 25th & 27th March
Opinions differ across the industry as to what is a policy, what is a procedure, what are standards, what is guidance and what level of detail is required for each of these documents; one thing that is certain, is that organisations should have documents that relate to their own stock and customer demographic and represent ‘how’ they deliver their services.
Come and join two of the Network Co-founders, Vicki and Ryan, (who have been auditing and supporting providers to develop their policies and procedures for nearly two decades), for this interactive workshop.
The workshop will look at what a policy is, what should be contained in there and how supporting procedures should set out how policy requirements will be delivered to comply with legislative and regulatory requirements as well as reflecting British Standards and sector specific requirements.
Legal Hour with Brodies - save the date!
Last week we held our very first virtual 'Legal Hour' with Brodies LLP! We were joined by colleagues from nine different member organisations... all keen to hear from Amy Anderson, Senior Associate at Brodies LLP, who provided a legal update for us.
We had a whistle-stop tour of a selection of recent prosecutions to help us understand what went wrong and what we can learn from the cases, we heard about the different types of HSE enforcement action as well as being reminded of H&S obligations and the penalties for getting things wrong. The key reminder, for us all - no one actually has to have been injured for there to be a prosecution… there simply has to be a risk of harm!
We’ve now scheduled the date for the next Legal Hour (with more details to follow nearer the time).
Save the date: 21st May 2025.
Consultation - Scottish Government (Dec 24) Scottish Building Regulations: Proposed review of fire safety topics including Cameron House Hotel recommendations:
Fire safety risks in traditional buildings used as hotels, review of current provision on fire suppression, combustible cladding and other issues
The Scottish Government issued a consultation in December 2024 to consider changes to the standards and processes set within The Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (as amended) and other published guidance documents to improve provisions addressing fire safety.
The consultation seeks to obtain the views and opinions of stakeholders on a review of building standards relating to the fire safety of historic buildings converted for hotel use and several other specific fire safety issues, to help ensure the safety of people in and around Scotland's buildings.
The consultation is a lengthy document; it includes aspects that would affect the social housing sector, including (but not limited to):
? 2.3 Amending the scope of application of mandatory standard 2.15 ‘Automatic Fire Suppression Systems’ to extensions of and conversions to flats, maisonettes or social housing dwellings.
? 2.5 Miscellaneous fire safety issues
? 2.5.2. Low level emergency lighting
? 2.5.3. External premises information plates
? 2.5.4. Clause 2.7.1 of the Domestic and Non-domestic Technical Handbook (External wall cladding systems ECWS)
? 2.5.5. Regulation 8(4) and exemptions to European Classification A1 and A2 components that form part of an external wall cladding system
? 2.5.6. Exit width from rooms in non-domestic buildings
? 2.5.8. BS EN 13637:2015 Electrically controlled exit systems for use on escape routes
This consultation runs for 12 weeks from 13 December 2024 with responses to this consultation to be received by 7 March 2025.
Please respond to this consultation using the Scottish Government consultations Hub - Citizen Space.
New guidance to help tackle e-bike fires
The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has published new statutory guidelines for businesses producing and distributing lithium-ion batteries for e-bikes.
Published in December 2024, the guidance has been described as the latest step from the government in “tackling fires caused by unsafe e-bikes and associated products”.
Scottish Housing Regular (SHR) Response to the consultation on indicators for monitoring the Scottish Social Housing Charter
On 14th January 2025, The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) published the outcome of its consultation on the indicators social landlords report on in their Annual Return on the Charter (ARC).
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The ARC is the main way social landlords demonstrate how they are performing against the standards and outcomes of the Scottish Social Housing Charter.
The Regulator will introduce new tenant and resident safety indicators including on fire and electrical safety and three new indicators on damp and mould. It will also remove a small number of indicators and improve clarity on the definitions of a number of existing indicators.
You can read the SHR publication here and read our summary of the key information relevant to the new tenant and resident safety indicators here.
Scotland’s Housing Festival
We're pleased to announce we are exhibiting at this year's CIH Scotland's Housing Festival being held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) on 4th & 5th March.
If you're attending, please do stop by our stand (number 22) to say hello and grab some freebies!
Asbestos tradespeople
Tradespeople: it can take 20-30 years for symptoms of asbestos-related diseases to appear, don't risk your future health. Find out what you need to do to protect yourself and others.
Counterfeit electrical products
Electrical Safety First have put together a useful reminder and tips for staying vigilant when it comes to counterfeit products.
They might look legit, but they can be unsafe and unreliable.
Free member webinars
Our ‘Back to Basics’ series of webinars will take a look at a specific safety-related subject and tell you what you should be doing to comply with the Regulations and standards – sometimes, it's about more than holding a certificate or assessment and ticking a box…
For more information, and to book, click here.
Discounted training from HHSC
Members of the Social Housing Safety Network Scotland always get a discounted rate on all training run by Housing H&S Compliance UK Ltd (HHSC). To view all the upcoming training you can either visit the website or download the brochure.
Here are just a few of the upcoming courses (click the banners for more information).