Leading Personal Safety Charity announces, ‘Suzy’s Charter for Workplace Safety’.

Suzy Lamplugh Trust has today announced the launch of a new initiative for better safety in the workplace. ‘Suzy’s Charter for Workplace Safety’, is designed to make workplaces ‘safer for everyone’, and for employees and employers alike.

Suzy Lamplugh Trust was formed by Diana and Paul Lamplugh after their daughter, Suzy Lamplugh, disappeared in 1986. Since its inception, the trust has worked with countless stakeholders in order to campaign, educate and support across all areas of personal safety. The trust remains SoloProtect’s nominated charity partner and continues to use the SoloProtect lone worker solution to help ensure the safety of its personnel.

Suzy’s Charter for Workplace Safety covers a wide range of considerations for all involved in the process of keeping staff safe, but specifically, it highlights a number of key areas:

• Embed a workplace personal safety culture
• Implement robust risk assessments
• Provide robust reporting procedures
• Provide Personal Safety Training
• Implement a tracing system
• Have a system in place for colleagues to covertly raise an alarm
• Offer staff a personal safety alarm according to their risk assessment
• Regularly consult on and review safety policies and procedures with employees

(Source, Suzy Lamplugh Trust)

The trust has developed the charter after working with a wide cross-section of organisations over the last twelve months, including small and large business employers, employees, and other stakeholders such as trade unions, and the Police. The initiative is being launched on National Personal Safety Day, 2019.

With an estimated 374,000 people in England and Wales suffering violence at work annually (Source, HSE ‘Violence at Work Statistics’), and clear and updated Sentencing Guidelines for breaches in Health and Safety legislation, the financial implications of not ensuring staff are protected, have never been greater. At the time of writing, £54.5 million has been handed down in fines this year (Source, HSE Enforcement statistics in Great Britain 2019), fines are also directed by the guidelines to be “sufficiently substantial to have a real economic impact, which will bring home to both management and shareholders the need to comply”.

Craig Swallow, Managing Director for SoloProtect commented:
‘We’re delighted to see the launch of Suzy’s Charter, and the fact it is focussed specifically on the workplace is a great fit with the lone worker sector, and should prove a platform for broad, cross-sector engagement with employers. SoloProtect places great value in being able to support the campaigning and education Suzy Lamplugh Trust brings to the subject of better personal safety.’

Suky Bhaker, Acting CEO, Suzy Lamplugh Trust commented:
‘It is unacceptable that anyone should face violence and aggression in any form whilst at work. We hope this Charter will help employees and employers create safer workplaces and we would encourage all organisations to work through the Charter a step at a time to make these important changes. Suzy Lamplugh Trust is ready to assist any organisation in the implementation of Suzy’s Charter.’

For more information on Suzy’s Charter for Workplace Safety, please visit the Suzy Lamplugh website: https://www.suzylamplugh.org/