I am impressed to see the many and varied ways Nanny comes up with, when it comes to wasting our time and money.
It has recently come to light that, way back in October 2004, a teacher at a school in Wokingham fell off a ladder whilst pinning a poster to a wall.
The teacher received £82K in compensation/legal costs, the result of which caused the council to train its staff to undergo training for "height activities".
I appreciate that some people are slack jawed, dribbling morons when it comes to using ladders. However, these people are unlikely to "learn" from any training re "height activities". The majority of people treat ladders etc with a healthy respect and care.
I would also note that there is a world of difference between pinning a notice to the wall (whilst using a small/simple ladder), to using a "real ladder" to scale the outside of a building as a fireman or window cleaner (where clearly some form of training is required).
The fact that this little story has taken so long to come out makes me wonder how many other hidden wastes of time and money have been going on, courtesy of our "respected" councils, over the years?
Feel free to drop me a note with any stories that you have.
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ReplyDeleteIt is sad that Nanny is unable to offer commonsense training to her created cretins....I say created cretins because, so many of them have grown up under Labours useless education and political correctness regimes.....They have never had any risk at all in their sad lives and thus, when they join the real world, out side of their bubble wrapped world, they are unable to think for themselves nor weigh up risk as they've never known any......I find it a sad reflection on our society that a supposedly educated group would need height training to pin a poster on a wall....What ever next?,,,Height training to stand up if they're over five feet tall!!
Enjoy ladders responsibly.
While there needs to be health & safety (& enforcement to protect)for genuinely dangerous situations in & outside work, & while not commenting on the size of the settlement (not enough facts on the web, i.a. did it cause a long-term disability?),and wishing the teacher a good recovery, why is there so much litigation, red-tape, rules, over-insurance & meddling re "normal" things in life, including accidents which happen, & cannot be removed from life, even with common-sense. Britain has a health service which is generally free of charge unlike some other countries.
ReplyDeleteOver-legislation & litigation & meddling is restricting & warping normal life & business & government, increasing red-tape & premiums & stifling freedom & the growth of personal judgement. And when officials mis- or overapply the mountain of red-tape, rules. laws & restrictions they get sued too (including for unjust applications thereof) - further increasing red-tape, disputes, administrative costs & insurance & reducing quality of life. I hope things change for the better.
People don't have to use ladders if they don't want to or where they don't feel safe. Do people need more freedom to say "No" & "Yes" at work and outside & be respected? Rules & insurance can't cover everything.
Can't there be a more balanced attitude towards ladders?
One concept that government bureaucrats never seem to grasp (because they never want to) is the law of diminshing returns.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense to give emergency services personnel safety training. It doesn't make sense to give them safety training every day, and probably not every week (depends upon their job, I suppose).
It makes sense to give those teachers who deal with hazardous equipment a little training on how to use it properly. It doesn't make sense to do this more than once or twice a year.
You can't anticipate every type of accident that could occur, and then train to prevent it. At some point, it just becomes absurdly wateful and inefficient to do so.
Of course, if someone else is paying for the training . . . .
Black Sea -
ReplyDeleteTrue and if someone injures themselves, the answer is not to make them financially independednt or else everyone wants to start sueing someone.
Accidents happen with regular monotony. Trains crash, planes fall out of the sky, teachers fall of ladders and leaflet distributors get paper cuts.
You cant legislate against it, you cant outlaw it and you can compensate for it with big wads of cash.
Its life. Life isnt safe and life isnt fair. (bit it can be fun if we chose to let it be)
"and you can compensate"
ReplyDeleteBollocks. That was supposed to be "CANT" compensate.
I must need spelling training!
For a while I was foolishly optimistic enough to accept free council-subsidised "help" from "carers" employed by subcontracting agencies. I could write a book about these weird people. Some of them were totally incompetent and even surly. Others were personally pleasant but hadn't much a clue.
ReplyDeleteEven those who had were hamstrung by Nanny. One nice guy arrived on his first visit and assured me that he would be only too pleased to do ANYTHING I asked. But when I told him to climb onto the kitchen steps to reach something down from a high cupboard, he said he wasn't allowed to do that because of accident risks (even though I had insurance cover). Grrrh...
Even when they DO follow procedures things can still go wrong:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1232540/School-wind-turbine-collapses-crushes-contractors-van.html
"Peter Griffiths, director of turbine supplier Aeolus Power, said: 'It was an unfortunate accident. I have been assured all the health and safety requirements on site were carried out."
How come the van got crushed then?
A few months ago I damaged my ankle. I recently got a text message informing me I could be in for £3K compensation. No idea how my number was obtained or how they knew of the accident. On principle, I didn't respond.
ReplyDeleteJay
When a player damaged his ankle at our playing fields quite a few years ago, our insurance wanted to 'settle' but our committee took the case to court at our own expense and fought it. We won, got the costs back from the claimant, and made it known amongst all the teams who play at our ground. No-one has ever tried to claim since.
ReplyDeleteWe've already wasted money on pointless courses,so what's next? Forcing fat people to go on diets? Getting teenagers like me on pathetic courses like how to ride a skateboard or rollerskates? Teaching pensioners how to play on the Wii?
ReplyDelete