SCENARIO Woodbury Garden Centre occupies a large site on the outskirts of a small town, easily accessed via car or public transport. It is part of a national chain of garden centres that each grow and sell a wide selection of trees, plants and shrubs, suited to the temperate climate. The garden centre site is made up of a small warehouse and office, 10 glasshouses (where young and tender plants are cultivated), and public areas consisting of a large, fenced, outdoor area, smaller covered outdoor area, a large shop and a small café. From the car park, a wide paved pathway leads to the shop entrance; both areas are well-lit and well maintained. On entering the shop, to the right is the café area; bifold doors opening to extend the café area (when the weather permits) and provide outdoor tables and seating, with small pond and ornamental fountain. Customer toilets are located adjacent to the café. The air-conditioned shop sells a wide variety of items including garden furniture (much of which is sold as ‘flat-packs’ for home assembly), garden tools (ranging from large items such as lawnmowers, to spades, forks, rakes, and trowels), plant pots, seeds, garden ornaments and garden chemicals (such as fertilisers and pesticides). At the back of the shop is the entrance to the covered, paved outdoor area which in turn leads through to the larger uncovered area, where wide gravelled pathways guide customers around. Displays of plants and shrubs line each side of the pathways, some on waist-high display stands, others at ground level. Customers can use either a basket or flatbed trolley to take their items to the checkout counters which are located in the main shop area. Workers are on hand to assist with the handling of large or bulky items such as large plants and bags of compost; notices are displayed throughout the shop and outdoor public areas urging customers to request assistance where needed. The garden centre also operates a local delivery service for heavy and bulky items. Woodbury Garden Centre is open 7 days a week Monday – Saturday 08.00 - 20.00, and Sunday 10.00 - 16.00. The garden centre employs 200 workers, some of them are based solely in the office, shop, or café, but many carry out a variety of roles across the site. Several of the workers are part-time. As the garden centre has extensive glasshouse facilities and carries out horticultural work, the garden centre provides work placements to learners from a nearby college. Working in partnership with local health services, they also provide several rehabilitation placements for people who have suffered from mental health problems and are having difficulties finding and retaining work. Sickness absence rates at the garden centre are generally low and the organisation prides itself on looking after its workers, many of whom have been employed by the organisation for over a decade. Workers are regularly consulted for their views, surveys are conducted on a variety of topics, and there is an effective worker suggestion scheme. There is a strong sense of community and workers feel valued. All workers are provided with a uniform suitable for the temperate climate. This consists of heavyweight polo-shirt, jacket, and trousers. Outdoor workers are also provided with waterproof jackets. Many of the workers carry out a range of manual handling tasks as part of their day-to-day work. Common manual handling tasks frequently carried out include: - lifting large plant pots weighing 5 - 10kg from the floor to the display stands at waist height; - loading a wide range of products and plants into customer vehicles, and into a van for delivery to customers. All workers attend a half-day manual handling training course at induction and complete online refresher training each year. Eight of the ten glasshouses are modern, with automated systems in place for watering via overhead mist sprinklers and ground level irrigation. The irrigation system consists of a large rainwater-fed storage tank, pump, timer, and system of surface pipework. Irrigation takes place for 3 hours every day in the summer months (split between morning and evening) and for shorter periods during winter, ID2-0001-ENG-OBE-QP-V1 Nov21 © NEBOSH 2021 page 3 of 7 (as required). Workers regularly remove any leaves or other debris that enter the tank (through gaps in the lid) to help ensure there are no blockages. Ventilation of these glasshouses is automated, and consists of large fans, and roof and side vents. Heating is provided when required via a calorifier (connected to the gas fired boiler) and a system of pipework across surfaces and floor areas. Paved pathways run alongside all benches and planting areas. The temperature in these glasshouses varies, but rarely exceeds 27°C. The remaining two glasshouses are older and set apart from the newer buildings; although access is good, lighting of pathways is limited, and some paving is a little uneven. These glasshouses have venting to the sides and roof that is manually operated, and do not have any fan units. The side vents are rarely opened as they can be difficult to access through dense areas of planting; sometimes workers are too busy to remember to open the roof vents and temperatures quickly rise in the summer months. Watering is completed manually using hosepipes fitted with a spray nozzle. The manager is aware of the difficulties in maintaining a suitable temperature in these glasshouses, but with a significant financial investment required to update to an automated system, they cannot afford to carry out these improvements until their financial situation improves. Until this can be done, these areas are used to grow heat-tolerant plants only, during the summer months. Plants in all outdoor areas of the garden centre are watered regularly using hosepipes with spray nozzles. In hot weather, watering can be needed twice a day. The warehouse is well-organised with strong aluminium racking and clearly marked out pedestrian walkways. A computerised stock control system is in operation that records the quantities, weights and positioning of items held in the warehouse (items cultivated on site are not included within this system). There are two electric forklift trucks and numerous pallet (pump) trucks. All equipment is kept in a good state of repair. The warehouse itself is well-lit and kept clean and tidy. At the rear of the warehouse is a small open-plan office where the manager and 6 office workers are based. Access to the office is via external doors (there is also an additional internal doorway into the warehouse itself). Next to the office are the worker toilets and washrooms that include two shower units. The delivery area is found to the left of the warehouse; the van used for local deliveries is also parked in this area. The van is compact in size with a limited internal height of 145cm, but this is sufficient to enable delivery of any of the bulky items on sale if required. The two drivers combine their delivery duties with other warehouse tasks. Although only one driver is usually needed for any delivery, occasionally the other driver will also help if deliveries are particularly bulky or heavy. One of the workers in the ‘Cultivation Team’ has been employed by the garden centre for 20 years. They are hardworking and reliable and held in high regard by the manager. Following a back injury sustained while playing football (which required surgery) the worker has been on sickness leave for 6 months and is due to return to work in 3 days’ time. The worker is understandably anxious about their return. They are concerned about how they will cope with the demands of the job but are finding it difficult to manage on a reduced income while off sick and need to get back to work as quickly as possible. They have missed their work colleagues and are feeling very isolated, not having had any contact with anyone for so long. The worker is concerned the organisation may ‘think less of them’ due to their extended period of sick leave. Although the manager is relieved the worker is returning soon (as the Cultivation Team are extremely busy), they are also concerned for the worker’s health. They have arranged a ‘return-to-work interview’ with the worker the day before they return to work and are keen to ease their return. They have communicated potential work adjustments for discussion at the interview consisting of a phased return to work and reduced hours (either shorter working days, or alternate days). The garden centre is always busy with customers at weekends, but with unusually good weather it has been a particularly hectic day. There has been a ‘special offer’ on compost that has resulted in workers being inundated with requests for help with these heavy items. Although they are happy to help load items into customers’ cars (they have a great reputation for excellent customer service) this can result in long queues at the checkout counters, with less workers as a result being available to process transactions. One customer has become frustrated at this delay; they are not buying any compost and want to go past three people to the front of the queue to pay for their items quickly. They become very vocal and start to shout loudly at other customers and the checkout workers, causing quite a ID2-0001-ENG-OBE-QP-V1 Nov21 © NEBOSH 2021 page 4 of 7 disturbance. After ten minutes, one of the rehabilitation placement workers goes across to the customer to see if they can be of any help. The customer loses their temper and sharply pushes the worker away, who falls to the ground, banging their leg against a nearby display unit. The customer drops their basket and rushes out of the shop. The rehabilitation placement worker is visibly shocked and upset. The manager, seeing what has happened, comes across to help; the first-aider is called to assist and after assessment decides there is no need to call for an ambulance. The worker is taken to the office area to recuperate; the police are called, and the violent incident is reported. The worker describes their version of events, and the closed-circuit television (CCTV) recordings of the incident are given to the police officers. Positioning of the cameras in the shop has given an excellent view of the incident, clear CCTV images from the car park area show the assailant leaving the premises, and their vehicle registration details. The manager drives the worker home when they feel ready. On their return to the office, the manager goes over the recorded details of the incident once again. They speak to the other workers who witnessed the assault before completing an incident report. The manager, disturbed this has happened to one of their workers, is committed to doing whatever may be necessary to help ensure such an incident is not repeated. They revisit previous incident reports, risk assessments and other relevant documents to identify if anything had been missed and begin to consider what changes they can make to improve matters. With challenging targets, several unfilled job vacancies, and strong local competition, the manager is under a great deal of stress. To add to their considerable workload, each of the Woodbury Garden Centre branches have been asked to complete a review of all water systems. A rival garden centre was recently prosecuted for failing to assess and manage the risks associated with legionella bacteria; the Woodbury Group are worried and keen to avoid anything similar happening to them. The review is to be completed urgently. SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS 1. Doctor’s letter 2. Floor plan of garden centre 3. L23 4. Safety data sheet Drain-buster 5. Procedure for use of Drain-buster 6. Climate charts.Task 1: Planning an approach to manual handling risk assessment 1 (a) The health and safety officer is reviewing the overall approach to manual handling risk assessments at the garden centre. (i) With the exception of weight, outline how other manual handling risks arising from the loads are relevant to what is handled at the garden centre. (15) (ii) Outline how relevant manual handling risks arising from the work environment are relevant to what is handled at the garden centre. (15) Note: You should support your answers, where applicable, using relevant information from the scenario and relevant supporting documents. (b) Manual handling assessment tools have been selected to assess each of the two common manual handling tasks carried out at the garden centre. For EACH of the tasks below, comment on the selections made. Common Manual Handling Task Manual handling assessment tool selected (i) Lifting large plant pots weighing 5-10kg from the floor to the display stands at waist height. Simple filter indicates a lowrisk task with no further risk assessment required. (ii) Loading a wide range of products and plants into customer vehicles, and into a van for delivery to customers. Simple filter tool not appropriate. V-MAC with MAC. (20) (30) Note: You should support your answers, where applicable, using relevant information from the scenario and supporting documents. You are not required to carry out the manual handling risk assessment using any of the tools you refer to. Task 2: Returning to work following long-term sickness absence 2 What are the positive and negative aspects of the support provided by the organisation in relation to (a) the long-term sickness absence of the Cultivation Team worker? (5) (b) the return to work of the Cultivation Team worker? (20) Note: You should support your answers, where applicable, using relevant information from the scenario and relevant supporting documents. ID2-0001-ENG-OBE-QP-V1 Nov21 © NEBOSH 2021 page 6 of 7 Task 3: Report on the assessment and management of legionella bacteria 3 Following concerns about legionella this branch of the Woodbury Garden Centre chain has been asked to complete a review of THREE of the relevant water systems and present their review findings in a report. Complete this report using the Task 3 report template provided in the answer sheet. (45) Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using information from the scenario and relevant supporting documents to complete the report template. Task 4: Reducing the risk of violent incidents 4 The assault on the rehabilitation placement worker by a customer is being investigated internally, and actions identified to reduce the risk of anything similar happening again. (a) Based on information contained in the scenario only, what current areas of good practice help to reduce the risk of violent incidents? (8) (b) Suggest additional actions the garden centre could take to help reduce the risk of this specific type of incident. (12) (c) The local health service has contacted the garden centre to tell them that the rehabilitation placement worker is traumatised by the violent incident and reluctant to continue with their placement. What support could the garden centre provide to help them continue? (5) Task 5: Thermal Environments at the garden centre 5 (a) Workers at the garden centre carry out tasks in both moderate and extreme thermal environments. Describe the range of thermal environments that workers may be exposed to and the effect EACH would have on worker thermal comfort. (20) (b) (i) What are the possible adverse effects on safety of working in these more extreme thermal environments? (5) (ii) What are the possible adverse effects on health of working in these more extreme thermal environments? (5) (c) Consider what practical control measures the garden centre could put in place to minimise the risks to those in the Cultivation Team who spend most of their working time in the glasshouses. (15) Note: You should support your answers, where applicable, using relevant information from the scenario and supporting documents. ID2-0001-ENG-OBE-QP-V1 Nov21 © NEBOSH 2021 page 7 of 7 Task 6: Chemical health and safety considerations for unblocking drains 6 The regular watering of plants results in soil and debris running off into the surface drains. As a result, these drains frequently get blocked. A drain unblocker chemical called ‘Drain-buster’ is used once a week to help manage this problem. (a) Using the information provided in supporting documents 4 and 5, describe (i) the hazards (5) (ii) the risks (5) that are relevant to this product and its use. (b) The garden centre manager has asked for an explanation of some of the information in the safety data sheet (SDS) for Drain-buster (supporting document 4). In particular, they want to understand the information in the table at section 8. Prepare a briefing note to (i) explain in detail the meaning of this information. (15) (ii) explain the relevance of the information to the use of Drain-buster at the garden centre. (10) (c) Suggest specific improvements that could be made to the information provided in supporting document 5. (35) Note: You are not required to produce a revised procedure. (d) Drain-buster is bought in bulk quantities and stored in the warehouse prior to use. There are typically 20 x 5 litre containers of the concentrate on a pallet and further product is ordered once the stock levels get down to the last 5 containers. Following a recent delivery of a new pallet of Drain-buster, one of the warehouse workers notices that some of the containers are damaged and it appears the product has leaked out onto the floor of the warehouse. Consider the potential risks resulting from such a spillage. (10) Note: You should support your answers, where applicable, using information from the scenario and relevant supporting documents.