Colleague Handbook
Colleague Handbook
Line managers are responsible for the health and safety of colleagues that report to them whether they are a Barnardo’s colleagues, seconded from another employer, or other person at work. While line managers retain this responsibility, the People Relations Team will support managers with health issues including occupational health issues, and the Safety Team will support managers with occupational safety issues. Line managers must also co-ordinate actions relating to the health of the colleague and must provide relevant feedback to the colleague.
All colleagues classified as ‘night workers’ under the Working Time Regulations 1998 will be offered a free health assessment to establish their suitability for night work. This will be made available to relevant colleagues at yearly intervals. Please contact People Relations Team to make the necessary arrangements if you are classified as a night worker.
The Working Time Regulations set out that the average maximum weekly hours for the majority of colleagues should be 48 hours. In the case of young workers (those aged 16-17 who are over compulsory school age) this is restricted to 40 hours a week and eight hours a day. These totals incorporate hours worked for other employers. For further details, including information on rest periods, please refer to the Working Time Regulations document on Inside Barnardo’s.
Any colleague who feels they are too tired to carry out their work safely and effectively must discuss this with their manager immediately and arrange a time to discuss their working hours and work life balance.
Barnardo’s aims to provide adequate control of the health and safety risks arising from our work activities. In doing so, we will ensure that injuries and incidents are recorded, monitored and any lessons learned are communicated and acted upon.
Any injury or incident at work must be reported to your manager. Full details regarding the reporting of absence and injuries at work and occupational diseases/ illnesses/conditions can be found in the ‘Barnardo’s Sickness Payment Schemes’ document.
Full details regarding injuries where damages are recoverable from a third party or injuries attributable to own misconduct or participation in sport as a profession can also be found in the ‘Barnardo’s Sickness Payment Schemes’ document.
Barnardo’s is concerned that the use of substances and/or alcohol by any of its colleagues should not adversely affect their health and personal life with consequential effects on their attendance and work performance. The Alcohol Drugs and Solvent Misuse at Work policy is intended to support colleagues to seek treatment for drinking or drugs problems and guarantees that they will be treated with confidentiality as far as possible.
Barnardo’s has a range of policies aimed at helping colleagues achieve a greater work life balance, including maternity, adoption, fostering, shared parental leave, support leave (applicable to adoption/fostering/maternity), unpaid parental leave, carers’ leave, dependant’s leave, flexible working, flexi time and job share. These policies can be found on Inside Barnardo’s. Rights and entitlements vary according to length of service.
Should you wish to discuss a policy further or have any queries, please contact the People Relations Team.
Full details on ‘Additional Leave - paid and unpaid’ policy to help with work life balance is detailed on Inside Barnardo’s. Additional leave (paid and unpaid) is a discretionary benefit and all requests for leave must be agreed by the appropriate line manager and line manager's manager.