Executive comment

HSE’S LATEST ill health statistics published last month, show that there were an estimated 473,000 workers affected by work-related musculoskeletal disorders in Great Britain. HSE and CIEHF’s Risk reduction through design award aims to showcase the innovative approaches businesses are taking to reduce musculoskeletal risks. 

With the festive season and submission deadline rapidly approaching, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are inviting companies to submit nominations for the prestigious musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) ‘Risk reduction through design awards’ 2024. 

Now in its 7^th year, the CIEHF and HSE sponsored awards have grown from strength to strength, with nominations from a wide and diverse range of different sectors including health care, construction transport and logistics, railways and manufacturing.

What are MSDs? 

MSDs include injuries and conditions that can affect the back, joints and limbs and can be caused or made worse by work activities. They are found across most industries and are attributed to activities such as heavy manual handling, pushing/pulling of loads, stretching/twisting, awkward and constrained postures to name a few.

What’s new for 2023/24?

Recognising that SMEs are a fundamental backbone to UK economy by employing over half of the countries workforce we want to recognise the hard work and dedication of UK SMEs¹, particularly their approach to risk reduction and demonstrating what is possible by making simple workplace changes to reduce or eliminate MSD risk. 

To reflect this, there will now be two categories for the awards:

1. Best overall MSD risk reduction through design award; and

2. Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) Recognition award

How do I submit a nomination?

To request an entry form please email msdpp@hse.gov.uk

We will send you a Word template to complete and return to the above email address. 

We can only accept nominations from employers of the workers who benefit from the design changes. We cannot accept nominations from marketing companies, consultants, or designers.

A maximum of three nominations per company will be accepted. 

So, if you are aware of any employers in the UK that have designed a solution to reduce musculoskeletal risks, encourage them to nominate the design change for the Risk-reduction through design award!

Any employer whether large or small and from any sector or industry can make a nomination.

For more information and to view previous winning nominations, visit:

https://www.hse.gov.uk/news/msd-awards.htm

https://ergonomics.org.uk/accreditation/awards/risk-reduction-through-design-award.html

Before I go, commence my Christmas shopping, and double my body weight with mince pies, I would encourage you to complete your nomination form as soon as possible as the closing date for nominations is 31^st January 2024.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and New Year, 

1 SMEs are defined by number of employees. Micro (1-9 employees), Small (10-49) and Medium (50-249 employees).

Chris Quarrie works in the MSD Policy Team at HSE. For more information, visit www.hse.gov.uk