EUSGNEM28 Investigate incidents relating to utility network assets

Overview

This national occupational standard is about planning and carrying out comprehensive investigations into incidents which have negative impacts on the network and the organisation. The outcomes of investigations may, but do not have to, indicate neglect and a move towards criminal proceedings.

It involves planning investigations, obtaining and analysing data, information and evidence, drawing conclusions and making and presenting recommendations.

This Standard is for supervisors, first line managers or the competent person on site who are responsible for investigating incidents relating to utility assets in their area of responsibility.

Performance Criteria

You must be able to:

1. plan investigations into incidents that will provide accurate and sufficient information about their causes, contributing factors and their primary and wider effects
2. estimate the timescales, required information and resources, the costs of carrying out investigations and who will be involved in line with organisational procedures
3. keep relevant managers, colleagues, and others informed throughout the process in line with organisational procedures
4. obtain sufficient, pertinent, and reliable data, information and evidence about incidents from valid sources in line with organisational processes
5. deal with data, information and evidence in a systematic way that will allow its future use in legal proceedings if required
6. consider the organisation’s mandatory responsibilities, equipment supplier responsibilities, health and safety procedures and the extent and effects of any injuries in line with organisational procedures
7. investigate and provide objective conclusions about incident root causes, human and other contributing factors and foreseeable and preventative risks that are supported by data, information and evidence
8. assess and provide conclusions about the primary effects, wider effects, potential effects if no changes are made and lessons learned in line with organisational procedures
9. make risk prevention recommendations and recommend improvements to processes and procedures in line with organisational procedures
10. calculate the financial and other business costs resulting from incidents and associated with recommended changes in line with organisational procedures
11. use appropriate technology to provide information to build context around incidents and support recommendations
12. present the results of investigations to appropriate people in line with organisational procedures
13. keep records of source data, information, evidence, analysis and conclusions in line with organisational procedures

Knowledge and understanding

You need to know and understand:

1. relevant health and safety regulations, procedures and guidelines relating to yourself and others including duty of care, hazardous substances, personal protective equipment (PPE), use of equipment and machinery, confined spaces, excavations, lifting machinery, manual handling and other relevant industry specific information
2. network engineering legislation, regulatory frameworks, codes of practice, compliance agency standards, associated permits, national quality standards, principles, processes and equipment specifications relating to design, installation, operations, and maintenance for the network being worked on
3. relevant environmental legislation and environmentally responsible work practices and organisational policy and their importance, including waste disposal standards
4. organisational procedures and systems
5. the types of incident that could occur and how they might affect property, network assets, the environment and people including those closely affected by it as well as others affected on the periphery
6. the factors to be taken into account when planning an investigation including a sufficiently broad scope to make sure nothing is missed, who should be involved and its impact on the organisation and staff
7. sources of information, the amount required and methods for obtaining it and evaluating it including CCTV or photographic evidence, witness statements, expert statements, site history of incidents or `near misses', dangerous occurrence and incident reports, shift reports, personnel records, training evidence, process change records, maintenance history, material or substance data sheets, confidential data and other relevant information
8. quality assurance principles and systems and the role and purpose of data audit trails for quality assurance and regulatory requirements
9. the possible causes of incidents including the workplace environment, management quality, work hours, nature of the incident, equipment, skills levels, and other human related causes
10. the contributory factors that can lead to incidents, including events leading up to and associated with it, and how to assess their impact including the care and welfare of employees, general conditions and facilities, skills experience, knowledge and competence, use of direct or indirect labour, maintenance, level of supervision, housekeeping, morale, discipline, work demands, stress, provisions and aids, weather and fatigue
11. primary effects of incidents, including the severity of an injury, the damage to equipment, and involvement of the emergency services
12. the wider effects to the organisation of incidents including ethical considerations, potential business loss, community opinion, employee concerns into investigations
13. how to complete root cause analysis and deal with the findings of investigations including working with employee or trade union representatives when available
14. the organisation’s mandatory responsibilities and equipment supplier responsibilities and how to identify whether there has been a breach of health and safety law and other legal implications
15. the types of recommendation that should emerge from an investigation, how to provide clear and justifiable conclusions and recommendations and the types and amount of evidence necessary to support them and to give them context including operational procedures, drawings, diagrams and equipment detail.
16. lines of reporting and authority and who should be kept informed of progress
17. presentation methods relating to presenting conclusions, recommendations and lessons learned
18. the importance of meticulously storing data, information, evidence, analysis and conclusions in information systems, how to use them and how to comply with data protection requirements