West Lothian and other councils are facing a "perfect storm" as there is a shortage of environmental health officers to provide vital monitoring services.
Numbers training to be environmental health officers are dropping as the population shrinks. The negative image of health and safety may also have an impact.
Obligations on environmental health and health and safety staff have seen workloads increase in recent years.
READ MORE: Retired East Lothian couple fight to keep 6ft fence which replaced 20ft high hedge
Craig Smith, environmental health and trading standards manager, said councils had struggled to recruit staff.
West Lothian currently has 7.5 full time equivalent (FTE) staff officers when ideally it should have nine.
Mr Smith was delivering reports to the community and public policy development and scrutiny panel (PDSP) recently on the council's food service and health and safety plans for the next year. Both plans were noted to go to the next meeting of the council executive.
Answering questions on the reports and staffing concerns Mr Smith said that there had always been a prioritised approach to the workload and despite challenges there were positives in both food safety and health and safety priorities.
The council is responsible for policing a vast array of Scottish and Westminster government policies across food standards and environmental health.
Mr Smith told councillors that “ there’s approaching 100 vacant posts for environmental health officers throughout Scotland’s local authorities.”
He added: “The demographics within Scotland are not particularly positive in terms of age profiles. We are all getting older and student numbers are reducing. There’s a concerted effort in many way to try to encourage more people into the profession but like many sectors staff recruitment and availability is an increasing challenge.
“We continue to do our best to develop staff and train new staff , as well as retain staff. We are trying to deliver the best service we can and that requires us to prioritise.”
Mr Smith said: “It’s a perfect storm of demographics aligned with challenges faced in many sectors in terms of recruiting staff.”
Councillor Maria MacAulay asked if the council worked with outside bodies to recruit and train staff, suggesting West Lothian College.
Mr Smith said the council did work with professional bodies as well as the University of the West of Scotland, which is currently the only further education centre providing training to a degree level in environmental health.
He added: “There is a lot of work being done to attract people into the profession."
According to the latest figures West Lothian has 1,895 food premises within the area ranging from farms, retailers and caterers, to large manufacturers.
A report said: “There will be a large carry over of inspections into the 2023 to 2024 inspection plan from 2022 to 2023. This is primarily due to the resources available to complete the inspection plan, and accumulation of missed inspections for similar reasons in previous years."
The report added: “However, even in challenging times it is important to acknowledge the positive aspects of team work addressed and delivered during 2022 to 2023."
These include:
- Adapting to OCV inspection regime and training of staff in new methodology.
- Early detection and response to cryptosporidium outbreak by officers to mitigate further spread of infection.
- Delivery and implementation of new management information system for environmental health and trading standards within a very limited timeframe.
- High level of service delivery performance for highest risk food establishments.
- Positive customer survey feedback for business engagement.
On Health and Safety the report said: “There are 2,133 premises within West Lothian ranging from offices, retailers, service sector, warehouses, leisure and public events.
It added: “The main demands on the service are driven by routine risk rated inspections and interventions, accident reports and investigations, and concerns and requests for service regarding health and safety.
“The term health and safety has taken on a very negative and trivialised interpretation due to risk averse and claims conscious organisations using it as a broad brush excuse for avoiding certain activities.
“ However, the real issues which officers have to address in protecting public health include:
- Prevention of serious and fatal accidents.
- Preventing injuries from falls from height, slips trips and falls, manual handling and upper limb disorders.
- Preventing exposure to harmful substances (chemicals, asbestos, fine particulates, carbon monoxide etc.)
- Preventing injuries from vehicles and machinery (e.g. fork lift trucks)
- Preventing health impact issues (asthma, dermatitis, infectious diseases, legionella, stress, violence etc.).
The report concluded: “The majority of employers say that health and safety requirements benefit their company as a whole (73 per cent), save money in the long‐term (64 per cent) and defend them against unjustified compensation claims (57 per cent).
“ Most employers also disagree with the contentions that health and safety requirements hamper their business (78 per cent) and are biased against small businesses (54 per cent). “The response from West Lothian business customers has always been favourable for any contact with officers from this service.”
