Avoid the

Safety Slippery Slope

Preventing Slips, Trips & Falls This Winter

STARTING SOON
 Introductions
Hello! 👋 Thank you for joining this collaborative webinar with Navitas Safety, Slip Safety
Services and Keoghs!

Our experts will be sharing their knowledge and insights on how to prevent slips, trips and falls
in the workplace this winter ❄

Daniel Reid Reena Appadoo Christian Harris John McKie

Navitas Safety | CMO & Host Navitas Safety | Technical Director Slip Safety Services | Founder Keoghs | Client Service Director
 What are we covering?

→ Why it is important to prevent and defend slips, trips & falls

→ Ways to help businesses prevent them from happening

→ Encouraging a proactive approach to prevention

→ Costs when things go wrong

→ How to deal with a serious slip, trip and fall injury

→ How to learn from these types of injuries

Slips are a big problem
In the UK, Slips, trips and falls cause:

A broken bone 300,000 1.5m NHS A dozen

every 5 minutes A & E admissions bed days amputations

Of most sectors’ £1bn+ £10,000s 6 figure

accidents, injuries of insurance claims of uninsured ‘hidden criminal fines
and claims (£10,000 on average) costs’ for every accident
…and it’s not improving
And it’s not improving…
RIDDORs over the last decade (HSE data)
 Question 1:

Why is it important to
prevent and defend
workplace slip, trip
& fall injuries?
Operational Impact of Accidents:

Injured person – medical treatment, sickness

absence, wellbeing, affect on home life

Team – team member concern, added workload,

low morale, frustration

Business – staff turnover, social media, enforcement,

personal injury claims
Tune your CHIMES to stop slips
Tune your CHIMES to stop slips

Buildings doing Buildings doing

well all have not so well all
some things in have some things
common… in common…
 Slipping Claims: Setting the Scene
Fast Facts – Keoghs
client experience
✅ >23% of all claims presented
against retailers, leisure and
hospitality providers and food
and drinks manufacturers
involve a claimant slipping
✅ A further 22% are trips or falls
(i.e. from height)
✅ 1 in 2 claims are successfully
defended (closed with nil
damages paid)
✅ The average cost of a slipping
claim, to Keoghs clients, is £6,535
(including nil closures)
Common causes of
slipping claims
✅ Produce / products
✅ Leaking chillers / freezers
✅ Rain at entrance / exit
✅ Leaking or gathering water in
customer and employee toilets
✅ Inadequate cleaning and
inspection regime
✅ Poor PPE
✅ Unsuitable flooring (lacking
resistance)
✅ Snow and ice
Costly cause type (1)
For one major grocery retailer…
✅ March 2016 incident
✅ Settled in September 2022
✅ Customer slipped on rain water
that had been allowed to gather
in the foyer
✅ Lack of proactive and regular
documented inspections. Lack of
matting. Liability admitted
✅ Multiple injuries, including spinal
fracture
✅ Total cost of claim = £534k
Costly cause type (2)
For a global warehousing and
distribution company…
✅ July 2017 incident
✅ Settled in February 2021
✅ Employee slipped on sludge and
polythene, left on loading and
unloading bays
✅ Vicarious liability, with
contributory negligence
deduction
✅ Ligament damage to knee
✅ Total cost of claim = £122k
 Question 2:

How can you effectively

influence your business on
taking a proactive approach
to slip, trip & fall prevention?
Positive Influence

👓 Having a clear safety vision & goals

🔍 Collating and analysing data e.g. accidents, near-misses, audits, claims

📈 Board reporting on trends

🤝 Collaboration on the ‘so what?’

✅ Implementing practical solutions across the organisation

🗣 Communicating on successes and areas of improvements

🔄 Keeping safety in the conversation – not a one off exercise!

 “It won’t
happen to me”
Slipping Claims: Defensibility

Evidencing incident prevention

Clean as you go Demonstrate Putting safety,

Documented Complete and
training, tools effective not cost, first!
systems and record regular
and promotion behavioural Investing in
processes checks
management controls

Evidencing compliance

When was the Consider and

Identify person What did they Identify and
area last document
last in the area say? capture
cleaned / contributing
witnesses
inspected? factors
 Question 3:

How do you deal with a

serious slip, trip & fall injury
and how can you learn from
them to help prevent a
recurrence?
Operational Top Tips
Raise Awareness – deliver
refresher briefing/training to
Investigate - complete a the team
thorough investigation
following the 5Ws: who,
what, where, when & why?

Take Action - follow-up

on all next steps

Engage - share findings

with the team & other Monitor – carry out
stakeholders preventative checks e.g. on
housekeeping/premises
standards, PPE and
cleanliness
 FAQ’s
SomeTime formost
of our some common
of our
commonly asked questions
queries and key questions
If you have any more questions, drop
them in the live chat! ➡
 That’s all folks!
So, now you’re in the know about
Slips, Trips & Falls.
We hope you found today useful! To start you on your winter safety journey,
we are offering these discounts to our webinar attendees:

A 6 month voucher
50% discount
for a 15% discount on
on floor testing
any new service
per company
per company

Get in touch to claim your discount:

www.navitassafety.com│hello@navitassafety.com