|
CASE STUDY FOUR
A major UK and
Republic of Ireland retail outlet
contacted us in October 2004
with respect to the then new
Disabled (DDA) legislation and the
subsequent Disabled Access Audits to
all their premises. HASMSL
successfully completed three audits
at differing site type and location,
with the recommendation that the
issues highlighted be actioned and
that ALL their business premises
throughout the UK and the Republic
of Ireland are similarly audited.
HASMSL recommended
that we train a number of key
personnel to complete ‘suitable and
sufficient’ Disabled Access Audits
for the clients premises themselves,
therefore reducing these auditing
costs. HASMSL did warn the client at
the time, that with new legislation
of this type it would not be unusual
for a ‘test case’ soon to arise and
the media heightening awareness by
possible unannounced visits.
Four months later we received a
call from the client asking for
another copy of the HASMSL Disabled
Access Audit report to one of their
major retail stores – they had
mislaid the original. There was now
an issue for the client as the BBC
had sent in a disabled person
undercover and filmed what was for
the client, an embarrassing
situation. The BBC was as a
consequence, going to ‘air’ the
undercover filming on a television
programme which would obviously show
the company in a ‘bad light’. |
|
Act now -
call us for
critical DDA
Training and
consultancy |
|
As
a result of further issues
(e.g.
visits by enforcing authorities (HSE))
we were employed to completely
overhaul all of the company’s retail
units in terms of ‘on site’
management of health, safety,
environmental, disabled access and
employment law issues, processes and
systems. Although, the work has been
conducted on a very cost effective
basis this could have been greatly
reduced if the actions we had
originally recommended had been put
in place following our advice. |
