Port of Leith Housing Association, Edinburgh
Port of Leith Housing Association, established in 1975, has 38 members of staff and has operated a partial no-smoking policy for many years.
Smoking was permitted in designated areas of the office until 2004 when the association, mindful of the legislation proposed by the Scottish government, made a commitment to work towards a completely smoke-free environment and make progress towards Scotland’s Health at Work Bronze Award which requires a smoking policy to treat all employees in a consistent manner, protect staff from passive smoking, ensure all employees understand the smoking policy, and to promote cessation support.
Advice on policy development and implementation was received from the Health Promotion Team at Lothian NHS.
All staff were consulted and kept up to date, information on cessation support was made easily available. Smokers were invited to attend a support group during working hours which offered to compile personal action plans.
The final draft of the policy was approved by committee in December 2004. The policy was implemented from January 1, 2005, and all staff received a copy of the policy with no-smoking statement prominently displayed.
Fruit and chewing gum was bought on a weekly basis throughout January and February 2005 to help smokers. A mentoring scheme was established where smokers could contact a ‘buddy’ and meet for a coffee/chat if they were having a difficult time. Regular support meetings continued to be held.
Port of Leith Personnel Officer Lorraine Tait said:
“It makes business sense to introduce a smoke-free environment and, if carefully planned, with ongoing consultation and support, a smoke-free environment can be introduced smoothly with minimum interruption to core business.
“Employers must appreciate that not all smokers will want to stop but by giving staff support any resistance to the change can be significantly reduced and the change soon becomes the ‘norm’ in the organisation.”