Watson and Watson Health and Safety Consultants understand that health and safety can be a difficult subject to tackle and is not always seen as the most exciting thing to think about, so here we have put together a few health and safety tips for you to consider.
Legal Duty – Duty of Care
Health and safety should be a key element of every business as every Employer has a legal duty to safe guard their employees, customers, and other persons alike from harm. The consequences of failing to demonstrate a diligent ‘Duty of Care’ may result in criminal prosecution and/or civil claims against the company – therefore it is in the interest of a company to have good Health & Safety Systems & Procedures in place.
Appointing a Person to Champion Health & Safety Within Your Company
Appointing someone to oversee and implement your Health and Safety Policy, Systems and Procedures is key to maintaining control and the development thereof. This being a legal requirement under the Management of Health & Safety At Work Regulations 1999.
The appointed person needs to be competent (suitably qualified and experienced) in their duties, this means that they will be able to identify the health and safety needs of the business, spot potential problems and be competent enough to deal with issues in a professional manner.
You should ask yourself does your company have such a person or do you need assistance, if not it is common practise to appoint an External Competent Health & Safety Adviser you can call on to give advice.
Have a Health & Safety Policy
A dedicated health and safety policy isn’t great for bedtime reading, but it should be a page turner for anyone working within your business as it sets out three important aspects of the business, these being the –
Thus a good Policy will outline to everyone within the business how the business plans to implement and manage health and safety. Therefore the Policy should be made available to everyone so that it becomes a working document, this is best achieved by posting the Statement of Intent on the H&S Noticeboard, briefing employees, and making copies accessible to them.
Note: Having a Health & Safety Policy is a legal requirement if an employer employs 5 or more employees - although in practice employers employing under 5 employees generally also need to have one to satisfy Clients when tendering for work.
Assess Your Workplace Hazards & Risks
The assessment of risks within your business is a legal requirement under the Management of Health and Safety At Work Regulations 1999, and therefore to not demonstrate this duty of care is a criminal offence.
Note: There is a legal requirement to have Risk Assessments written down if as an employer you employ 5 or more employees - although in practice employers employing under 5 employees generally also need to write risk assessments to prove that they have assessed the risks and to satisfy Clients when tendering for work.
Risk assessments play a major role in health and safety and when carried out correctly allow the identification of hazards and subsequently control the risks posed by the hazards. The HSE sets out 5 Steps to Carrying Out a Risk Assessment, these being –
A key further to producing a suitable and sufficient Risk Assessment is having a person/s who is/are competent in the 5 steps and building a team of individuals who are familiar with the task (etc) to be assessed, this helping to ensure that all hazards are identified and controlled.
Once a Risk Assessment has been established, the identified control measures must be implemented and communicated to all persons likely to be harmed; the latter is best achieved by making the Risk Assessment accessible, implementing training, and having such persons signing on their understanding of the control measures to be adopted.
Risk Assessments should be reviewed on an annual basis or after certain triggers, these being but not limited to –
This allows you to continually ensure that your workplace is as safe as it is possible to be whilst keeping everything running smoothly.
Training of Employees
When a new staff member begins their employment or starts work on a new site, it is the Employers responsibility to ensure that they are properly trained, this should be a continuous process and should start with the new starter being Inducted to Site. Site Inductions should cover as a guide –
Records of completed Site Inductions are recommended to be kept and as changes occur employees should be re-briefed.
Once inducted to Site, it is important that the new starter is trained on the tasks to which they are employed, during this time they may need to be supervised on a one-to-one basis and further to this their training may need to be Risk Assessed to ensure that suitable control measures are implemented.
Proof of training will need to be collated and put on the employee’s records, further to this best practice is for a Training Matrix to be complied – this enabling the training within the company to be monitored and acted upon.
In the same vein, consideration should also be given to the training of existing employees and the implementation of re-fresher training, safety training and safety awareness training etc.
Fire Safety
Fire safety starts with carrying out a fire safety risk assessments, this being a key aspect of the health and safety of any business or establishment, and is a requirement under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
The purpose of a Fire Risk Assessment is to assess the risk of fire within the premises and subsequently identify suitable control measures which when implemented primarily ‘Protect Life’ and secondarily ‘Protect Property’.
Note: None compliance to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 may lead to employers/duty holders being served Alteration/Prohibition Notices and/or being Prosecuted.
Subsequently having established and acted upon the findings of the Fire Risk Assessment, the next focus maybe the establishment of an Emergency Evacuation Procedure, Training, and Maintenance of the implemented Control Measures / Systems.
Emergency Evacuation Procedure – this procedure needs to be a bespoken procedure for the evacuation of your premises and once documented tested to ensure that it is robust.
Training – consideration should be given to the training of the Emergency Evacuation Procedure, and subsequent competencies to the appointed Responsible Person/s, Fire Wardens, and First Aiders.
Maintenance of Control Measures / Systems - the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires that a Fire Log Book is maintained which documents weekly, monthly, six-monthly, and annual checks and service regimes.
These factors and others should be part of your Health & Safety Systems and Procedures as established and implemented and as such be reviewed on a regular basis or after changes have occurred.
By putting these tips in place, your company’s health, and safety systems (etc) will be more robust and potentially lead to a safer place of work with the subsequent benefits of such.
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