27.04.2010

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Keep health & safety real by TEAM Safety Services Ltd 

Due to bad press, most people see health and safety as stopping enjoyable activities or preventing employees from working. The truth is, banning activities misses the concept of risk control. Employers typically do not have the knowledge, experience or confidence to implement suitable controls to reduce the risk to an acceptable level. It is very easy for a Health and Safety Adviser to highlight hazards and risks but true risk control is not about banning but provides practical and realistic measures to either eliminate or reduce the risk to an acceptable level. A good Health and Safety Adviser should always come up with solutions not problems.

It is very important to ensure you keep risk controls realistic and achievable. Failure to do so will leave employers at risk. Often health and safety policies, procedures and assessments can never be achieved in the real world. An unachievable assessment can be as bad as not risk assessing at all.

Like it or not, health and safety is an essential part of any business but does not have to cost the earth. When an employer looks at the risks within its company it needs to be able to prioritise risks. Risk control has to be cost affective, no company has an unlimited budget for health and safety. Spending needs to concentrate on the real risks and ensure the employer is doing all that is "reasonably practicable" to protect its employees, visitors, contractors and others that could be affected by its acts or omissions.We need to get away from the 'banning conkers' thinking and concentrate on the real risks.

So what do you need to do to ensure your Health and Safety Systems and Management is compliant?

If you employ 5 or more employees you must have the following in writing and available to all staff, contractors, visitors and any person who could be affected by your acts or omissions:

· Employers Liability Certificate. Must be available for all staff to see and displayed in a suitable place.

· Health and Safety Policy - clearly setting out how you manage health and safety in your workplace by defining who does what, when and how they do it. Be wary of generic policies that have been provided for you or been copied from the internet. It is imperative that your health and safety policy is specific to your company. This must include your risks and detail your arrangements for dealing with them. A good health and safety policy ideally should be no more than 20 pages and understandable. Beware of ending up with a 60-100 page policy that has no relevance to your business processes. Keep it simple and put it into practice.

· Health and Safety Risk Assessments. These are nothing more than a careful examination of what in your work could cause harm to people. Risk assessments should be a practical exercise, aimed at getting the right controls in place. Risk assessments have to be specific to your business processes and environment. It is important to include your employees' knowledge to ensure the assessments are practical and achievable. Consider all types of risk control, it is often true that the most simple and cost effective controls can provide more successful results. A risk assessment is only as good as the assessor assessing it.

· Emergency Planning and First Aid Procedures. Suitable emergency plans must be in place, your processes will determine the level and number of Emergency Plans. All companies will require a Fire/Evacuation Policy and action plan. This must be site specific detailing the Responsible Person for fire safety and those who manage fire responsibilities. Staff must understand their own responsibilities and what actions they must take.

· First Aid Procedures - detailing Responsible Persons for first aid; what first aid provisions are in place; how employees report accidents and incidents; and the person responsible for reporting under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR). The employer has a legal duty to provide its employees with suitable first aid provisions, these provisions will vary depending on the risk assessment of the company's processes. All accidents/incidents must be reported and recorded within an appropriate Accident Book. Specific incidents/accidents must also be reported under RIDDOR. Your policy must also detail who is responsible for accident investigations.

· Health and safety communications. Employers must involve employees when making health and safety decisions or changes. This can be done via health and safety meetings including Health and Safety Representatives (union representatives) or through Representatives of Employee Safety (ROES).

The above is just a starting point.A well managed Health and Safety Management System with realistic and achievable policies and procedures is essential in a business.

TEAM Safety Services Ltd can help you manage your health and safety, providing workable and practical advice. For a free consultation email
ellisarnett@teamsafetyservices.com or visit www.teamsafetyservices.com.

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