Health and Safety
Unravelling the mystery of health and safety PDF Print E-mail
Written by RoSPA, 2007   

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) offers guidance and sheds some light on health and safety - a subject that can appear hugely challenging but that is based, essentially, on straightforward principles. 

What are the challenges ahead in health and safety?

What can the facilities manager do to meet new standards?

Life as a facilities manager has been likened to that of a juggler. And it is easy to see why: those with well-honed skills seem to stay effortlessly and simultaneously focused on a range of issues, maintaining a system that others would find impossible to uphold.

Occupational health and safety is, of course, one of those issues. And yet even this subject comprises many different elements. From the management of contractors to emergency planning, fire safety to stress awareness, director leadership to workforce involvement, absenteeism to workplace transport, a facilities manager needs to master many subjects, even when giving attention just to health and safety.

Because of the number of issues under the health and safety banner, plus the need to keep up-to-date with revisions to regulations and guidance - we have seen, for example, recent changes to fire risk assessment duties and the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations) - not to mention product innovations, health and safety can appear a massive challenge.

This can be true particularly for those working in smaller businesses, where there might be very significant time and financial constraints.

But the good news is that the underlying principles of health and safety management are actually quite straightforward, essentially requiring you to ensure the absence of risk to the safety and health of employees and others "so far as is reasonably practicable".

Five key principles, when they are effectively met, enable this to be achieved:
  • Have a system in place to manage health and safety and if you employ more than five people, set it out in a written policy statement - you need to be able to show how you plan, organise, control, monitor and review preventative measures, and you need a "competent person" to help you understand and respond appropriately to your legal duties.
  • Identify your main hazards (things that could cause harm).
  • Assess your risks (which have the highest probability and worst consequences?) and again, if you employ more than five people record the results of the assessment.
  • Make sure your risk control measures are adequate, used and maintained. Safety measures have to be sensible and balanced. You do not need to go over the top. If necessary, put in place back-up measures such as emergency procedures. Inform, train and supervise employees.
  • Do certain things like: consulting your workforce; regular health and safety checks; reporting, recording and investigating accidents and near-misses; providing employees and others with certain basic information; providing first aid and welfare facilities; and having employers' liability insurance.
Even in the midst of hectic schedules, it is extremely important to make time and space to check up on whether these foundations for managing health and safety systematically are up to scratch. Checking your organisation's performance by ensuring that policies, procedures and people are all working effectively to keep things healthy and safe can offer significant reassurance. It can help to highlight things that work well and that should be maintained, and also flag up areas that might require increased attention.

Now is a particularly useful time to go through such an exercise, given the revised law on corporate manslaughter and the increased Health and Safety Executive focus on directors' responsibilities. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has welcomed tightening of the law to help tackle negligent employers. But equally those organisations with effective health and safety management systems will have nothing to fear from the legislative change. So checking out your arrangements now, and improving them where necessary, could save much anguish later.

Help is available


As well as knowing that the key underlying principles of health and safety management are straightforward, reassurance should also come from the fact that significant help is available, including when it comes to assessing your current arrangements.

Carrying out an audit is one example of where external help might be worth an investment. It is important to remember that an audit differs from a safety inspection. Inspections are primarily for assessing workplace conditions and activities, and through the observation involved in an inspection, compliance with legal and best practice requirements can be checked. Audits, however, which can be a sampling exercise, actually look at the adequacy of the health and safety management system itself, identifying the quality of the system, as well as how it is implemented.

Audits should be carried out by those who are trained and competent at performing them. The practice requires certain knowledge and skills, both related to the standard against which the audit is being conducted, and the actual techniques involved in auditing.

Ideally, an auditor should be totally independent of the area or activities being audited, to ensure objectivity, although this may be easier said than done if the auditor works for the organisation concerned. What is particularly important is that the auditor is not the person who drafted the policies and procedures being audited, or who will personally implement any required changes.

Organisations, including RoSPA, offer auditing services to companies seeking to review their current health and safety arrangements with a view to improving their management systems. The value of a completely fresh pair of eyes coming into an organisation cannot be underestimated.

Issue-specific solutions


As we have seen, overarching audits of health and safety management systems can bring to your attention issues requiring attention. Issue-specific consultancy can also be a useful problem-solving technique, for example, to help you deal with particular hazards or to improve key aspects of health and safety management such as accident and incident investigation.

Checking out the wide range of consultancy services available could be a valuable use of time if you need a consultant to:
  • Conduct a fire risk assessment to enable you to comply with new laws;
  • Help with the management of your employee's occupational road risk;
  • Act as a "competent person" to assess workplace dust exposure levels to ensure they comply with CoSHH regulations;
  • Look at the specifics of your workplace transport arrangements.
And, of course, there are a wide range of occupational health and safety training courses on offer.

Training is a key input into the management of occupational safety and health, ensuring not just that everyone understands the need for safe and healthy working, but making sure that each member of the team has the safety knowledge and skills necessary to enable them to play their part effectively.

Unfortunately, however, there is still a major health and safety training shortfall and RoSPA wants the HSE to identify options for encouraging the uptake of such training within organisations. In-company training and bespoke solutions are examples of two such options, through which courses are tailored to meet organisation-specific needs.

Help within


When considering the range of external help that is available in the management of health and safety, you should also remember that you are not alone within your organisation. Working together to develop a good health and safety culture is crucial, and there is a need to build ownership and commitment to safety throughout the workforce.

Indeed, worker involvement is a big issue for the HSE. Workers know the most about the jobs they do, so they are often in the best position to develop safe and practical systems of work. Involving workers effectively can, therefore, reduce accidents and ill health.

The revised guidance on the health and safety responsibilities of directors, prepared jointly by the Institute of Directors and the HSE, also means that those at the top of an organisation cannot ignore health and safety. And, even though the revised offence of corporate manslaughter will target organisations and not individual directors or senior managers, investigations will lead to the behaviour of individuals coming under much greater scrutiny than before.

Engaging workers and ensuring senior management is aware of its responsibilities can also be complemented by health and safety co-ordination with other businesses, for example, those with which you come into contact such as clients, customers, suppliers or contractors.

Some companies that share geographical locations have also begun to share the cost of in-house health and safety training, and many find it valuable to join a local health and safety group (see www.safetygroupsuk.org.uk ) or to become members of a larger organisation such as RoSPA (see www.rospa.com/joinrospa/).

Taking stock


The UK is a world leader in work-related risk management - an enviable position achieved through a comprehensive safety system comprising a framework of pioneering legislation, codes of practice, proportional enforcement by the HSE, director leadership and workforce involvement, competent advice from health and safety professionals, media and shareholder interest, safety training and qualifications. The result is that we enjoy some of the safest working conditions in the world and the number of people killed or injured at work has fallen.

There is, however, still more work to be done. In 2005/06, for example, 212 people suffered notifiable fatal injuries at work and 384 members of the public were also killed (these figures exclude many hundreds of employees killed in accidents while driving as part of their job).  

In total, there are around 1.6 million workplace injuries each year and about 2.2 million cases of ill health caused or made worse by work. Up to 6,000 people die prematurely every year because of past exposure to hazardous substances such as asbestos.

By encouraging and supporting those such as facilities managers who work hard every day to oversee health and safety in their own organisations, together we can reduce not just these figures, but the pain and suffering behind them and the massive costs that they impose on families, businesses and the community as a whole.

Further information

RoSPA, Tel: 0121 248 2000, Fax: 0121 248 2001, Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , www.rospa.com
 
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