| Total compliance - myth or reality? |
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| Written by Mark Carter, 2007 | |
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Is a healthy and safe work environment the Holy Grail of the modern world, asks Mark Carter, or is it in fact achievable? How can facilities managers be more proactive in meeting compliance obligations?What are some common elements of effective health and safety management systems? The sobering facts are that Health & Safety Executive statistics for 2006 show that two million people were suffering from an illness they believed was caused or made worse by their current or past work. 523,000 of these were new cases in the last 12 months. 212 workers were killed at work. 1,012 offences were prosecuted by HSE and 332 offences were prosecuted by local authorities. Is it possible to achieve 100 per cent compliance with health and safety objectives? Certainly the results of not achieving it can be substantial and severe. This is most clearly demonstrated by the recent case in Barrow-in-Furness, where seven people were killed by legionella bacteria spread from a Council-run facility. While Council Architect Gillian Beckingham was unanimously acquitted of manslaughter, both she and the Council were found guilty of breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act etc.1974. In his summing up, the judge said the failings had not only been at the lowest level of the Council, but all the way to the top in terms of its serving officers. Beckingham was personally fined £15,000, with the Council receiving a £125,000 fine plus £90,000 costs. Adding further weight to the penalties, the judge commented that a commercial organisation acting as negligently as the Council would have been fined at least £1,000,000. Meanwhile legislation that facilities managers have to contend with continues to increase. The smoking ban in England and the WEEE Directive in July both show the growing diversity, and complexity, of the issues being covered. Clearly, facilities managers need increasingly to be more proactive in meeting compliance obligations. But is 100 per cent compliance just a modern Holy Grail - always sought but never obtained? It need not be. The answer does not lie in some obscure hidden code; it just requires a simple but carefully crafted and diligently run management system. Some choose to outsource this function. But legislation is quite clear that you can subcontract the function, but ultimately the responsibility still resides with you. This raises the question of how far you are willing to rely on a third party. Understanding what you needMany organisations already have management systems in place. Indeed, this is encouraged by the Health & Safety Executive in their guidance document HS(G)65 Successful Health and Safety Management, which identifies the need to actively manage relevant issues and also highlights the value of independent audits. All too often, though, formal policies are not backed up by procedures and controls. One of the key principles in operation must be: active commitment and review. This turns the well-intentioned words of a policy into effective and demonstrable action. Most good management systems include the same basic elements. In general these are: 1. Policy You need to have a specific policy detailing what you want to achieve, in what areas and how this will be delivered. This should be regularly reviewed to indicate how well you are performing. 2. Responsibilities The person on whom the statutory duty falls should appoint a person or persons to take managerial responsibility and to provide supervision for the implementation of precautions. This will range from in-house managers and maintenance teams through to totally outsourced FM providers. However, as mentioned above, in all these cases fundamental responsibility falls back on the dutyholder. 3. Risk assessment The risk assessment should be the foundation on which your management plan is built. It should identify where exposure can be prevented or, alternatively, where it needs to be controlled. It should be specific to your premises and include all systems and services present. 4. Written scheme There should be a written scheme for controlling the risk from exposure that should be implemented and properly managed. The scheme should specify measures to be taken to ensure that it remains effective. These should include all the necessary supporting information, such as:
You should also consider in your written scheme how many of these elements are covered in sufficient detail to identify control.
The risk assessment and written scheme information must be kept for a minimum of two years and the results of any monitoring or inspections etc. for five years. Tailoring the solutionities
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