Quick Facts Health & Safety Management Jane Riley DPodM, MIOSH, MIIRSM

Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 Reg 5 Health & Safety Arrangements This regulation requires employers to have effective arrangements in place to cover health & safety.

Managing Health & Safety Planning and Implementing Organising Policy Measuring Performance Reviewing Auditing HSG65 Model

Managing Health & Safety Policy Organising Planning & Implementing Measuring Performance Auditing Reviewing Performance

Policy Legal Requirement: Section 2(3) HASAWA 1974 – absolute duty to prepare H&S Policy where there are 5 or more employees and to bring it to the attention of all employees Content Statement of Intent – should demonstrate management commitment to health & safety & set clear aims and objectives to be achieved. Minimum aim should be legal compliance.

Policy Organisation – Should identify health & safety responsibilities at all levels throughout the organisation. This ensures that the work involved in achieving the policy objectives can be delegated to appropriate levels and creates an effective reporting structure. Arrangements – This section should contain the arrangements to ensure that the policy can be implemented effectively. Consists of detailed procedures and systems on specific areas e.g. manual handling, emergency procedures etc.

Organising for Health & Safety This should be directed towards creating a framework for ensuring the achievement of H&S goals set by the policy. It should address Control Communication Co-operation Competence

Organising for Health & Safety Organising for H&S should aim to ensure that employees are empowered and competent to make an effective contribution to H&S, and that there are adequate communication systems in place. There should be effective consultation on H&S. The aim is to motivate employees to work safely & to protect their health, rather than to just avoid accidents.

Planning & Implementing Efforts are directed towards planning & implementing action to achieve the policy objectives Through appropriate delegation & involvement, risks are identified, assessed, prioritised for action, eliminated & controlled Where possible, risks are eliminated through appropriate selection & design of the workplace, equipment & processes (Principles of Prevention & Control) Risk reduction is achieved through implementing physical controls first, before controls which rely on people (Controls Hierarchy)

Measuring Performance Involves measuring performance against pre-set standards to establish where improvements are required. Active monitoring – used to assess whether the H&S management system is working properly, and to identify any corrective action required, before losses occur. E.g. H&S Inspections, tours, surveys, sampling, audit. Reactive monitoring – examines loss data to identify the causes of poor performance which can then be used to plan corrective action required

Auditing Performance Used to systematically examine the whole H&S management system, to establish its effectiveness Should be independent & take place at planned intervals Aims to assess the adequacy of Management arrangements Risk control systems Workplace control measures

Reviewing Performance Examines all the information gained from monitoring & auditing activities Aim is to ensure that all parts of the H&S management system are working effectively and that the objectives of the policy are being achieved The results can be used to modify the policy objectives to ensure continuous improvement Review can take place against internal standards or performance indicators, and external performance indicators (benchmarking)