Health and Safety Policy
Health and Safety Policy Statement
It is the stated policy of COMPANY NAME that health and safety is critical to our success. A business which has poor management of health and safety is generally one which is poorly managed in all aspects of its undertaking.
In particular, we undertake to:
- Provide adequate control of the health and safety risks arising from our work activities.
- Consult with our employees on matters affecting their health and safety.
- To provide and maintain safe plant and equipment.
- To ensure safe handling and safe use of substances.
- To provide information, instruction and supervision for employees.
- To ensure all employees are competent to do the work required and to give them training where needed.
- To prevent accidents and causes of ill health arising from their work.
- To assess the risks to which our employees are exposed at work.
- To review our health and safety policy, risk assessments and control arrangements as necessary.
- To comply with the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and other applicable legislation.
Prime responsibility for health and safety within the business rests with [name], [position] who is the board-level individual who will ensure that all rules and regulations which are pertinent to the business are complied with. Responsibility for performance may be delegated as necessary but overall responsibility rests with the above nominee.
Health and safety performance however is not the sole responsibility of any one person with each employee being required to take all reasonable care to control risks faced by themselves or others who may be harmed by their acts or omissions. The company will support people in these health and safety activities.
Further information is given in the Health and Safety Responsibilities, while the arrangements for health and safety are detailed in our Health and Safety Procedures.
Signed: Name:
Date: Review date:
Health and Safety Responsibilities
Managing Director
Overall responsibility for health and safety within COMPANY NAME rests with the Managing Director. The holder of this office shall ensure that sufficient resources are made available for the implementation, development and sustainability of the health and safety programme. The Managing Director will give equal weight to health and safety considerations when making business decisions, where appropriate.
Directors and managers
The Directors and managers of the company have a duty to implement COMPANY NAME’s health and safety policies for the area under their control. In addition, these positions include the following responsibilities:
· Identify training needs and allocate resources to allow training to take place, including releasing employees from their tasks to enable them to attend training. Records for training must be retained and a system of regular review undertaken to ensure training is relevant to the work.
· Conduct regular inspections of the workplace under their supervision, collate and review the results and implement changes/improvements as necessary. All managers should keep themselves up to date with industry standards and advances in work equipment, work techniques and legislative changes which may affect the safety of employees.
· Promote a safety culture within the workplace by always striving to set a good example for others to follow, encouragement of safe working practices and the active discouragement of unsafe working practice.
· Ensure that risk assessments that cover their area of responsibility are complete, up to date and relevant to the current work.
· In conjunction with the Managing Director, set targets for the business and individuals where appropriate for the continued improvement in health and safety performance of the company.
· Provide and maintain a health and safety committee or forum for communicating health and safety information to employees and as a basis for hearing employee ideas and concerns relating to their health, safety and welfare.
· Identify and nominate competent persons to deal with emergencies, provide health and safety advice and appoint an employee representative or representatives to sit on the health and safety committee or forum.
PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR H&S
Employees
All employees have a duty to comply with all company policies, legislation, instructions and warning signs with regard to health and safety matters. Employees are encouraged to speak to their manager or supervisor if they have any concerns regarding any health, safety or welfare concerns while at work. In addition:
· Employees must use work tools and equipment for the purpose it was designed for and only if they have been trained to do so.
· Employees must attend training provided by the employer.
· All employees must use any work related PPE and RPE provided for those tasks that require it and report any damaged or missing equipment to their manager as soon as possible.
· All work related accidents, injuries, dangerous occurrences, near misses or suspected breaches of policy must be reported to the employees' immediate supervisor as soon as is practical.
Arrangements
The following section gives detail on how COMPANY NAME manages the various aspects of its health and safety arrangements. In some cases further detail is given in additional procedures and where relevant these are referenced for further reading.
Accident Management
Specific detail is given in the following documents:
· Procedure: Accident Management
· Procedure: First Aid
· Document: First Aid Risk Assessment
Facilities for first aid are as detailed in the above risk assessment and procedures. This also includes provision of an Accident Book, along with RIDDOR reporting.
Asbestos
Asbestos is present in NAME premises. NAME hold a register of the location of all asbestos on the site, along with a risk assessment for it. Asbestos will be managed as directed by the risk assessment and all asbestos on site will be clearly signed.
PERSON will check on the condition of the known asbestos as part of the monthly health and safety inspection and will arrange remedial work as needed.
All employees are asked to immediately notify NAME/POSITION should any damage take place to any material marked as containing asbestos.
Chemicals
Harmful chemicals are not used as part of COMPANY NAME's undertaking although some basic cleaning chemicals may be present on site. Cleaning is undertaken by contractors but COMPANY NAME will hold data sheets (MSDS) for any cleaning chemical used by the contractors or stored on site which has a hazard warning identification. These MSDS will be held by the JOB TITLE and must be updated by the cleaning contractor should their products change.
Consultation
COMPANY NAME has a duty to consult with employees on issues which may affect their health and safety whilst at work. COMPANY NAME also recognises that consultation as defined in the regulations is a two-way process and is not limited solely to informing individuals of what is to happen on specific issues.
All employees are encouraged to raise health and safety issues with the nominated Health and Safety Co-ordinator as needed and the Health and Safety Co-ordinator will consult with employees directly on health and safety issues as they arise.
Contractors
Contractors may be used by COMPANY NAME for specific tasks such as ?? or ?? activities. COMPANY NAME shall ensure:
- Work activities are designed to minimise risk.
- Contractors engaged by COMPANY NAME maintain minimum standards of health and safety.
- COMPANY NAME will maintain vigilance and oversight of contractors where engaged.
The specifics of how COMPANY NAME will manage contractors is given in:
- Procedure: Contractor Management
Display Screen Equipment (DSE)
COMPANY NAME will maintain user-completed risk assessments of display screen equipment and responsibility for coordinating this rests with the Health and Safety Co-ordinator. DSE users are reminded that they are entitled to an eye test funded by the company. The detail of COMPANY NAME's arrangements to manage DSE risks can be found in:
· Procedure: Display Screen Equipment
Electrical Hazards
Electrical hazards arise in COMPANY NAME via the mains supply in the office and via portable electrical equipment which may be used. COMPANY NAME will undertake all steps to minimise such risks and has a procedure giving specific details on this. In summary, the mains supply will be inspected and tested at least once every five years and a portable appliance examination and testing (PAT) system will be in place.
· Procedure: Electrical Safety
Fire
As required by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, COMPANY NAME will maintain a fire risk assessment for the premises occupied. COMPANY NAME will review this assessment at least annually and will have an ongoing plan in place to manage fire risks as advised by the risk assessment.
The initial fire risk assessment will be undertaken by a competent person with further reviews being made in-house or externally as required.
COMPANY NAME will maintain a monthly inspection of its health and safety provision, including fire safety precautions such as exit doors, routes and extinguishers.
COMPANY NAME will provide employee fire awareness training as determined by the fire risk assessment.
· Document: Monthly Health and safety Inspection
· Procedure: Fire Safety
Health Surveillance
There are currently no activities undertaken within COMPANY NAME which may necessitate health surveillance (e.g. high noise levels, exposure to specific chemicals or skin irritants, fork lift drivers, night workers, etc.). The Health and Safety Co-ordinator will review this periodically and will initiate such surveillance determined as necessary by the risk assessments or legislative requirements.
Heights
COMPANY employees carry out work that involves working at height. Working at height means work in any place where, if precautions were not taken, a person could fall down and injure themselves. In other words, that is if the person:
• Works above ground level
• Could fall from an edge, through an opening or fragile surface
• Could fall from ground level into an opening in a floor or hole in the ground
COMPANY maintain a procedure giving specific detail on this.
Related procedure: Working at Heights
Housekeeping and Maintenance
Housekeeping and maintenance of equipment is important in the workplace. All employees are encouraged to report defective equipment and arrangements will be made for repair or replacement. Systems are maintained to ensure that any equipment which requires routine servicing or maintenance is done so within the time schedule required.
A monthly health and safety inspection system is managed by the JOB TITLE and as part of this, the JOB TITLE may ask other employees to report in on condition of items such as ladders, electrical appliances, etc. Feedback from this will be given to the Health and Safety Committee as appropriate.
· Document: Monthly Health and Safety Inspection
Lifting Equipment
COMPANY carries out some lifting operations, primarily using EQUIPMENT, in the course of its work and as such has a need to manage lifting equipment and the operations involving it. Due to the potentially high risk nature of this a specific set of controls are in place to manage this.
· Related Procedure: Lifting Equipment and Lifting Operations
Lone Working
The nature of the work undertaken by COMPANY NAME is such that employees, or others working on our behalf, are not routinely expected to work in isolated locations on jobs or tasks which give rise to an increased risk to that person's health and safety due to hazards associated with the task. All employees are requested to notify the Human Resources department if they have any medical conditions which may cause a risk to themselves if they are in the office on their own at any time.
Manual Handling
Manual handling tasks do take place within COMPANY NAME and COMPANY NAME will take all reasonably practicable steps to minimise and control risks arising from this. This includes ensuring the risk assessment process includes manual handling activities, that risks are reduced where appropriate and where risks remain training is given to all employees potentially at risk. Further detail is given in the specific Manual Handling procedure.
· Procedure: Manual Handling
New and expectant mothers
COMPANY NAME do not use chemicals which are harmful to new or expectant mothers. (CHECK THIS IS TRUE!)
Should an employee become pregnant they are encouraged to report this to the Human Resources department and reasonable arrangements will be made as determined by the pregnancy, such as limiting manual handling tasks in the later months if appropriate. This will be addressed on a case-by-case basis by the HR Department.
Noise
Noise risks are present in COMPANY NAME and COMPANY NAME will ensure that a suitable noise assessment is conducted and is maintained for all areas which may potentially exceed the 85dB(A) limit. This assessment shall be job or function based where possible and shall be conducted by someone with suitable competence in noise assessment as evidenced by, for example, certificate of competence in noise assessment issues by the Institute of Acoustics or the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.
The assessment will be reviewed internally at least annually and if there is reason to suspect it is no longer valid then it shall be renewed. As a maximum, a new assessment shall be conducted every five years.
Where employees are found to be at risk COMPANY NAME will take steps to mitigate the noise risk by engineering or other controls where possible and where this is not sufficient via the provision of suitable hearing protection.
Health surveillance (audiometry) shall be provided for all employees regularly working in a noise-risk area.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and Clothing
On occasion, specific jobs may require the use of PPE and clothing. Where a need for it is required by risk assessment, COMPANY NAME will provide all necessary PPE and this will be at no cost to the employee. If PPE is required this will be arranged by the Health and Safety Co-ordinator.
When users are given an item of PPE they will be given specific instruction in its safe use and maintenance. E.g. storing hard hats out of direct sunlight to prolong their useful life.
Employees are expected to provide suitable standard clothing to enable them to do the job but in specific circumstances COMPANY NAME may agree to provision of individual items of outdoor clothing as needed.
Risk Assessment
Risk assessment forms the basis of most health and safety areas and is at the heart of how COMPANY NAME controls risks faced by employees. All jobs are covered by a risk assessment and these assessments are to be reviewed at least annually. The risk assessment process will be overseen and managed by the JOB TITLE who will undertake assessments or arrange with in-house or external personnel to undertake the assessments as appropriate.