A well thought-out and implemented risk assessment can be a major step in ensuring that your business does not cause harm to people. Put simply, the aim of a risk assessment is to make sure that no-one gets hurt or becomes ill as a result of work activities.
A risk assessment is simply a step-by-step examination of what happens in your business allowing you to identify potential hazards and to put in place control measures to protect people.
As its name implies, a risk assessment can involve a balancing act, weighing up potential hazards against the likelihood, or risk, of that hazard actually harming someone. The important thing you need to decide is whether a hazard is significant and whether you have taken satisfactory precautions so that the risk is small.
Who Does it Apply to?
The requirement to carry out a risk assessment applies to:-
· all employers; and
· all self-employed persons.
What Do Employers Have to Do?
In general, the law requires that you must:-
· make an assessment of the risks that employees are exposed to when at work
· make an assessment of the risks to the health and safety of people not in your employment
· where the employer has five or more employees, records of the significant findings of the assessment must be made.
What Do Self-Employed People Have to Do?
In general, the law requires that you must:-
· make an assessment of his own risks to health and safety
· make an assessment of the risks to health and safety to other people arising out of your work
A risk assessment should follow five simple steps:
Identify the Hazards
Step 1 - Look for the hazards. If you are doing the assessment yourself, walk around your workplace and look at what could reasonably be expected to cause harm. Ignore trivial points and concentrate on what could result in serious harm or affect several people or more. Try to look at your business with a fresh pair of eyes.
Decide Who Might be Affected
Step 2 - Decide who might be harmed and how. Remember that some people may be at greater risk, for example trainees, new members of staff, contractors, young people, expectant mothers or employees with existing medical conditions. Also do not forget to include cleaners, visitors, maintenance people, members of the public especially children, and shift workers.
Ensure Necessary Controls are Adequate and In Place
Step 3 - Evaluate the risks and decide whether existing precautions are adequate or whether more needs to be done. Consider how likely it is that each hazard could cause harm. Even after all precautions have been taken, some risk usually remains. What you have to do is to decide for each significant hazard is whether this remaining risk is high, medium or low. First, ask yourself:
· Have you done everything you are legally required to do? For example, there are legal requirements on prevention of access to dangerous parts of machinery.
· Have you applied generally accepted industry standards?
The aim is to make all risks small. If you find something that requires action, ask yourself:
· Can I get rid of the hazard altogether?
· If not, how can I control the risk so that harm is unlikely?
Use the following hierarchy to reduce risk:
· Try a less risky option
· Prevent access to the hazard
· Organise the work activity to reduce exposure to the hazard
· Issue Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
· Provide washing facilities for the removal of contamination and first aid
Record the Findings
Step 4 - Record your findings. If you have five or more employees, you must record the significant findings of your risk assessment. This means writing down the significant hazards you have identified and what action you have taken to reduce the risk. There is a legal requirement to make sure that your risk assessment is suitable and sufficient. You will need to show that:
· Proper checks were made
· You identified who might be harmed, and how
· You dealt with all the obvious or significant hazards
· The action you took was reasonable and reduced the risk
Review What you Have Done
Step 5 - Review your assessment. A risk assessment should be a working document that is reviewed regularly to ensure that it is still effective. You should consider reviewing your assessment, for example, when your main business activity changes, if you move premises or when you purchase new pieces of equipment. If, when reviewing your assessment, you identify new hazards then your assessment may need to be revised to control these new hazards.
Some of the areas you might want to consider (it is not an exhaustive list - you will need to look around your business to identify other areas):-
· chemicals / · electricity / · manual handling
· slips, trips and falls / · violence to staff / · work equipment
· transport / · machinery / · fire
· temperatures / · working alone / · working at heights
Below is a tool to help you get started.
Risk Assessment
Company name:
Address:
Postcode: / Assessment undertaken
Date:
Signed:
Date: / Assessment review
Date:
Step 1 - List the significant hazards here / Step 2 - List individuals or groups of people who are at risk from the significant hazards you have identified / Step 3 - List existing controls. List risks which are not adequately controlled and the action needed, including timescale for action
Safety Policies
What is a Safety Policy?
A safety policy is simply a written document that details how your business organises its health and safety responsibilities. The document need not be long but it should be specific to your business, set out your general policy for protecting the health and safety of your employees whilst at work, how this is to be organised and who is responsible.
Do I Need a Safety Policy?
If your business employs five people or more, then you have a legal duty to produce a written safety policy. If you have less than five employees, then you still have a requirement to safeguard the health and safety of your employees but this does not include having a written safety policy.
What Should a Safety Policy Contain?
A safety policy should contain the following:
· Your general policy of health and safety within your business. For instance what your general aims are with regard to your employees' health and safety. You may wish to stress the importance of co-operation and communication in helping achieve your health and safety aims.
· A description of the organisation and arrangements for carrying out the policy. The Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974 places a great deal of responsibility on employers and you may wish to delegate, through your safety policy, certain functions to other people, for example managers or supervisors. You may also wish to describe the systems and procedures that you have put in place to ensure employees' health and safety.
· Be signed and dated by an appropriate person, for example a partner or managing director.
· A safety policy must be regularly reviewed to ensure that it remains effective and revised if appropriate. A safety policy may need revising for example when you move premises, purchase new plant or equipment or when your main business activity changes.
· A safety policy must be communicated to all members of staff so that they can read, understand and comply with your health and safety arrangements. This can be achieved, for example, by putting up copies of the policy around the workplace or by placing a short note in employees' wage packets.
A safety policy may seem like a lot of unnecessary work, but a good safety policy is a fundamental document that sets the tone of your health and safety commitment in your business. As such it is extremely important. An example safety policy is shown below and could be used as a guide to completing or reviewing your own safety policy.
HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICY STATEMENT
Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974
This is the Health and Safety policy statement of:
(name of company)
Our statement of general policy is:
· To provide adequate control of the health and safety risks arising from our work activities;
· To consult with our employees on matters affecting their health and safety;
· To provide and maintain safe plant and equipment;
· To ensure safe handling and use of substances;
· To provide information, instruction and supervision for all employees;
· To ensure all employees are competent to do their tasks, and to give them adequate training;
· To prevent accidents and cases of work-related ill health;
· To maintain safe and healthy working conditions; and
· To review and revise this policy as necessary at regular intervals.
Signed:
(employer)
Date:Review date:
RESPONSIBILITIES
· Overall and final responsibility for health and safety is that of:
· Day-to-day responsibility for ensuring this responsibility is put into practice is delegated to:
· To ensure health and safety standards are maintained/improved, the following people have responsibility in the following areas:
Name / Responsibility
All employees have to:
· Co-operate with supervisors and managers on health and safety matters
· Not interfere with anything provided to safeguard their health and safety
· Take reasonable care of their own health and safety; and
· Report all health and safety concerns to an appropriate person
HEALTH AND SAFETY RISKS ARISING FROM OUR WORK ACTIVITIES
· Risk assessments will be undertaken by:
· The findings of the risk assessments will be reported to:
· Action required to remove/control risks will be approved by:
Will be responsible for ensuring the action required is implemented
Will check that the implemented actions have removed/reduced the risks
· Assessments will be reviewed every:
· Or when the work activity changes, whichever is the soonest.
CONSULTATION WITH EMPLOYEES
· Employee representatives are:
· Consultation is provided by:
SAFE PLANT AND EQUIPMENT
Will be responsible for identifying all equipment/plant needing maintenance
Will be responsible for ensuring effective maintenance procedures are drawn up
Will be responsible for ensuring that all identified maintenance is implemented
Any problems found with plant/equipment should be reported to:
Will check that new plant and equipment meets health and safety standards before it is purchased
SAFE HANDLING AND USE OF SUBSTANCES
Will be responsible for undertaking COSHH assessments
Will be responsible for ensuring that all actions identified in the assessments are implemented
Will be responsible for ensuring that all relevant employees are informed about the COSHH assessments
Will check that new substances can be used safely before they are purchased
Assessments will be reviewed every:
or when the work activity changes, whichever is the soonest
INFORMATION, INSTRUCTION AND SUPERVISION
· The Health and Safety law poster is displayed at / leaflets are issued by:
· Health and Safety advice is available from:
· Supervision of young workers/trainees will be arranged/undertaken/monitored by:
Is responsible for ensuring that our employees working at locations under the control of others' employers, are given relevant health and safety information
COMPETENCY FOR TASKS AND TRAINING
· Induction training will be provided for all employees by:
· Job specific training will be provided by:
· Specific jobs requiring special training are:
· Training records are kept at/by:
· Training will be identified, arranged and monitored by:
ACCIDENTS, FIRST AID AND WORK-RELATED ILL HEALTH
· Health surveillance is required for employees doing the following jobs:
· Health surveillance will be arranged by:
· Health surveillance records will be kept at/by:
· The first-aid box(es) is/are kept at:
· The appointed person(s)/first-aider(s) is/are:
· All accidents and cases of work-related ill health are to be recorded in the accident book. The book is kept at/by:
Is responsible for reporting accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences (RIDDOR) to the enforcing authority
MONITORING
· To check our working conditions, and ensure our safe working practices are being followed, we will:
Is responsible for investigating accidents
Is responsible for investigating work-related causes of sickness absences
Is responsible for acting on investigation findings to prevent a reoccurrence
EMERGENCY PROCEDURES
Is responsible for ensuring the fire risk assessment is undertaken and implemented
· Escape routes are checked by / every:
· Fire extinguishers are maintained and checked by / every:
· Alarms are tested by / every:
· Emergency evacuation will be tested every:
Chemicals and Other Hazardous Substances
Nearly every business uses some form of chemical. Chemicals can range from highly dangerous industrial strength solvents tocleaning agents, polish and computer screen cleaner. If your business uses any type of chemical, then the risks associated with its use must be identified and control measures put in place to make sure that all your staff use them safely.
Why Should I Do Anything?
If you fail to implement proper controls on the use of chemicals then this may result in:-
· injuries to staff - resulting in lost productivity,
· damage to equipment,
· the possibility of civil injuries claims from your employees,
· leaving you open to enforcement action including prosecution under the The Control Of Substance Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) .
The Control Of Substance Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH) were updated in2002 and if your business uses any form of chemical, then you need to be aware of them.
The Benefits
By understanding COSHH, your business can also benefit from:-
· improved productivity as a result of more effective controls,
· improved employee morale, and
· better employee understanding and compliance with health and safety requirements.
What is a Substance Hazardous to Health?
Under COSHH, there are a range of substances regarded as hazardous to health:
· Substances, or mixtures of substances, classified as dangerous to health under the Chemicals (Hazard, Information and Packaging for Supply) Regulations 1994 (as amended) or CHIP Regulations (these can be identified by their warning label and the supplier must provide a safety data sheet for them).
· Substances with Occupational Exposure Limits (OELs)
· Biological agents (bacteria and other micro-organisms)
· Any kind of dust in a concentration specified in COSHH
· Any other substance which has comparable hazards to people's health, which may include pesticides, medicines, cosmetics or substances produced in chemical processes
COSHH
To comply with COSHH, you need to follow these seven steps:
· Step 1: Assess the risks to health arising from hazardous substances used in or created by your workplace activities.
· Step 2: Decide what precautions are needed. You must not carry out work which could expose your employees to hazardous substances without first considering the risks and the necessary precautions, and what else you need to do to comply with COSHH.
· Step 3: Prevent or adequately control exposure. You must prevent your employees from being exposed to hazardous substances. Where preventing exposure is not reasonably practicable, then you must adequately control it.
· Step 4: Ensure the control measures are used and maintained properly, and that safety procedures are followed.
· Step 5: Monitor the exposure of employees to hazardous substances, if necessary.
· Step 6: Carry out appropriate health surveillance, and where your assessment has shown this is necessary or where COSHH sets specific requirements.
· Step 7: Ensure employees are properly informed, trained and supervised.
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Slips, Trips and Falls