The law says that every business must have a policy for managing health and safety (Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974) if your business employs 5 persons or more. A health and safety policy sets out any businesses general approach to health and safety. It explains how an employer will manage all health and safety matters within their business, and explains who within their company is responsible for ensuring any policy is implemented including the time and resources to ensure it is effective.
The policy must contain a signed statement of intent, which should be signed by the most senior person within the organisation.
The policy, along with any amendments must be communicated at all levels within the business.
ProSafety Training & Consultancy Services Limited can assist our clients in producing, reviewing and monitoring their health and safety policies on an annual basis ensuring that the arrangements within them are effective and complied with.
In any business or organisation, dependent on the people and the work processes it may not always go as expected. Findings and root causes from any accident/incident investigations can form the basis of the actions and controls to prevent any re-occurrence and improve your overall risk management strategy going forward. The findings of any investigation can highlight areas of your risk assessments and safety management procedures that may need to be amended, perhaps monitored and reviewed on a more regular basis.
Accident/Incident investigations are reactive but essential part of your company's safety management systems which you are required to carry out by law. Incident investigations, and near miss reporting, can also inform your business how things actually are in reality.
The findings and any actions may also keep your organisation from future litigation, loss time incidents, fines or increases in company insurance.
Investigating incidents, near misses and reported cases of occupational ill health, will help and protect your business from any breaches in health and safety legal compliance you may have been unaware of.
Where any organisation can demonstrate it has investigated an incident with a detailed report, discovered any root cause/s and taken remedial action to prevent any further occurrences, this will help demonstrate to any court that your organisation has a mature proactive attitude towards health and safety.
Investigation findings will also provide the essential information to your insurers in the event of a claim.
An investigation can also identify the following:
The investigation of any near misses where no one has been harmed and there has been no damage to property isalso a proactive measure that can prevent future incidents that can cost your business lost revenue. Safety Engineering& Environmental Services Limited has the expertise to ensure your business can produce detailed incident reports that can satisfy any future investigations by the Health and Safety Executive.
A fire risk assessment is a fundamental requirement of The Fire (Scotland) Act 2005and The Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006. These are the pieces of fire safety legislation that Scotland must follow (plus any associated legislation/regulations). The Fire safety legislation in England and Wales are gathered under: The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and these pieces of legislation in general include the following stages:
A Fire Emergency Plan and any building risk assessment are developed from the findings of any initial fire survey of premises. The objectives of any plan are as follows:
ProSafety Training & Consultancy Services Limited will support our clients in producing and implementing fire safety plans and processes for your business or organisation.
As an employer, you are required by law to protect your employees and others from your undertakings who may be affected by it. Where an accident or incident investigations is a reactive risk assessment to find out any root causes a risk assessment is an opposite proactive tool to prevent such accidents or incidents from happening.
Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 as a minimum you must do is as follows:
The principal objective of any risk assessment is to prevent injury, illness or damage to plant or property. However, if your business finds itself in the unfortunate position of having to defend criminal or civil proceedings, the quality of your risk assessments needs to satisfy the legal term "suitable and sufficient" to protect against the known hazards and risks of your undertakings. You would be required to demonstrate to any judge or magistrate that your risk assessments are SFAIRP without risks to health.
SFAIRP Explained.
Examples of SFAIRP are as follows:
ProSafety Training & Consultancy Services Limited as experts in risk management are able to support you in the structure, production and reviewing and monitoring of your risk assessments helping to keep your staff and others safe from injury and harm whilst protecting your business from any possible litigation.
The Health and Safety Plan and the Construction Phase Plan contains all of the relative information and methodologies to ensure the safe execution of any project to ensure compliance with the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. These plans set out the arrangements for securing the health, safety and welfare of everyone working on the project and all others who me be affected by it both on and off site.
More specifically, the plan details the following:
The plan will be generated taking into account any pre-work information provided by the client and following the completion of the site wide survey where the Plan will begin its lifecycle through the project and beyond. The plan will be maintained, reviewed and updated by the site team during each phase of the project.
Plans are kept on site for viewing by the site's management team and relevant external organisations as required.
ProSafety Training & Consultancy Services Limited have the professional experience to ensure our clients in the production of effective Health, Safety and Construction Phase Plans ensuring that the project arrangements stated within them can be executed in the safest possible manner as is reasonably practicable.
Site inspections are a proactive opportunity to identify any possible health and safety issues within your workplace and measure the general compliance with procedures and legislation. Inspections with a professional may also enable you to identify hazards you may have missed and assess those risks in order to implement further suitable control measures for safe working.
ProSafety Training & Consultancy Services will interact effectively with your management team and workforce during any inspections using advanced coaching aids. This professional interaction will improve the health and safety awareness of your employees and sub-contractor's skillset towards your company's health, safety and environmental duties.
We can take on workplace inspections in a wide range of working environments which include the, oil, gas and chemical industries, power generation/utilities, construction sites, rig yards, ship yards and manufacturing facilities. The frequency of these visits will be chosen by you to meet your needs.
The purpose of health and safety auditing is to validate the effectiveness of the internal controls of your business intended to manage health and safety risks and comply with any company's health, safety and quality policy commitments.
Private sector organisations that employ 5 people or more are required by law to have a health & safety policy, safety management system and formal procedures for auditing, monitoring and reporting that any organisation can measure their performance with a cycle of continual improvement as the aim.
Companies should welcome any audit as a positive management and boardroom opportunity to improve and it should have unrestricted access to both internal and external auditors.
ProSafety Training & Consultancy Services Limited have professionals that can assist your company in becoming compliant with current health, safety and environmental standards including Lloyds, BS ISO 45001, ISO 14001 & ISO 9001.
Being compliant with these accreditations demonstrates to your clients and customers that you can deliver your services consistently and to a clearly defined global standard.
A Site wide Survey is a broad term used to describe the planning phase of a project. The survey will identify a range of factors about the project and set the foundation for both Health and Safety Plans and Construction Phase Plans and any Client/Contractor interface documents.The survey would identify factors which would include but would not be limited to the following:
The arrangements for carrying out your work must be recorded in writing before the work begins, again, in accordance with the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. This is usually achieved through experts in their field building a method statement for the work that can be generated in conjunction with any specific task risk assessment.
The method statement describes in a logical sequence exactly how the work is to be undertaken in a way that ensures the health and safety of those to undertake the work at each step and includes all of the required control measures.
Method statements are an effective way of providing information to employees about how the employer expects the work to progress and also, the precautions which should be taken.
Safety Engineering &Environmental Services Limited are able to assist our clients in producing clear methodologies for their processes to enable their work to be undertaken in a cost-effective safe manner.
COSHH (Control of Substances hazardous to Health Regulations 2002) is the legislation that requires employers to control any substances that are harmful to health or the environment.
A COSHH assessment focuses on the work processes and the interaction of the hazards and risks from any harmful substances within your business.
Steps in conducting a COSHH assessment include the following:
ProSafety Training & Consultancy Services Limited are able to produce or assist you in the completion of COSHH assessments to ensure your business stays in compliance with the COSHH Regulations 2002.
As an employer, you must protect your workers from the health risks of working with display screen equipment (DSE), such as PC's, laptops, tablets and smart phones.
The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 as amended by the Health and Safety (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2002 apply to workers who use DSE daily, for an hour or more at a time. These workers are described as DSE users.
Incorrect use of DSE, poorly designed work stations or work environments can lead to pain from musculoskeletal disorders in the neck area, shoulders, backs, arms, carpal tunnel syndrome of the wrists and hand/finger issues as well as fatigue and eye strain.
ProSafety Training & Consultancy Services Limited are able to support your business in undertaking DSE assessments to keep your DSE users free from injury and protecting your business from any legal proceedings in this area.