Occupational Health & Safety

Core Elements

• Leadership and management

• A trained/skilled workforce
• An environment where people are
trusted and involved
 Processes and Procedures
• A written health and safety policy
• Assessments of the risks to employees, contractors,
customers, partners, and any other people who could
be affected by our activities
• Arrangements for the effective planning, organisation,
control, monitoring and review of the preventive and
protective measures that come from risk assessment;
• Access to competent health and safety advice;providing
employees with information about the risks in your
workplace and how they are protected
 Processes and Procedures (Cont’d)
• Instruction and training for employees in how
to deal with the risks
• Ensuring there is adequate and appropriate
supervision in place
• Consulting with employees about their risks at
work and current preventive and protective
measures
 Fundamental Questions to be Answered
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of our organisation’s health
and safety performance, and are there any barriers to change?
• How reliable and sustainable for the future are the measures
currently in place?
• If our organisation is getting risk control right, why is that? For
example, does performance depend on one person’s dedication
and enthusiasm or is it a key value across the organisation?
• If there are problems, what are the underlying reasons, eg
competence, resources, accountability, or lack of engagement with
the workforce?
• Have we learned from situations where things have gone wrong?
 Leadership Responsibility

• Risk Profiling

• Leading & managing for health & safety

• Competence

• Worker consultation and involvement

 PLAN
• Think about where we are now and where we need to be.
• Say what we want to achieve, who will be responsible for what,
how we will achieve your aims, and how we will measure our
success. This is to be written down in the policy.
• Decide how we will measure performance. Think about ways to
do this that go beyond looking at accident figures; look for active
indicators as well as reactive indicators.
• Consider fire and other emergencies. Co-operate with anyone
who shares your workplace and co-ordinate plans with them.
• Remember to plan for changes and identify any specific legal
requirements that apply to us.
 Do
• Identify your risk profile, assess the risks, identify what
could cause harm in the workplace, who it could harm
and how, and what you will do to manage the risk.
• Decide what the priorities are and identify the biggest
risks.
• Organise your activities to deliver your plan
• In particular, aim to: Involve workers and communicate,
so that everyone is clear on what is needed and can
discuss issues – develop positive attitudes and
behaviours.
• Provide adequate resources, including competent advice
where needed.
 DO (Cont’d)
• Implement your plan: Decide on the
preventive and protective measures needed
and put them in place.
• Provide the right tools and equipment to do
the job and keep them maintained.
• Train and instruct, to ensure everyone is
competent to carry out their work.
• Supervise to make sure that arrangements are
followed.
 CHECK
• Measure your performance Make sure that
your plan has been implemented –
‘paperwork’ on its own is not a good
performance measure.
• Assess how well the risks are being controlled
and if you are achieving your aims. In some
circumstances formal audits may be useful.
• Investigate the causes of accidents, incidents
or near misses
 ACT
• Review your performance: Learn from
accidents and incidents, ill-health data, errors
and relevant experience, including from other
organisations.
• Revisit plans, policy documents and risk
assessments to see if they need updating.
• Take action on lessons learned, including
from audit and inspection reports
 Health & Safety Management Systems
• National and international standards such as: BS
OHSAS 18001 Occupational health and safety
management systems;
• BS EN ISO 9001 Quality management system;
• In-house standards, procedures or codes;
• Sector-specific frameworks such as: the Energy
Institute’s High-level framework for process safety
management;
• The Chemical Industries Association Responsible Care
framework.
 RISK MANAGEMENT MATURITY
MODEL (RM3)
• RM3 is a tool for assessing an organization's ability to
successfully manage health and safety risks, to help
identify areas for improvement and provide a
benchmark for year on year comparison
• RM3 sets out criteria for key elements of a health and
safety risk management system.
• It identifies the steps to evaluate a company’s progress
through the five levels of maturity, from ad‐hoc
through managed, standardised, predictable and up to
excellent to health and safety management capability.
 RM3 Themes
• The model comprises 5 main themes
• Yellow – Health & safety policy, leadership and
board governance
• Orange – Organising for control and
communication
• Green – Securing co‐operation and competence
• Blue – Planning and implementing
• Purple – Monitoring, audit and review
Overview of RM3 themes and criteria
RM3 maturity levels
Information sources and collection
methods
Organisational cultural
template
 RISK ASSESSMENT
• A risk assessment is not about creating huge
amounts of paperwork, but rather about
identifying sensible measures to control the risks
in your workplace
• Important aspects of risk assessment:
– Identify the hazards
– Who might be harmed
– Evaluate the risks
– Record your significant finding
– Regularly review your risk assessment
 IDENTIFY THE HAZARDS
• Check manufacturers’ instructions or data sheets for
chemicals and equipment as they can be very helpful in
explaining the hazards and putting them in their true
perspective
• Look back at your accident and ill-health records –
these often help to identify the less obvious hazards
• Take account of non-routine operations (eg
maintenance, cleaning operations or changes in
production cycles)
• Remember to think about long-term hazards to health
(eg high levels of noise or exposure to harmful
substances)
 WHO MIGHT BE HARMED
• Some workers may have particular requirements, eg new and
young workers, migrant workers, new or expectant mothers,
people with disabilities, temporary workers, contractors,
homeworkers and lone workers
• Think about people who might not be in the workplace all the
time, such as visitors, contractors and maintenance workers.
• Take members of the public into account if they could be
harmed by your work activities
• If you share a workplace with another business, consider how
your work affects others and how their work affects you and
your workers. Talk to each other and make sure controls are in
place
• Ask your workers if there is anyone you may have missed
 EVALUATE THE RISKS
Risk is a part of everyday life and you are not expected to
eliminate all risks
Ask yourself:
Can I get rid of the hazard altogether? If not, how can I control
the risks so that harm is unlikely?
Some practical steps you could take include:
• Trying a less risky option
• Preventing access to the hazards
• Organising your work to reduce exposure to the hazard
• Issuing protective equipment; providing welfare facilities
such as first aid and washing facilities
• Involving and consulting with workers.
 RECORD YOUR SIGNIFICANT FINDING
• Make a record of your significant findings –
the hazards, how people might be harmed by
them and what you have in place to control
the risks. Any record produced should be
simple and focused on controls
• When writing down your results keep it
simple, for example ‘fume from welding –
local exhaust ventilation used and regularly
checked’
 REGULARY REVIEW YOUR RISK
ASSESSEMENT
Few workplaces stay the same. Sooner or later, you will
bring in new equipment, substances and procedures that
could lead to new hazards. So it makes sense to review
what you are doing on an ongoing basis, look at your risk
assessment again and ask yourself
• Have there been any significant changes?
• Are there improvements you still need to make?
• Have your workers spotted a problem?
• Have you learnt anything from accidents or near
misses?
• Make sure your risk assessment stays up to date.
 HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICY
• A health and safety policy sets out your
general approach to health and safety. It
explains how you, as an employer, will
manage health and safety in your business. It
should clearly say who does what, when and
how
• You must share the policy, and any changes to
it, with your employees
 HOW TO WRITE HEALTH AND SAFETY
POLICY
• Part 1: Statement of intent
State your general policy on health and safety at
work, including your commitment to managing
health and safety and your aims. As the
employer or most senior person in the company,
you should sign it and review it regularly.
 HOW TO WRITE HEALTH AND SAFETY
POLICY
• Part 2: Responsibilities for health and safety
List the names, positions and roles of the people
in your business who have specific responsibility
for health and safety.
 HOW TO WRITE HEALTH AND SAFETY
POLICY
• Part 3: Arrangements for health and safety
Give details of the practical arrangements you
have in place, showing how you will achieve
your health and safety policy aims. This could
include, for example, doing a risk assessment,
training employees and using safety signs or
equipment.