The key things you need to know to meet your Health and Safety obligations. Please contact us for advice.
Arrangements for Health & Safety
Health and safety arrangements are an important part of managing the risk for all aspects of safety.
There are policies for dealing with specific instances such as:
- Manual handling
- Working with computers
- COSHHx
- Contractors
- Visitors
- Vehicles
- First Aid
- Fire Safety
- And hundreds more.
You will need to review your working processes and produce bespoke policies to reduce the risks involved. We can assist with writing policies and procedures for any that might be applicable to your company.
Risk Assessments
As an employer you are under a statutory duty to arrange for a ‘competent person’ to assess all possible risks.
The more common areas for assessment are:
- For general risks (Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations)
- Where exposure to substances may cause damage to health (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations)
- At workstations where VDUs are used (Health and Safety Display Screen Equipment Regulations)
- Where hazardous lifting or carrying tasks are undertaken (Manual Handling Operations Regulations)
- In noisy environments which could cause damage to hearing (Noise at Work Regulations)
- Where fire safety is in question. The fire risk assessment should consider the means of raising the alarm, arrangements for safe evacuation, fire safety equipment and signage.
- The selection and use of personal protective equipment (PPE)
You will need to ensure that you are fully compliant with your statutory duty. You will need to carry out risk assessments and regularly them to ensure they remain valid.
Health and Safety Policy
If you are a business with five or more employees you are obliged to have a written health and safety policy, which must be reviewed and updated on a regular basis.
For smaller organisations, there is an increasing requirement by clients or prospective clients to produce a statement of intent for health and safety, to demonstrate safe operation.
You will need to create a tailored health and safety policy. Initially you should:
- Review existing policies, identify the policies needed and write policies bespoke to your organisation
- Design and deliver training in support of policies
- Audit against adherence to company policies
Health and safety is your legal responsibility but, the simplest, most cost effective way of meeting your obligations is to enlist the support of DBC Solutions Ltd. With us, you can be confident that our advice will always be legally compliant and practical.
Contact Us for a quotation today.