Health and safety management: changes since October 2013

Throughout October there were several changes to the health and safety legislation. How to be safe and how to manage worker safety? RIDDOR (Injury, Illness and Hazardous Occurrence Reporting Regulations), First Aid Regulations, Youth at Work Regulations, are just a few of the recent changes among the many aspects that authorities were trying to adjust or eliminate. Since the Lofsted Review, the Government has aimed to make things easier for all of us …

Fewer security requirements don’t necessarily simplify things, at least not for everyone. In general, there are many positive changes; however, some of them are not as clear and simple as intended. Depending on the type of service provided and the size of your business, those new changes could affect you in some way. The truth about this new approach that the authorities are pushing is that everything is simplified and easier, but the penalties and fines are even higher for those who make mistakes. It is all an attempt to be straightforward and straightforward for you to adhere to, however if you do not have a complete and clear understanding, you should seek professional advice and guidance.

So regardless of what bondholders do or don’t do, every health and safety failure translates to more expenses. The change in attitude towards health and safety is the essential change that will hopefully be seen in the years to come. More than anything, the idea is to begin to perceive health and safety as an integral part of good management in general. Rather than seeing it as a separate, “unnecessary” and “expensive” rule system, what is the fairly general opinion among many companies?

A revised version of the Guide to Successful Health and Safety Management (HSG65) will be published in the coming months; the updated guide will be available online on the HSE website. In general, it represents the aforementioned change in attitude towards health and safety. The simplified recommendation on how to keep workers safe shifts from the use of POPMAR (Policy, Organization, Planning, Performance Measurement, Audit and Review) to the much clearer slogan “Plan, Do, Check, Act.”

This is quite a useful way to think about and organize your office, factory or construction site … Maybe some people could apply it in their personal lives too? It represents a breaking point in the perception of “dreaded” health and safety compliance. Over the years, different experiences and talks with colleagues have taught us that business owners and managers who are effectively using health and safety as a management tool are the most successful. It can be difficult to get started, but once you have a well-organized business, the ball starts rolling and the benefits are not long in coming.

Plan where you want to be, identify any problems, and make a clear list of simple steps and people who will be responsible for corrective action. Make sure the basic legal documents that safety compliance requires (health and safety policy, risk assessments, etc.) are well written and well understood by all those affected by them. Once you have a workforce aware of the fact that they must work as safely as possible, everything tends to be easier. This is the stage where you need to decide how to monitor performance, based on active indicators such as health surveillance, routine inspections, and reactive methods, for example monitoring sick leave and investigating accidents and incidents.

Doing, now everything is based on risk assessment, it is about performing the necessary assessments and managing them, always start with the biggest risks / hazards. Everyone from the top to the bottom of the organization must be clear about what to do. Invest in things like training, competent professional advice, introduction of new equipment, and make sure you have the correct and reliable supervision.

Check, when you have to monitor health and safety and / or how well your production line is organized, there is nothing better than implementing controls and audits on site. Don’t just rely on what the documentation says, go and see for yourself and talk to your workers and line managers.

Take action, learn from mistakes and compare your results with those of other companies, even the competition. Keep in mind that accident and incident, sick leave and near miss information will tell you where the faults are.