Health and Safety

11 Key excerpts on "Health and Safety"

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  eBook - ePub

  Armstrong's Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice

  A Guide to the Theory and Practice of People Management

  • Michael Armstrong, Stephen Taylor(Authors)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Kogan Page

    (Publisher)

  57

  Health and Safety

  Introduction

  Health and Safety policies and programmes provide for employee wellbeing by protecting employees – and other people affected by what the company produces and does – against accidents and risks of ill-health arising from their employment or their links with the company.

  Safety programmes deal with the prevention of accidents and with minimizing the resulting loss and damage to people and property. They relate more to systems of work than the working environment.

  Occupational health programmes deal with the prevention of ill-health and the reduction of stress arising in the working environment.

  This chapter starts with a general discussion on the importance of paying attention to Health and Safety at work as an important element in an employee wellbeing programme. It then deals in turn with the following aspects of Health and Safety: Health and Safety policies, risk assessments, audits, inspections, accident prevention, occupational health, managing stress, measuring performance, communications, training and organizing Health and Safety management.

  Managing Health and Safety at work

  The achievement of a healthy and safe place of work and the elimination to the maximum extent possible of hazards to Health and Safety are the responsibility of everyone employed in an organization, as well as those working there under contract. But the onus is on management to achieve and indeed go beyond the high standard in Health and Safety matters required by the legislation – the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and the various regulations and Codes of Practice.

  The importance of healthy and safe policies and practices is, sadly, often underestimated by those concerned with managing businesses and by individual managers within those businesses. But the achievement of the highest standards of Health and Safety in the workplace is important because of the duty of care – the elimination, or at least minimization, of Health and Safety hazards and risks is the moral as well as the legal responsibility of employers. Close and continuous attention to Health and Safety is important because ill-health and injuries created by the system of work or working conditions cause suffering and loss to individuals and their dependents. In addition, accidents and absences through ill-health or injuries result in losses and damage for the organization. This ‘business’ reason is much less significant than the ‘human’ reasons, but it is still a consideration, albeit a tangential one.

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  eBook - ePub

  Managing Health and Safety in the Dental Practice

  A Practical Guide

  • Jane Bonehill(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  A practice which has integrated Health and Safety management systems and procedures in place is able to measure performance against set goals. They are able to identify strengths and weaknesses and put realistic targets in place in order to achieve a desired outcome.

  Health and Safety management makes good business sense. It requires commitment from every member of the team and helps to reduce accidents and cases of ill health which gives everyone peace of mind. Employer Responsibilities The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 state what is expected of employers in order to manage Health and Safety as follows:

  • Carry out a suitable and sufficient assessment of risk to which employees and others may be exposed.
  • Identify preventive and protective measures required by law in order to control risks; risk prevention principles required by law are as follows:
    • Avoid risk completely by elimination.
    • Where avoidance is not possible substitute with something less hazardous.
    • Combat the risk at source.
    • Adapt the work activity to the person who is undertaking it.
    • Use advancement in technology and best practice guidance and analyse the way work is organised in order to develop prevention strategies.
    • Look at prevention strategies that aim to protect everyone and not just one person.
    • Ensure information and instruction are clearly understood by all employees.
  • Make arrangements for putting into practice the preventive and protective measures, in particular, planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review.
  • Provide health surveillance that is appropriate to the risk identified in the workplace.
  • Appoint competent person/s to assist with Health and Safety (if the employer has the necessary competencies and time this may not be required).
  • Set up procedures to deal with serious and imminent dangers including having sufficient and competent personnel to evacuate people from the premises.
  • Establish contacts with external emergency services, for example, the local fire service.
  • Provide employees with information concerning the risks they are exposed to and how these are controlled. The procedures for serious and imminent danger, the identity of the competent person and any risks have been identified and notified by others sharing the workplace.

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  eBook - ePub

  Introduction to Human Resource Management

  A Guide to HR in Practice

  • Charles Leatherbarrow, Janet Fletcher(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • CIPD - Kogan Page

    (Publisher)

  health-and-safety committee.
• Provide free health-and-safety training for workers so they know what hazards and risks they may face and how to deal with them; provide them with personal protective equipment (PPE).
• Provide the appropriate welfare facilities, washing facilities and drinking water for all employees, not forgetting those with disabilities. Make arrangements for first aid, accidents and ill-health.
• Display the health-and-safety law poster or provide a leaflet containing similar information.
• Buy employers’ liability insurance and display the insurance certificate in your workplace.
• Keep up to date on health-and-safety matters.
• Report particular work-related accidents, diseases and dangerous events such as construction projects.
Full details are available in a free HSE publication: (HSE, 2014a).

Health-and-safety policy

First, this is a statement of how the organisation intends to manage the health, safety and well-being of its employees and, crucially, visitors and the general public. Second, it describes how Health and Safety will be organised and how the high standards that have been set will be achieved through the involvement of everyone, at all levels, throughout the organisation. Third, the statement includes details of how the policy will be implemented. The HSE has provided a simple template in its guide on how to go about writing a health-and-safety policy (HSE, 2014a, p10).