15 Oct Make a risk assessment central to your health and safety policy statement
Make a risk assessment central to your health and safety policy statement
A written health and Safety policy statement is a legal requirement if you employ more than 5 people. One of the core strengths of your statement should be a health and safety risk assessment, ideally carried out by a professional company.
There are numerous templates available online, however these one size fits all assessments are no real basis for safeguarding your staff and visitors. The key objective of having an assessment is the safety within the workplace for everyone, rather than simply fulfilling legal requirement by the easiest and cheapest route available.
Besides, in the event of an accident, do you really want the fact that it could have been prevented on your conscience? Many workplaces are dangerous and the hazards within could lead to fatalities. A professionally conducted risk assessment in more than just a piece of paper, it’s a practical guide to making your business a safer place for everyone.
A professionally carried out assessment will:
- identify all the risks and hazards
- outline the consequences – who will be harmed and how
- Show the precautionary measures
- Record the significant findings
- Review and update any current assessments
Outsourcing your health and safety policy statement is good business sense
Using professional and experienced contractors is one of the most important guides to running a successful business. Any business owner knows that it’s cheaper and more effective to hire a professional to do the job right first time than it is to learn how to perform complex tasks, possibly with strict legal guidelines, themselves. The tasks take valuable time, diverting the owner or employe away from their key role, and cost money in the time they take learn and re learn how to do the jobs, only to find the work is sub standard.
By hiring an experienced and qualified company to carry out your risk assessment you can be sure that the job has been done correctly, you’ve made the best use of your time and resources, and you have a blueprint to make your business a safer place.
Your paper work will also be in order, making your company legally compliant – remember if you have more than 5 employees you need a written health and safety risk assessment.
The Health and Safety Executive has plenty of information on the subject to help you to decide if and when you need assistance in creating a legally compliant risk assessment as part of your health and safety policy statement. Visit hse.gov.uk for more information.