Step-by-Step Health & Safety

The overall requirement for any business is to provide a safe place of work for employees and any others who may be affected by what the organisation does.

Health & Safety is best managed in a proactive manner (as are other essential business elements.) Good management will enable your business to manage Health & Safety appropriately, comply with the law and most importantly it will protect people from your risks associated with your business. 

You need to consider a number of areas when planning and managing Health & Safety. It does not have to be onerous and by working through the basics you can put into place proportionate Health & Safety policies, systems and controls.

To get started you need to consider the following:

• Decide what help you will need and who will provide this (refer to the section on competent advice)
• Produce a Health & Safety Policy (use the template policy to get started)
• Manage the ‘real' risks in your business (consider what risks and use the risk assessment templates - visit the section on Risk Assessment)
• Provide training or information (you can use online training for some areas and/or classroom training)
• Provide the right workplace facilities (consider what equipment you may need - see premises and equipment)
• Consider how will you deal with emergencies i.e. Fire & First Aid (review the emergencies section)
• Consider how you will inform and consult with your employees
• Make sure you cover mandatory requirements such as holding insurance and displaying the Health & Safety Law Poster
• Consider how you will keep up to date (this site will provide you with updates on a regular basis. You may also wish to consider further competent advice)

How?

Health & Safety should be considered as another element of running your business or organisation. There are a number of Health & Safety phrases that can often cause panic and confusion. For a clear definition of these it is suggested that you click on on the health & safety phrases section before you proceed any further. 

Once you are comfortable with these phrases, your next port of call is to start to work through the  Plan, Do, Check & Act model. This will provide you with your strategic plan and give your approach towards risk management direction & structure.