Policy Guidelines 

  Introduction

A health, safety and environment policy is a plan, unique to your group, detailing how you are going to manage health, safety and environment issues.

Your policy should set out your groups' commitment to manage your risks and meet your legal duties. It should also inform people in your group of their duties and the steps that they need to take in order to meet those duties.

You must have a safety policy, and if you employ five or more people it must be written down. Regardless of whether your policy is written down or not the same principles apply.

This guide will help you to prepare and implement your policy and keep it up to date.

Before you write your policy

A health, safety and environment policy will be unique to your group. Before writing your policy you should consider the issues that your particular business faces.

Your legal duties

You should ensure that your systems for managing health, safety and the environment enable your business to comply with the law.

You should appoint a "competent person" to help you manage health, safety and environmental responsibilities on behalf of the business. Your competent person should be able to advise you on what your legal duties are, whether you are currently doing enough and how to comply with those duties if your current measures are insufficient.

Alternatively, you could act as your own competent person or appoint one or more of your employees - ensuring you give them enough time and other resources to do the job properly.

A Health & Safety Executive (HSE) inspector, the Environment Agency or a local authority environmental health officer can also advise you on what else you may need to do.

If your business is a member of a trade association, they may be able to provide help and support on preparing and implementing your policy.

 

What should be in your policy?

Your group must have a health and safety policy, and if you employ five or more people, your policy must be in writing.

Policy can be set out in three parts:

·           The statement of intent section sets out your commitment to managing health, safety and the environment effectively, and what you want to achieve.

·            The organisation section states who is responsible for what.  

·            The arrangements section contains the detail of what you are going to do in practice to achieve the aims set out in your statement of intent.

The statement of intent

The statement of intent says what your commitment to health, safety and the environment is and how you are going to manage it. There are no set rules on what you should include in your statement, but it is often only one page long.

Most statements of intent will say:

• you are committed to ensuring the safety of your employees, group members and anyone else affected by your group
• who has ultimate responsibility for health, safety and environment in the group
• which staff or volunteers have special responsibilities - e.g. first aider, fire officer etc, giving the name of the person.
• that all staff and volunteers are responsible for taking care of their own health and safety and that of the people they work with,  including  group members
• that you recognise the legal duties your group is bound by and that you will provide a safe working environment, safe work equipment and safe methods of work
• what organisation and arrangements will be made to support the policy

The organisation section of your policy

The organisation section of your policy should clearly say who is responsible for what. The overall responsibility should be management committee or senior worker within the group but  other workers/volunteers can have specific duties.

You can identify who will:

• undertake risk assessments
• make inspections
• ensure the safety of specific tasks or activities 

The duties of the competent person you have designated to take responsibility for health, safety and the environment should be mentioned in this part of the policy, along with their contact details.

The arrangements section of your policy

The arrangements section of your policy should outline how you will meet the commitments you have made in your statement of intent. It details the measures you will put into place to eliminate or reduce as far as is reasonably practical the risks posed by the hazards in your workplace.

A hazard is anything in your business that could cause harm either to people or the environment. A risk is the chance - however large or small - that a hazard could cause harm.

The additional arrangements you will make to control or minimise the risks you have identified should be set out in the arrangements section of your policy. They could include:

• staff training
• using signs to highlight risks
• improved safety equipment such as jacks for lifting tables etc
• replacing hazardous chemicals with environmentally-friendly alternative
• improved lighting or anti-slip flooring

You should focus your attention on the activities that pose the greates risks or which could affect the most people, or cause serious harm.

You should also consider including environmental issues such as minimising waste, recycling and efficient use of raw materials, water and energy.

 

Ways to check your policy

• Where you have set out clear responsibilities for various employees, you can check that they have actually carried them out.

• You can monitor whether people are working in accordance with any rules, or safe methods set out in the arrangements.

• You can walk around the workplace and check for hazards - a sign that safety management needs to be improved.

• You can check whether any records or registers - part of your arrangements, are being used. For example, it is good practice to record workplace safety inspections and training given to staff and volunteers.

You may decide to set targets and objectives to demonstrate that your health, safety and environment policy is effective. These could be incorporated into a health, safety and environmental management system.

You must be able to show that you are monitoring health, safety and environment concerns in your workplace. As such, it is a good idea for your policy to say how its effectiveness will be monitored.

 

Involve your staff and volunteers

You have a legal duty to consult with your staff and volunteers on matters to do with their safety at work. You are also legally required to bring the statement of policy to the attention of your staff and volunteers and let them know where to find the more detailed arrangements sections.

In practice, it can be useful to involve your staff and volunteers in preparing and implementing the health, safety and environment policy. Where they are involved in making safety rules, or devising safe working methods, they may be more likely to adhere to them, because they will understand the reasoning behind them. Also, the person who is actually doing a job can be best placed to advise on whether the proposed safe working method will work.

Some of the ways that groups bring the policy statement to their volunteers and staff attention are by:

• including it in any employees' handbooks
• providing it at induction
• including a copy with the contract of employment
• posting it on notice boards
• making the duties in the policy part of the staff and volunteers nightly routine

  Click here for a sample policy