Policy – THE KEY ELEMENTS OF A HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Describe the main components of a health and safety management system

The main components of a management system are:

• Policy,

• Organisation

• Planning arid Implementation.

• Measuring performance,

• Reviewing Performance,

• Audit and • Continuous Improvement.

The components are explained as follows:

Policy – should contain:

• Protecting the safety and health of all members of the organization by preventing work related injuries, ill health, diseases and incidents.

• Complying with relevant occupational safety and health national laws and regulations, voluntary programmes, collective agreements on occupational safety and health and other requirements to which the organization subscribes.

• Ensuring the workers and their representatives are consulted and encouraged to participate actively in all elements of the occupational health and safety management system: and

• Continually improving the performance of the occupational safety and health management system. • Signed / endorsed by senior management and cascaded to all employees.

• Continued……

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Organization Section should ideally contain:

• A chart illustrating the management structure so far as health and safety is concerned.

• The section should also show details of employees from the lowest levels to the highest with key personnel identified by name as well as by job title.

• Also arrangements, procedures, instructions or other internal documents used within the framework of the occupational safety and health management system.

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Planning and Implementation

• An effective planning system for health and safety requires organisation’s to establish and operate a health and safety management system that, controls risk defects to changing demands in a bid that sustains a positive health and safety culture.

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Measuring Health and Safety

• Performance must be monitored at all levels of the organisation from day to day monitoring by line managers and supervisors to periodic audits of management systems.

• Performance measurement techniques fall into two broad categories:

1. Reactive monitoring which monitor accidents, ill health and incidents

2. Active monitoring which measure the effectiveness of management systems and the extent of compliance with standards and the achievement of plans.

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Reviewing Performance

• Annual or periodic review of the performance to ensure the system is working on the ground and assess if any of the components need more attention.

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Audit

• An audit is riot intended to identify all of the hazards, it is intended as an evaluation of health and safety management systems, and is often independent.

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Continuous Improvement

• When each of the above have been properly progressed the result should be an improvement in the occupational health and safety status of the organisation, which, upon further reviews into the future will enable even more improvements to be achieved.

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM – KEY ELEMENTS – HSG 65

Outline the key elements of a health and safety management system.

HSG65 model – outline the six elements in the model,

1. „Policy‟ which should be a clear statement of intent, setting out the main health and safety aims and objectives of the company and the commitment of management. Then,

2. „Organising for health and safety‟ which should ensure the allocation of responsibility to members of the workforce with the emphasis on achieving competency and control, together with effective systems for communication and consultation with the workforce. Then

3. „Planning and implementing‟ that should involve the setting of standards and targets, the completion of hazard identification and risk assessments and the introduction of appropriate control measures. Then

4. „Measuring and evaluating performance‟ would need to be put in place using proactive and reactive monitoring systems to provide data on the achievement or non-achievement of the objectives and targets set. Finally

5. „Audit‟ should be carried out to check whether what was planned was actually taking place, and

6. „Review‟ to consider options for improvement and to set new targets where necessary.

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM – KEY ELEMENTS – OHSAS18001 or ISO45001

Outline the key elements of a health and safety management system.

1. “Policy‟, which would be appropriate to the nature and scale of the organisation‟s health and safety risks, include a commitment to the prevention of injury and ill health and to comply at least with applicable legal requirements. Then

2. „Planning‟, would include the introduction of procedures for hazard identification and risk assessment and for identifying and accessing the legal and other health and safety requirements that were applicable to the organisation. It would also be necessary to establish health and safety objectives for relevant functions and levels within the organisation. Then,

3. „Implementation and operation‟, where senior management would have to demonstrate its commitment, ensure effective lines of communication throughout the organisation and seek effective consultation with and participation by the workforce. Then

4. „Checking‟ would be concerned with monitoring the extent to which the organisation‟s health and safety objectives are being met and the effectiveness of the risk control measures that have been introduced then

5. „Management review‟ would by an examination of the results of internal audits and an evaluation of compliance with applicable legal requirements and other requirements to which the organisation subscribes, assess the extent to which objectives have been met and recommend further improvement that would need to be made.

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HEALTH AND SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS – GENERAL COMPONENTS

Outline the main components of a health and safety management system

• Policy

• Organisation

• Planning

• Implementing

• Measuring Performance

• Auditing with Checking and Corrective Actions

• Reviewing Performance for Continual Improvement

Can be remembered using POPIMAR