Safety cases policies

Healthcare organisations need to have business continuity plans in place and hosting organisations need tried and tested disaster recovery strategies. The existence of these plans and policies can be used to support the safety case. 

In terms of evidence, the safety case should set out (for those key hazards where human factors are important mitigations) a clear chain of logic from the control to a workable and effective policy. At the most basic level this should consist of a formal reference to the document or traceability from a series of controls to several relevant policies. By supplementing this with a description of how the above policy characteristics were achieved, further confidence can be built to show that appropriate diligence and governance has been applied. 

To provide a further level of assurance one can undertake a formal review of those operating policies which are critical for maintaining safe operation. The outcome of the review can then be documented as evidence in the safety case. A checklist of desirable policy characteristics would be one way of demonstrating that a methodical approach had been employed in the review. 

The safety policy statement should be posted at prominent positions throughout the organization. To give credibility to safety the policy should preferably be attractively printed and suitably framed and displayed. The display positions must be carefully selected, and employees should constantly be briefed and reminded of the policy. This policy should be extensively publicized and displayed on aU notice boards, on the company website, in the employee safety handbook, and in every prominent position throughout the workplace. When asked to tender for contracts, the tendering organization often requires the responding company to present its safety case, which includes a copy of the firm s safety and health policy. 

Templates were produced for safety case reports and hazard analyses. It is now policy that safety case reports are to be produced at an early stage in the development of any new work. Training has been provided for key staff, to achieve this. 

The cell Mechanism represents the safety management system itself such as SEMS or a Safety Case. The cell below this—Competence— represents the ability of individuals within the organization to execute the management system. The plan will not be effective if individuals are not able to implement it. Therefore, items such as hiring policies and training are included in this part of the quadrant. 

When an inspector visits a premises, it is very likely that they will wish to see the health and safety policy as an initial indication of the management attitude to health and safety. There have been instances of prosecutions being made due to the absence of a written health and safety policy. (Such cases are, however, usually brought before the courts because of additional concerns.)... 

Recent disasters in Australia in different industries have prompted different regulatory responses. In the state of Victoria, a gas plant accident which disrupted supplies to the state for two weeks (Hopkins, 2000) has led to the introduction of a safety case regime, while in the state of Queensland, a coal mine explosion which killed eleven men (Hopkins, 1999) led to a requirement that mines develop principle hazard management plans. This paper looks at the characteristics of the two different styles of regulation, explores reasons for these different responses, and draws some tentative policy conclusions. 

Describe the reason for the assessment, for example, safety case support, internal policy,... 

The whole medical IT network safety case (and indeed the health organisation safety policy) can be undermined by injudicious use of the proven capability argument where no real evidence exists to substantiate it. (This evidence would normally include past test reports, help desk problem records, operational IT metrics, user acceptance tests and other such historical IT project documentatiom)... 

The ASAM project was a collaboration between Logica Cambridge, the CAA and the University of York. It was part-funded by the DTI and SERC as part of the JFIT programme and followed earlier work, done by one of the partners, on supporting policy arguments in the Alvey DHSS Large Demonstrator Project [Storrs 91]. The primary aim of the ASAM project was to produce a "proof of concept" safety case tool, intended to overcome some of the difficulties outlined above, and focusing on the informal parts of the safety case. The project undertook work on two broad fronts development of a conceptual framework for safety analysis, and provision of a series of prototype tools. The CAA, and to a lesser extent the other partners, carried out a number of trial applications of the tool in order to evaluate its capabilities and feed experience into the development of later prototypes. The paper describes all three aspects of the project s work. 

Case studies also make clear that child rights advocates, parents, and seismic safety experts together, lobbying for school seismic safety, can be extremely effective in achieving policy change, as case studies of British Columbia and Bogota (see entry School Seismic Safety Case Studies ) show. 

Although private ownership of railways is not new, the separation of the roles of train operator and infi astructure controller has created the need for a new regulatory framework for safety. This fiamework is provided by the safety case regime, where operators and controllers have to set out their safety policies and means of achieving them in a document known as a safety case, and by paying close attention to the competence and fitness of staff carrying out safety critical duties. 

Part n is a concise description of the safety management system at the installation. It summarises both the corporate and installation specific policies, organisational stmctures, responsibilities, standards, procedures, processes, controls and resources which are in place to manage safety on safety case. 

Breakdown maintenance is suitable for equipment whose failure does not threaten production, safety or the environment, and where the cost of preventing failure would be greater than the consequence of failure. In this case, the equipment would be repaired either on location or in a workshop. Even with this policy, it is assumed that the recommended lubrication and minor servicing is performed, just as with a motor car. 

For the most part, future trends will be found in liazard accident prevention, not liazard analysis. To help promote liazard accident prevention, companies should start employee-training programs. These programs should be designed to alert staff and employees about tlie liazards tliey are exposed to on tlie job. Training should also cover company safety policies and tlie proper procedures to follow in case an accident does occur. A major avenue to reducing risk will involve source reduction of hazardous materials. Risk education and communication are two other areas tliat will need iniprovemcnt. 

Writing a health and safety policy statement is more than just a legal requirement - it is your commitment to planning and managing health and safety. It is the key to achieving acceptable standards, reducing accidents and cases of work-related ill health and it shows your employees that you care for their health and safety. 

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