Statement of Health and Safety Policy

Understands the requirements for, and the topics that should be included in, a company statement of health and safety policy. 

The health and safety responsibilities of all Board members should be clearly articulated In the organization s statement of health and safety policy and arrangements. It Is Important that the role of the Health and Safety Director should not detract either from the... 

All workers and management should appreciate the risks in the workplace, and these risks should be clearly identified in the Statement of Health and Safety Policy required under HSWA, together with the precautions required to be taken by workers to protect themselves from such risks. 

Employers must prepare and, as often as is necessary, revise, a written Statement of Health and Safety Policy, and bring the Statement and any revision of it to the notice of all his employees. 

The Statement of Health and Safety Policy is, fundamentally, the key document for detailing the management systems and procedures to ensure... 

A well-written statement of health and safety policy should cover the following aspects ... 

Familiarisation of all staff with the procedure, together with training exercises at regular intervals, will help reduce the risk of fatal and serious injuries following an emergency. For this reason the company emergency procedure should be linked to the Statement of Health and Safety Policy, perhaps as a specific Code of Practice referred to in the Statement. 

This area covers a wide range of issues, including the giving of advice on documentation requirements, such as those required for Statements of Health and Safety Policy and risk assessment, joint consultation procedmes, safety monitoring systems, regulating contractors and their activities, health and safety training and the development of safe systems of work. 

The health and safety policy statement is your starting point to managing health and safety in the workplace. By law, (Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 section 2(3)) if you employ five or more people you must have a written health and safety policy. This contains your statement of general policy on health and safety at work and the organisation and arrangements for putting that policy into practice. 

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. 

REMEMBER What you write in the policy has to be put into practice. The true test of a health and safety policy is the actual conditions in the workplace, not how well the statement is written. 

Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 This is the Health and Safety Policy Statement of... 

For employees, the policy statement is the declaration of an intent to achieve a goal. However, employees are skeptical of bureaucratic policies and look for more solid evidence of management commitment. Thus, the timing and sequence of health- and safety-related decisions demonstrate how the policy will be implemented and the importance of health and safety considerations. A health and safety pohcy with no follow-through is worthless and in fact may be damaging to employee morale by showing employees a lack of management commitment. This can backfire and can lead to poor employee safety attitudes and behaviors. Thus, an employer has to put the money where the mouth is to demonstrate commitment. If not, a policy is an empty promise. 

All class teachers and coordinators need to be familiar with the school policy contents and procedures and link the school aims with curriculum-specific policy statements. This will create an appreciation of the wholeness of health and safety management. It will also help to ensure that class teachers, at the heart of the teaching and learning proces, are well informed with expected practice. Similarly, school management, governors and head teachers, will need to ensure needs arising out of health and safety poHcies feature as priority items in the school development plan. 

Raymond and Thomas (forthcoming) research evidence suggests that schools have procedmes for accidents. These refer to accidents, how to deal with reports, etc. as key aspects of the health and safety policy. Croner (1986, 3-288) suggests that all but obviously minor injuries to children should be recorded in writing with a brief statement of how the injury occurred, as soon as possible after the incident while memories are still clear and fresh. The supervision arrangements in force at the time should be noted. The recording of details is particularly important where issues of... 

Intel s Environmental, Health, and Safety Policy follows. It appears in the 2001 report under the signature of the CEO. The combined environmental, health, and safety policy was prepared in 1991 and was last revised in March 1998. Individual environmental, safety, and health policies predate 1991. From their inception, application of the policy statements has significantly affected the culture at Intel. 

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act, the employer is responsible for ensuring that adequate instruction and information is given to employees to make them safety conscious. Part 1, Section 3 of the Act instructs all employers to prepare a written health and safety policy statement and to bring this to the notice of all employees. Figure 1.2 shows a typical Health and Safety Policy Statement of the type which will be available within your company. Your employer must let you know who your safety representatives are, and the new Health and Safety poster shown In Fig. 1.3 has a blank section into which the names and contact information of your specific representatives can be added. This is a large laminated poster, 595 x 415mm, suitable for wall or notice-board display. 

Under the Health and Safety at Work Act, the employer is responsible for ensuring that adequate instruction and information is given to employees to make them safety conscious. Part 1, Section 3 of the Act instructs all employers to prepare a written health and safety policy statement and to bring this to the notice of all employees. Your employer must let you know who your safety representatives are. 

Nevertheless, records shall be kept to demonstrate or assess performance with the requirements of this standard. In several provisions in ZIO, statements are made indicating that documentation is necessary on, for example, health and safety policy, objectives, and the implementation plan. For many of ZlO s other provisions, activity cannot be properly managed without adequate documents. 

A wide range of documentary sources of health and safety information were referred to by those interviewed. The most frequently mentioned were as shown in Table 6.1. In addition to these, a variety of other documents were mentioned by just a few respondents, including the legislation, departmental instructions, safety data sheets, weekly notices, and posters. Managers were the most likely to refer to Board and local policy statements whereas most members of the workforce and safety representatives who could refer to documentary sources most frequently mentioned the rule book. Supervisors referred to five main documentary sources which in descending order of frequency were local policy documents health and safety booklets the rule book BRB policy and policy booklets . 

This group varied in their expectations five of the directors interviewed expected all staff to have some knowledge of the company s health and safety policies. In particular, they hoped that all staff would know the broad statement of responsibilities and overall philosophy of the policy statements. Three hoped for a much more detailed response from all levels of staff, for example, they expected reference to both the Board policy statement and local policy statements, the rule book, safety manuals, and the existence of safety representatives. The two other directors adopted a minimalist approach. Neither was very concerned about all staff having a detailed knowledge of the policies. One hoped that managers would know about the policies in some detail. But both were much more concerned that the staff knew what they should be doing and that they did it safely. Their emphasis was much more upon the rule book and line management... 

My health and safety policy statement is quite widely available but I honestly feel that just putting a document out to people, to noticeboards doesn t work, because very often we ate dealing with people who are not word-oriented, written word-oriented, so we need to talk to people about it, we need to explain to them because it is word of mouth that makes the... 

An organization s occupational health and safety policy should be a clear statement of principles which serve as guides to action. Senior management must be totalfy committed to ensuring that the policy is carried out with no exceptions. Health and safety pohcy must be, and be seen to be, on a par with all other oiganizational policies. 

The arrangements section of the health and safety policy comprises detaiis of the means used to carry out the poiicy statement. This wiii inciude health and safety rules... 

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