Investing in the right Safety Management System

Do you know what you need from a Safety Management System?

We see so many companies which have implemented a paper-based or electronic Health & Safety Management system that has not reduced the risk of prosecution or civil claim. It’s not only us – The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) see many more.

Protecting the health and safety of employees or public members who may be affected by your activities is an essential part of risk management and a legal requirement.

Health and Safety Law places duties on organisations and employers, and directors can be personally liable when these duties are breached.

Managing your legal duties in health and safety.

Whether you are looking to implement Safety PAL or any other HSEQ management system to ultimately prevent harm and protect you or the body corporate from prosecution, this video will explain your needs are and how a solution can help meet them.

Remember: Select and implement a Safety Management system that ensures you can provide you have done So Far As Is Reasonably Practicable.

Make sure you fully understand what you need, as companies may sell you a solution that doesn’t actually improve compliance.

If you need evidence of companies with safety management systems in place, then look at these cases from July 2021.

Like many other companies, you will have in place policies, risk assessments, and operating procedures – We genuinely hope so, but this is not doing So Far As Is Reasonably Practicable.

You need to ensure the risk assessment (Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999) is in place and working, and the control measures detailed in the risk assessments are implemented and being followed:

• This means when you include manual handling training as a control measure against the risk of lifting, ensure your workers have suitable and sufficient information, knowledge and training to complete the tasks safely.
• This means if your risk assessment includes wearing PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), you need to ensure the PPE is the last line of defence and that your workers have been issued PPE; they know how to use it carefully to prevent harm.
• This means when you write a control measure, ‘All workers are trained on doing the task safely’, you have the evidence to prove this when you need to defend a legal breach or civil claim.

Benefits of good health and safety

The Leading health and safety at work INDG417 publication from the HSE states:

Addressing health and safety should not be seen as a regulatory burden: It offers significant opportunities. Benefits include:

• Reduced costs and risks – employee absence and turnover rates are lower, and accidents are fewer, the threat of legal action is lessened.
• improved standing among suppliers and partners
• A better reputation for corporate responsibility among investors, customers and communities;
• Increased productivity – employees are healthier, happier and better motivated.

Why Safety PAL stands out amongst others.

Safety PAL Health and Safety key features all work together to create an effective ‘All In One H&S Solution’ for managing your Health, Safety, Environment and Quality (HSEQ) requirements.

Not only will your business be more efficient, but duty holders can be confident their meeting their legal obligations for health and safety.

Let one of our team show you first hand by booking a demonstration here.

Customer Testimonial

“Safety PAL offers a single source of information that can be made available to all instantly whether working on site or planning works in the office. Managers are able to plan works ensuring the right staff with the correct competencies and training are allocated to task. Key project information, both technical and safety, can be monitored on each job, and the passage of information is completely transparent and auditable. All staff have access to the most up to date information as it becomes available.”

Matthew Thomasson, Associate Director AECOM Rail

Useful links:

• Health and Safety Executive press releases – https://press.hse.gov.uk/
• Regulation 3 of The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 – https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/3242/regulation/3/made
• PDF version of The HSE publication INDG 417 Leading health and safety at work – https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg417.pdf
• PDF version of The HSE publication HSG65 Managing for health and safety – https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg65.pdf