Part of achieving your IOSH Managing Safely accreditation involves completing a project assessment about your workplace.  Here we’ve put together our guide to help you complete the assessment.

Each stage of the process will be covered thoroughly during the IOSH Managing Safely course, giving you plenty of time and opportunity to ask the trainer if you are not sure about anything.  The course is arranged so that you are able to complete the project bit by bit over the four days.

The project assessment is based on your own work environment.  The person marking the assessment will not be the trainer who taught you and will not know anything about your workplace.  While this gives you some valuable licence, which may be helpful, you will need to make sure you explain clearly things which may be obvious to you and those who work around you.  You also need to be consistent as each part of the assessment relates to the others.

As with all assessments, the best advice is to read carefully what each of the sections requires and take your time.

To gain the accreditation there is also a multi format exam to complete, we’ve put together some tips for completing the IOSH exam.

The project consists of a series of six forms you will need to complete and these follow a logical sequence: Read the rest of "Completing your IOSH Project Assignment: Help"

Posted by Andy Trainer in Health and Safety, News on July 22nd, 2011| No Comments »

Hazard Checklist – Location

Part 2 of our guide to completing your IOSH Project assessment looks at completing the Hazard Checklist.  On this sheet you are asked to identify three hazards associated with aspects of the workplace you have described in Part 1:

Description of the location

• Give a short, but adequate description of where the hazard is, making sure it makes sense in relation to your sketch /description of your workplace in Part 1.

Description of the hazard

• Only a short description is required, but it must relate to the location just identified.

Number and occupation of people affected

• Don’t forget to give the number, as well as the occupations of the people who may be affected – eg “ 3 engineers” or “1 secretary”
• Also, don’t forget to fill in the Company, Department and Site name at the top of the form.

Risk assessment recommended (Yes or no required)

• If, for some reason, you don’t recommend a risk assessment, you will need to explain why.  It is much easier to select a location and hazard that does require a risk assessment and tick the “yes” box!

Posted by Andy Trainer in Health and Safety, News on July 22nd, 2011| No Comments »

Part 3 – Hazard Checklist: Equipment and Substances

This should be completed in exactly the same way as for Part 2.

Description of the Equipment or Substance

• Give a brief description of three pieces of equipment or substances.  A brief description is all that is required, just make sure you use pieces of equipment or substances you have already identified in Part 1.

Description of the hazard

• Only a short description is required, but it must relate to the equipment or substances you have identified.

Number and occupation of people affected

• Don’t forget to give the number, as well as the occupations of the people who may be affected – eg “ 3 engineers” or “1 secretary”
• Again, the Company, Department and Site name must be completed at the top of the form.

Risk assessment recommended (Yes or no required)

• As before, if you don’t recommend a risk assessment, you’ll need to explain why.  It is much easier to select some equipment or substances that do require a risk assessment and tick the “yes” box!

Posted by Andy Trainer in Health and Safety, News on July 22nd, 2011| No Comments »

Part 4 – Hazard Checklist: Activities

This should be completed in exactly the same way as Part 2 and Part 3.

Description of the Activity

• Give a brief description of three activities.  A brief description is all that is required, just make sure you use activities you have already identified in Part 1.

Description of the hazard

• Only a short description is required, but it must relate to the equipment or substances you have identified.

Number and occupation of people affected

• Don’t forget to give the number, as well as the occupations of the people who may be affected – eg “ 3 engineers” or “1 secretary”
• Again, the Company, Department and Site name must be completed at the top of the form.

Risk assessment

• For this sheet, all the activities must require risk controls, otherwise you cannot satisfactorily complete the rest of the project and will lose a great many marks as a result.

Posted by Andy Trainer in Health and Safety, News on July 22nd, 2011| No Comments »

Part 5 – Risk Assessment Form

This section is worth quite a few marks, so it is worth working through carefully.  It looks quite complicated at first, but it is really only an expansion of some of the information you have already given in the previous sheets.

During the training you will have studied risk assessment in detail and will be familiar with this form by the time you get to the project.

Work activity

• Make sure you use the work activities you have identified in Part 4.  If you don’t, you won’t score any marks at all for this sheet!

Hazard, hazardous event and expected consequence

• Three things are required here, for example “corrosive substance leaking from container resulting in burns to hands” or “use of display screen equipment for prolonged periods causing musculo-skeletal strain”.

People affected

• Look back to Part 4 to see what you entered there and make sure you are consistent.

Assessment of risk

• Use numerical values, rather than descriptive ones, or H/M/L.

Posted by Andy Trainer in Health and Safety, News on July 22nd, 2011| No Comments »

Part 6 – Risk Control Form

You need to complete this form using the activity hazards from Part 5, otherwise you will not get any marks for this sheet.

• Note that the first column requires you to identify the work activity and the risk level (taken from the assessment in Part 5).

• You are then asked to identify existing risk controls and further risk controls required.  You then have to calculate the residual risk, which of course must be less than that identified in the assessment in Part 5.

• In the last column you need to describe the monitoring required in relation to the residual risk.  So, if you have identified PPE as a further risk control, monitoring would be workplace inspections to ensure that the PPE provided is being used correctly.  Don’t forget that you also need to give an indication of the frequency of this monitoring.  For something like use of PPE, this would probably be at least weekly, if not daily. 

• Don’t forget to complete the boxes at the top (Company, Department and Site Name) and bottom of the page (Date, Signature, etc), as you get marks for these.

And finally…..

Now leave it alone for a while, go back with fresh eyes and check it to make sure you have been consistent and followed all the instructions correctly.

Good luck!

Posted by Andy Trainer in Health and Safety, News on July 22nd, 2011| No Comments »

How to Comply with UK Health and Safety Legislation

Regardless of complying with Health and Safety laws, providing Health and Safety Training for your staff is something that all businesses should seriously consider.

Sending staff on accredited Health and Safety courses provide a wide range of benefits including reductions in insurance costs, increased productivity and profitability and an enhanced reputation for your organisation.

In addition – all businesses should take some simple steps to ensure you are compliant with HSE (health and safety executive) regulations.

To be fully compliant in terms of training – we’d recommend sending managers on an accredited course – the IOSH Managing Safely Course is available with us here in Brighton.

However here are our 10 Health and Safety tips to ensure that your organisation is compliant in the eyes of the HSE

Top 10 Health & Safety Tips

How to Comply with HSE Health and Safety Regulations

1. Conduct a Risk Assessment for your workplace and document it – you need to think about what could cause harm, and what precautions you will take to prevent it.
2. Any business with employees (so everyone except one-man-bands!) needs to take out Employers Liability Compulsory Insurance – you should display a copy of the certificate somewhere in your office.
3. Write down how Health and Safety is managed in your business in the form of a Health and Safety Policy (this is compulsory if you employ more than 5 people)
4. You need to have a person or people available in your organisation to provide Health and Safety advice to employees so that they can meet their responsibilities. This could be someone within your business who has received training, or an external consultant.
5. You should frequently consult employees on health and safety to ensure that they understand any responsibilities that they have and are happy with the measures you have in place.
6. Provide Health and Safety training for employees so that they are aware of the hazards and risks in the workplace and are equipped to manage them. The IOSH Managing Safely training course is a useful programme for all line managers to attend as it leads to a recognised health and safety qualification.
7. Provide basic health, safety and welfare needs for all employees. This includes access to toilets, washing facilities and drinking water. These facilities must be suitable for any employees with disabilities.
8. Provide Health and Safety Law information for employees to reference. This should take the form of a poster or leaflet displayed publicly in your workplace.
9. By law, there are some work related accidents and diseases that you must report if they occur. More details on these can be found on the HSE website
10. All businesses that deal with hazardous substances (e.g. explosives, asbestos etc…) or operate in an inherently hazardous industry (like construction) must register with the HSE

Hopefully your business already does all of the above.

If not, and you need some Health and Safety training or advice – please feel free to call us on 01273 622272 or e-mail info@siliconbeachtraining.co.uk

Posted by Andy Trainer in Health and Safety, News on June 15th, 2011| 3 Comments »