Training, Consultancy, and Health & Safety Solutions

Health and Safety Policy

Wether you have an existing policy that needs revision or simply need to create a new one, UKHSS can help you meet your legal requirement.  Your business must have a health and safety policy, and if you have fewer than five employees, you don’t have to write anything down.

A simple way to plan your policy is to set it out in three sections:

The statement – sets out your commitment to managing health and safety effectively, and what you want to achieve. This is signed and dated and often displayed on the office wall

The responsibility section – sets out who is responsible for specific actions and could consider specific health and safety roles.  It considers your management hierarchy and the responsibilities of directors, managers, supervisors and operatives

The arrangements section contains the the nuts and bolts and detail of your health and safety effort.  It will set out in some detail the requirements for various health and safety topics and how you are going to achieve the aims set out in your statement.

It might outline your procedures for vehicle safety checks and the way driving licenses are periodically checked if your business uses vehicles.

It might outline how hazardous substances are selected, stored and used if your business uses such substances.

In essence, the arrangements section should consider all the hazards or hazardous processes within your business and consider what should be done to maintain the health, safety and welfare of people at work or others affected by work procedures.

It is natural to think that health and safety policies are complicated and a huge effort.  In fact, they can be for very large businesses. Most though are not, they are common sense and the effort needed to develop any aspect of a health and safety system should be commensurate with the size and nature of your business.  The bigger the business, the bigger the effort will be.  Hence, if you have fewer than five employees, you don’t have to write anything down.

UKHSS has a “simple is best” approach to health and safety policy development. If it’s kept simple, both the employer and it’s employees will benefit from an easy to read, easy to understand and easy to maintain policy that is used for the right reasons. We see so many complicated, over the top policies on a shelf in the office  which have never been read or even updated, many having employee signatures saying that they have!

So what’s the point of this type of policy?

There is no point. Keep it simple and set out what you want to achieve and how you are going to achieve it. Additional pages DO NOT equal compliance.

If you think you need help or advice with your policy development or review, or any other health and safety arrangements, call us free on 0800 0149139 or use the contacts page to outline your questions. A representative will normally be in touch within 24 hours.  Typically, consultancy fees start from £285 per day.

Remember – Your health and safety effort should not be an effort!