Since 1978 other secondary legislation has been introduced through out the European Parliament so the standards could be standardised throughout the European countries. The main pieces were the introduction of the 6 pack in the early 1990’s.
• Health Safety and Workplace Regulations
• Management of the Health and Safety at Work Regulations
• Personal Protective Equipment Regulations
• Manual Handling Regulations
• Video Display Screen Regulations
• Provision and use of Work Equipment Regulations
All these regulations are complimented by subsequent legislation such as
- Control of Substances hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH)
- Electricity at Work Regulations
- First Aid Regulations
- Risk Assessments
- Health and safety Policy and Procedures
- Reporting of Diseases or dangerous Occurrence Regulations (RIDDOR)
All of the above regulations are applicable in every work environment where there is a work activity associated with the particular legislation. In the NWRC most of the legislation would apply to the staff and students because of the nature of work being undertook such as use of computers, photocopiers, machinery and other equipment used to train the students at the North West Regional College.
2. Describe the requirements for a health and safety workplace, as applied to the physical environment and equipment used in the NWRC. (P2)
As the legislation is name Health, Safety and Welfare (Well-being) it is important to describe the three word to explain what the objectives of the legislation and what it is trying to achieve.
Health is the general condition of a person in all aspects. It is the state of being free from illness or injury.
Safety is the state of being “safe” the condition of being protected against physical, social, spiritual, financial, political, emotional, occupational, psychological, educational or other types or consequences of failure, damage, error, accidents, harm or any other event which could be considered non-desirable. Safety can also be defined to be the control of recognised hazards to achieve an acceptable level of risk. This can take the form of being protected from exposure to something that causes health or economical losses.
Welfare
Sometimes the term ‘quality’ of life is used to evaluate the general well-being of individuals. Welfare includes not only health but also the built environment, person’s physical health, mental health, education, recreation and leisure time, and social belonging.
Physical Environment and Equipment
Within the NWRC physical environment items such as heating, ventilation, lighting, access, egress (stairs, doorways, corridors, lifts, pathways within the boundary) provisions for eating (canteen), toilets etc are all aspects that would be considered regarding the welfare of staff and students. The equipment would be the items such as computers, photocopiers, printers, monitors would all need to be inspected to ensure that it complies with the ‘Provision and use of work equipment Regulations’. Management of the NWRC must ensure that there is a proper maintenance and recording system to show that is it complies with the necessary legislation.
3. Select a job role within the NWRC and assess the working conditions and workplace policies in relation to health, safety and security legislation and regulations, applicable to this job role within NWRC. (Ml)
A specific job within the NWRC would be an administration officer within the offices of the college not only carring out administration duties but dealing with students and members of the public at reception desk. The role can be look at from two areas
1. Clerical and administration duties
2. Working with students and members of the public
Clerical and administration duties
This could involve working at a workstation for a considerable amount of time, so management must ensure that the employee is working at a workstation that has the proper ergonomics that would ensure the welfare of the employee. Areas such as
adequate lighting, adequate heating, proper posture such as height of desk, adjustable seats, height of Computer Screen, foot rests, no trailing cables that may cause slips, trips and falls, proper housekeeping and storage within the office all to ensure that the employee is free from hazards so far as in reasonable practicable.
Working with Students and members of the public
Management must consider the security to the members of staff carrying out this role. They must have a written policy for dealing with difficult people and procedures for protecting staff from potential violence from people. It may be in the form of a secure counter with a screen or an intercome system.
It does not matter what the work activity is but management of the NWRC must ensure that they have included within their health and safety policy that they have identified the procedures for dealing with such work activities and how they have communicated these procedures to the members of the particul staff. It is management’s duty that they provide information, instruction, training and supervision to every member of staff and in some case students.
4. Explain and analyse the roles and responsibilities for health and safety of key personnel in NWRC. Assess if these roles allow NWRC to meet the requirements of health and safety legislation. (P3, M2)
Although health and safety is everybody’s responsibility within the NWRC such as staff and students there are specific roles and responsibilities designated to specific personnel within the college.
Director
The director of the college Seamus Murphy has overall responsibility and it is up to him to ensure that there are proper policies and procedures put in place to ensure that the NWRC is not in breach of statutory health and safety legislation. If the director does not have the competence to ensure that statutory health and safety legislation is not being breached then he must employ a competent person to undertake this role. The competent person must have knowledge, experience, understanding and qualifications as proof to show they are competent to carryout the role. This competent person maybe called a Health and Safety Officer.
Health and Safety Officer
The health and safety officer of the college is Patsy McHugh. He will be responsible for ensuring that the proper policies and procedures are developed and passed on to key staff members such as department heads. The health and safety officer may also identify training needs for particular staff so they can be deemed competent in relation to health and safety. These people could become members of an internal health and safety committee where all aspects of health and safety are discussed recommendations made, implemented and recorded.
Heads of Departments
Responsible for ensuring that all aspects of health, safety and welfare are being communicated to their staff and students within their department.
Administration Officer in health and Safety
Responsible for filing and keeping all records and assessments that have been carried out in relation to all health and safety matters. These records can be requested and inspected at anytime by a health and safety enforcement officer.
5. Plan and conduct the procedures for carrying out a risk assessment for a selected administrative work environment within the NWRC. (P4, M3)
You must include the following.
• Identify the procedures the organisation should have in place to identify, monitor and prevent health and safety hazards.
• Explain the procedure for carrying out a risk assessment.
• Follow this by conducting a risk assessment for the organisation
• Make recommendations for raising health and safety standards and practices in the organisation.
Identify the procedures the organisation should have in place to identify
Under the Management of Health and safety at work Regulations it is the duty of every employer to ensure that a risk assessment is carried out on the activities being done by employees and other people who may be affected by the work activity so regarding the NWRC this would be the students. Where there are 5 employees or mote the findings of the risk assessment must be recorded and communicated to the staff and those who may be affected by the work activity.
I will be carrying out a risk assignment on the 29th march on floors 2 and 4 of the Northern building and also the car park. I will assess any risks possible in these areas.
Explain the procedure for carrying out a risk assessment.
Every employer must carryout a risk assessment to determine the risks of hazards associated with the workplace occurring. After determining the likelihood of the risks happening management must put in control measures to eliminate, substitute or reduce the risks happening. Before carrying out a risk assessment it is important to give a definition to both the terms ‘Risk’ and ‘Hazard’, this will help give an understanding of what a risk assessment involves.
When thinking about your risk assessment, remember:
A hazard is anything that may cause harm, such as chemicals, electricity, working from ladders, an open drawer etc; The risk is the chance, high or low, that somebody could be harmed by these and other hazards, together with an indication of how serious the harm could be.
Follow this by conducting a risk assessment for the organisation
To carry-out a risk assessment use the guidance document 5 steps to risk assessment.
Step 1 Identify the hazards
Step 2 Decide who might be harmed and how
Step 3 Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions
Step 4 Record your findings and implement them
Step 5 Review your assessment and update if necessary
Step 1 Identify the hazards
First you need to work out how people could be harmed within the NWRC. When you work in a place every day it is easy to overlook some hazards, so here are some tips to help you identify the ones that matter, walk around the college and workplaces and look at what could reasonably be expected to cause harm. Ask your employees or the students what they think.
Step 2 Decide who might be harmed and how
For each hazard you need to be clear about who might be harmed; it will help you identify the best way of managing the risk. That doesn’t mean listing everyone by name, but rather identifying groups of people (eg ‘students working in the classrooms’ or lecturers and maintenance staff).
In each case, identify how they might be harmed, ie what type of injury or ill health might occur. For example, ‘shelf stackers may suffer back injury from repeated lifting of boxes’.
Step 3 Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions
Having spotted the hazards, you then have to decide what to do about them. The law requires employers to do everything ‘reasonably practicable’ to protect people from harm. You can work this out for you. Involve staff, so that you can be sure that what you propose to do will work in practice and won’t introduce any new hazards.
Step 4 Record your findings and implement them
Putting the results of your risk assessment into practice will make a difference when looking after people and your business being carried out at the NWRC.
Writing down the results of the risk assessment, and sharing them with staff, Where there are fewer than five employees you do not have to write anything down, but the NWRC has a lot more than 5 employees therefore by law they must write them down.
Step 5 Review your risk assessment and update if necessary
Few workplaces stay the same. Sooner or later, there will be new equipment, substances and procedures that could lead to new hazards. It makes sense, therefore, to review what you are doing on an ongoing basis. Every year or so formally review where you are, to make sure you are still improving, or at least not sliding back.
Make recommendations for raising health and safety standards and practices in the organ isation.
To help improve the health and safety culture within the NWRC below is a list of some recommendations that could be utilised.
Carryout a training need of key personnel within the college who could help promote and deliver change.
Carryout a risk assessment of the different activities ad buildings within the responsibility of the NWRC example staff being students, teaching staff, administration staff, maintenance staff and security staff. Buildings being Northland Building, Strand Road Building, Limavady Campus, Strabane Campus and all the equipment used within the 12 academic schools.
6. Make appropriate and realistic recommendations for improving health and safety standards and practices in NWRC.
The following is a list of what may help improve health and safety within the NWRC.
• Train staff on policy and procedures.
• Assess staffs understanding by checking on their competency, this may be done by interviewing and asking questions.
• Keep an individual staff training record in their information file kept in Human Resources.
• Ensure that all new staff completes induction training.
• Set up at Health and Safety Committee within the college made up of different staff from different departments and work activities.
• Carryout regular checks on working systems and have them discussed at the H&S Committee meetings.
• Display a health and safety information board keeping staff updated of new procedures and legislation.
• Ensure that all staff is aware of the annual review and its findings.
• Encourage staff to report faults and hazardous activities witnessed or experienced.
