The Role of a competent person

Health and safety practitioners, also known as health and safety officers, managers, advisers or consultants, seek to minimise the risk of injury and ill health at work. The role of a health and safety practitioner is to provide advice on planning, implementing, monitoring and reviewing protective and preventative health, safety and welfare measures.

How do you know your advisor is competent?

If you are seeking to contract with an external consultancy or employ an internal advisor, how do you know what role and function the competent person should take and what capabilities, knowledge and skills they would require to be effective.

How competent is your health and safety advisor?

Organisations have a legal duty to ensure arrangements for a competent person are in place, that the competent person is able to conduct their duties and has sufficient training and experience to perform their role.

Farm worker suffers serious injury due to faulty machinery

The agricultural industry is one of the most dangerous environments to work in from a health and safety perspective. With high rates of injury and fatalities employers need to be more vigilant than ever when it comes to the safety of their workers.

Breach of Health & Safety at Work Act leads to £600k fine for Textile Company

Handling large machinery always comes with associated risks and it can be impossible to pinpoint the injury rate for a particular type of machine.

When using heavy equipment, like a packaging machine, it is imperative to put a formalised safe system of work in place and to train workers appropriately. Daily safety checks and routine hygienic cleaning ensure that staff are not at risk of injury.

Failure to carry out correct Risk Assessments leads to two workers sustaining serious injury

Risk assessments can seem to be an endless task but if you fail to have them in place there can be serious consequences.

Businesses have a responsibility to ensure all staff are aware of and understand the risks associated with their work as well as the environment they work in. A failure to do this can result in large fines and opens up the possibility of accidents in the work place.

Devon Contractors fined for breach of Health & Safety at Work Regulations

When it comes to health and safety on a construction site, making sure workers have the correct training and undertake the required procedures is imperative.

Working with heavy machinery, construction equipment and vehicles comes with a number of risks meaning you could injure yourself, someone else or cause a fatality.

Ruptured gas main leaves firm with £1.2m fine

Correct procedures should always be in place when working with hazardous gas, and it is up to the employer to ensure these measures have been taken. Gas company, Southern Gas Network, and construction firm, Cliffe Contractors Ltd, were left to pay a hefty fine after failure to carry out safety procedures resulted in a gas explosion which left two workers with severe injuries.

Scaffolding company fined after forklift truck crushed worker

In the UK, 25 per cent of workplace transport injuries are a direct result of forklift accidents. Every working day, five lives are changed because of accidents involving forklift trucks, with around 1,300 employees hospitalised following these kinds of accidents each year. With the number of forklift accidents being so high, it is important for employers to ensure all staff are fully trained and follow all health and safety procedures before starting any work.

Farm’s failure to undertake risk assessment leads to fatal accident

The agriculture industry has one of the worst fatal accident and occupational ill health records of any major employment sector. The four most common types of accidents on farms involve vehicles and machinery, falling from height, lifting and handling and hazardous substances. This means it is important to be proactive about health and safety on a farm and properly manage risks, so accidents can be avoided – this is why it is vital to undertake risk assessments.

‘Safety Culture’ – Aiding positive growth

The emphasis of safety has changed throughout the years, from industry specific legislation and a focus on improving hardware (guards, safer equipment). The introduction of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 focused on the physical aspects of our building and equipment, ensuring engineering of safety solutions was integrated into our interaction with our surroundings and investing in employee’s performance (selection and training, incentives and reward schemes).

What Next? Creating Quality Safety Talent

Many organisations recognise that safety professionals need leadership and influencing skills to drive positive change within the organisation. In addition, Board member’s proficiency in safety can improve decision making that limits risks, creates opportunities and improves both safety and organisational functioning. So, how can leadership drive safety beyond compliance?

Safety taking a seat in the Boardroom

The concept of visible, senior leadership of health and safety governance is to ensure organisations maximise their performance and lead beyond mere compliance. Although the value represented at board level is recognised, often safety still largely acts and moves like a non-strategic function. Many organisations struggle to translate health and safety into tangible actions and values. Failing to ask the correct questions from their management team, reviewing safety’s objectives and outcomes, challenging dialogue about the developments of safety and leading safety excellent throughout the organisation.

Who manages health and safety at a construction site?

Imagine you’re an alien, new to Planet Earth and visiting a construction site for the first time. One of the first things you’ll notice is the overwhelming emphasis on health and safety. Signs and notices on the subject come at you from all angles. Hi-vis clothing and hard hats are everywhere. But who’s in charge of all this health and safety activity? And how do courses and qualifications such as SSSTS (the Site Supervisors Safety Training Scheme) and SMSTS (the Site Management Safety Training Scheme) fit into the big picture?