How to write a good Health and Safety Policy
Your health and safety policy needs to be tailored to meet the circumstances of your business — there is no one size fits all solution. An effective policy must set out the:
Aims and Objectives
Before detailing how various aspects of health and safety are to be dealt with, the overall aim of the policy must be set out in a statement to underscore your business s commitment to providing a safe and healthy work environment.
Responsibilities
This part of the policy demonstrates your business s commitment to health and safety by allocating responsibility for the proper implementation of the various aspects of the policy. It is important to identify the individual worker s responsibilities on health and safety matters as well
as those people within the organisation who are responsible for specific aspects of the policy (e.g. ordering and issuing Personal Protective Equipment).
An important aspect of this part of the policy is identifying the person responsible for ensuring that the policy as a whole is implemented. This individual should be a person of high seniority in the organisation such as the proprietor, managing director or chairman of the board — the
seniority of the person s position is an indicator of how seriously health and safety is taken within the business.
Arrangements
This part of the policy sets out the way in which those responsible for implementing the different aspects of the policy achieve these aims.
For example, one of the aims of your policy will be to communicate effectively with your workers; the responsibility for achieving this aim may be given to the managing director; and the arrangements for implementing it may include:
■ details of toolbox talks (when and where the talks happen, who runs them, who attends)
■ posters and notices to be displayed in the workplace
■ Health and safety training for workers (process for identifying and meeting health and safety training needs)
■ procedure for any collective consultation (how employee representatives are chosen, when and how they are consulted with)
■ arrangements for workers to complete details in the accident book (where the book is kept, who reports accidents and incidents)
■ procedure for employees to raise any health and safety matters with management on an ad hoc basis.