So, you’ve been appointed as the director with particular responsibilities of rhealth and safety at your business, congratulations. But, what does this actually mean to you? Can all of the other directors now relax and leave health and safety in your hands knowing that you are crrying the can for their actions – not quite.
You should also note that in teh recent Corporate Manslaughter case involving Lion Steel Equipment the judge noted that a Health adn Safety Director would be expected to “show the skill and care of a competent practitioner in that field”
Your alternative to this is of course to have the outsourced support of someone like ourselves to support and advise you – contact us on 01453 800100 or use these links to get in touch.
You are not aways available for blame
The first concern that most directors hav is that by agreeing to be responsible for health and safety they are sticking a sign on their back saying to the HSE ‘Kick Me’, this certainly isn’t the case ut you shoudl be aware of the duties you have and where this hands back to your other board members.
As HSE guidance on the subject clearly states;
“board members are collectively responsible for providing leadership and direction on health and safety. The goal of effective management of occupational health and safety is more likely to be achieved where all board members have a proper understanding of the risks, the systems in place for managing the risks and an appreciation of the causes of any failures”
What is my role then?
The true role of the health and safety director is to ensure that the health and safety aspects of the decisions being considered are part of the boards decision maling process. They shoudl advise the board on the potential impacts of the choices which they are making, examples being the changing of budgets for training or PPE or perhaps the introduction of new plant or equipment into the workplace.
My business is too small to have what you’d call a board but we do have directors
In this case you probably still have meetings, they may not be as formal as a larger business but you shoudl still minyte these meetings and show how health and safety is considered in your decision making process. This is a key item of evidence to show that you are running your business safely and responsibly should an accident happen.
How can I benchmark our performance?
Use the checklist below, taken from INDG417 to measure your peformance against others, you can download a copy of this document here;
- How do you demonstrate the board’s commitment to health and safety?
- What do you do to ensure appropriate board-level review of health and safety?
- What have you done to ensure your organisation, at all levels including the board,
receives competent health and safety advice? - How are you ensuring all staff – including the board – are sufficiently trained and
competent in their health and safety responsibilities? - How confident are you that your workforce, particularly safety representatives, are
consulted properly on health and safety matters, and that their concerns are
reaching the appropriate level including, as necessary, the board? - What systems are in place to ensure your organisation’s risks are assessed, and
that sensible control measures are established and maintained? - How well do you know what is happening on the ground, and what audits or
assessments are undertaken to inform you about what your organisation and
contractors actually do? - What information does the board receive regularly about health and safety,
eg performance data and reports on injuries and work-related ill health? - What targets have you set to improve health and safety and do you benchmark
your performance against others in your sector or beyond? - Where changes in working arrangements have significant implications for health and
safety, how are these brought to the attention of the board?
