EXPERTS VIEW
How to ensure directors’ duties are met When it comes to dealing with health and safety responsibilities, where does the buck stop?
SAFETY
PAUL MARSH
Office manager SafetyAide
12
WHEN THE HEALTH and Safety the board, not taking away from its colExecutive (HSE) comes across serious lective responsibility. breaches of health and safety legislation Include health and safety as a standit will look to see where the buck stops. ing item on meeting agendas, including What type of evidence will persuade it those for the board and senior managethat directors and senior managers are ment team. fulfilling their responsibilities? Whilst most senior personnel don’t Competency deliberately act irresponsibly, they’ll To fulfil their health and safety duties, often struggle to prove they’ve done the directors need a reasonable level of right thing when a health and safety understanding of the issues. inspector is in front of them asking difHaving a briefing for directors on ficult questions. This is therefore an area health and safety responsibilities is a which is worth some forward planning. good way of boosting competency and You should begin by considerrecording that they’ve been ing the contents of your health INCLUDE trained. You could pick from and safety policy. It should HEALTH AND one of the off-the-peg training have three parts: (1) a state- SAFETY AS courses or ask a health and safement of intent; (2) details of A STANDING ty trainer to update the board roles and responsibilities, ITEM ON on the topic. known as your 'organisation'; MEETING One aspect of the briefing and (3) a description of your AGENDAS should be a reminder of the arrangements for implementrules to be followed on site such ing the policy. Your organisation state- as restricted areas, personal protective ment should show how the board will equipment, signing in and out, hygiene oversee health and safety and allocate measures, etc. Directors must lead by responsibilities to each level of manage- example, being aware of the damage ment and staffing. caused to safety culture if they are not It’s good practice to nominate a seen to be following the rules themdirector with responsibility for health selves.Arrange for regular updates to and safety. However, ensure that there’s the board on the latest external devela proper understanding that this indi- opments of interest such as legislative vidual is simply overseeing the work of changes and key cases.
Being aware It’s too easy for senior personnel to make incorrect assumptions about what’s happening on the ground. Directors should therefore receive regular reports as well as take steps to get direct and truthful feedback from staff. Ensure that your accident reporting procedure includes the need to escalate reports of serious incidents very quickly to a high level. The same should happen where bad publicity is likely, even if there were no serious injuries. By ensuring that staff are consulted on health and safety matters, such as during team meetings or in a dedicated health and safety committee meeting, you’ll have a better chance of understanding what the real problems are. Directors should receive reports from these meetings. It’s good practice to have a regular audit undertaken to understand whether the commitments contained in the health and safety policy are being delivered. Your health and safety policy should include clear responsibilities for directors and they should be briefed to ensure they understand them. Health and safety should be a regular agenda item and include reports of accidents, audits, staff consultations and changes to legislation.
BAGMA BULLETIN NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2021
