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• Fire safety legislation requires the establishment of procedures for serious and imminent danger and the provision and maintenance of suitable means of escape.
• Employers must ensure staff are aware of the fire evacuation procedures, including location of fire exits and assembly points. Carry out fire drills and exercises.
• Those who may require additional support and assistance when evacuating should be identified and specific plans developed for them.
• Fire exits and emergency routes must be properly marked with signs and, where necessary, adequate emergency escape lighting.
• It is the duty of the responsible person/duty holder/appropriate person to ensure that there are sufficient numbers of escape routes to enable occupiers to reach a place of reasonable or total safety. Each employee should be aware of the action to take in the event of fire and the recommended evacuation policies.
• Assembly points outside the building should be indicated clearly. These points should have been selected in consultation with the fire authority and routes to them signposted with appropriate notices.
• Systems for providing relevant information to the fire and rescue services should be developed.

Ensure you provide a safe environment for employees.

Have you got an up to date fire risk assessment?

Contact us if you require advice.

Poor health and safety leads to illness and accidents that could prove an huge drain on the company finances. Simple but effective health and safety practices pay for themselves. They also improve the company’s reputation among customers, regulators and employees. Given the considerable increase in penalties under health and safety legislation, the cost of non-compliance is likely to exceed by a long way the cost of compliance.

Having bad health and safety provisions can harm a business. It can reduce productivity, damage products, equipment or premises, there could be considerable fines and legal costs if prosecuted, plus insurance premiums could rise.

Most competitive tendering now requires businesses to disclose any health and safety investigations and convictions.

Many customers won’t deal with businesses that have a bad health and safety record and good employees might not want to work for a company like that.

Having safe and healthy working conditions will make it easier for a business to attract and retain customers, employees and business partners.

If you would like an audit to see if the company complies with health and safety legislation, contact us.

This is a straightforward process for assessing risks in the workplace.

How to assess the risks in your workplace, follow these five steps:

1. Identify the hazards
2. Decide who might be harmed and how
3. Evaluate the risks and decide on precaution
4. Record your findings and implement them
5. Review your assessment and update if necessary

Don’t  overcomplicate the process. In many organisations, the risks are well known and  the necessary control measures are easy to apply.

Ensure that you involve your staff or their representatives in the  process. They will have useful information about how the work is done that will  make your assessment of the risk more thorough and effective. But remember, you  are responsible for seeing that the assessment is carried out properly. 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; and
• 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.

If you require assistance, contact us….

For many businesses the management of health and safety issues and keeping up with the multitude of regulations can seem like an overwhelming task.

For some companies the answer is to ignore it and convince themselves that it does not apply to them.

What are your legal responsibilities?

According to Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, all employers have a duty to ensure that – so far as is reasonably practicable – the health, safety and welfare of all employees is looked after.

The Act also requires that employers of five or more employees have a written statement of their health and safety policy and that this is, along with any revisions, communicated to the workforce.

It is also important to carry out a Risk Assessments. Three reasons why…

1. Financial reasons: There is considerable evidence, that effective safety and health management in the workplace contributes to business success. Accidents and ill-health inflict significant costs, often hidden and underestimated.

2. Legal reasons: Carrying out a risk assessment and implementing what you have written down are not only central to any safety and health management system, they are required by law.

3. Moral and ethical reasons: The process of carrying out a risk assessment and implementing what you have written down will help to prevent injuries and ill-health at work.  Employers are ethically bound to do all they can to ensure that their employees do not suffer illness, a serious accident or death.

Risk assessments are good for business!

So don’t put it off any longer and get started on your risk assessment today.

Contact us if you require advice…

After over-indulging at Christmas you may feel that dieting and exercise should be your New Year’s resolution. That’s all well and good, but in addition to getting fit, why don’t you do something that could potentially have a lasting positive impact not just for you, but for everyone around you?

If everyone can get through 2014 with the aim of working safely, the benefits could be extensive. From employees to Managing Directors, everyone can do their bit to bring about improvement.

It is important to remember that small steps can help to achieve a health and safety culture.

Now is as good a time as any to decide that you’re going to take that positive step.  Nobody should accept a situation where they know that  a serious accident could occur at any minute, but at the same time, they have not done their bit to do something about it.  Even something as basic as tidying up after making a mess, could have benefits.  Improved housekeeping sends out a clear signal to all staff and visitors and is something that in theory, should be easy to achieve.  Workers at all levels need to have health and safety in the backs of their minds.

Employers must ensure that people are safe during their business activities and that all staff have a level of health and safety understanding. Failure to have policies and procedures can lead to substantial business costs ranging from downtime, reputational damage, absenteeism and of course, personal liability for directors.

Remember, you can do all this at the same time as getting into shape for a marathon!

Contact us should you require assistance from a dedicated and committed health and safety person!