Health and Safety Consultancy

A health and safety policy is a written document that sets out your general approach and commitment to health and safety and how this will be managed within the business. It should clearly explain who is responsible for doing what and the arrangements that are in place.
If you have 5 or more employees, this must be written down.

The policy must be communicated to any employees and also when there are changes made to it.

The law requires that the written health and safety policy should include the following three sections:

• A statement of intent which includes the health and safety aims and objectives of the business.
• The health and safety roles and responsibilities of everyone within the business.
• The arrangements section will explain how the business will effectively manage health and safety.

Having a robust health and safety policy will help to create a safer working environment for employees and others who may be affected by your business activities.

Perhaps you do not know where to start in creating a health and safety policy, maybe you are not sure what it should contain or how this should be communicated to your employees.

SWK Health and Safety Consulting can develop a health and safety policy that is bespoke to your business and provide guidance on its implementation.

What is a risk assessment?
A risk assessment is a careful examination of a workplace activity that may cause harm so that you can evaluate whether you have taken enough precautions or if you should do more to prevent harm. Additional control measures may be introduced to lower the risk to an acceptable level.

Why do I need to carry out a risk assessment?
Under UK Health and Safety legislation, all organisations must carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment that covers all significant workplace hazards that your employees may be exposed to when at work. Where there are 5 or more employees, the findings must be written down.

Completing a risk assessment can help you ensure that you are taking the necessary steps to protect your employees and others from potential hazards.

Who can carry out a risk assessment?
A risk assessment needs to be carried out by a competent person to ensure that all relevant hazards have been identified and suitable control measures are implemented to prevent injury and/or ill health. This can certainly be carried out by someone within the business who is deemed to be competent.

A detailed risk assessment can be time consuming and we appreciate that due to other work commitments, risk assessments may not be given the time that is needed to carry this out properly. SWK Health and Safety Consulting have the expertise in performing risk assessments in many different work sectors and environments. This will ensure that your compliance obligations are met and employees, and those that they interact with, are protected so far as is reasonably practicable.

Alternatively, we can provide bespoke risk management courses at your premises, enabling you and your business to understand the risk assessment process and safe systems of work.

What does a risk assessment involve?
A competent and qualified consultant will visit your premises at a date and time that suits you. They will liaise with staff members to gather all the necessary information and observe work activities. It is important that all elements of the work activity are assessed to ensure all hazards are identified.

On completion of the risk assessment, the consultant will take the time to explain the hazards and risks and make recommendations for improvement based on the risk rating.

SWK Health and Safety Consulting can also provide hazard identification and risk assessment training courses. Click here to go to training page.

A method statement is a document that describes in a logical sequence exactly how a job is to be carried out safely. It includes all the risks identified in the risk assessment and outlines the measures needed to control those risks.

Clients often request your “RAMS” (Risk Assessments and Method Statements), which include both the method statement and the risk assessment documents. These documents collectively ensure that all potential hazards are identified, evaluated, and controlled effectively.

Method statements are commonly used alongside risk assessments and are typically necessary for higher-risk activities or as required by the client’s company policy. While risk assessments focus on identifying and controlling hazards, method statements provide detailed guidance on how to perform the work, including the sequence to follow and the precautions needed at each step. Although method statements are not legally required like risk assessments, they are essential for ensuring safe work practices and maintaining legal compliance. They provide clear instructions and necessary information to ensure tasks are carried out safely.

How SWK can help
To avoid delays and downtime, it is crucial that your RAMS are accepted by your client upon submission and not returned for being inadequate. At SWK, we develop comprehensive, job-specific method statements, which can be accompanied by a risk assessment.

As an employer, you MUST appoint a competent person to help you meet your health and safety responsibilities in accordance with The Management of Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2000.

A competent person is someone with the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to manage health and safety.

To fulfil this obligation, many small to medium sized businesses choose to appoint someone internal to the business and others opt to engage the services of a health and safety consultant to ensure peace of mind. Businesses with their own competent person or team will often find that some operations require specialist help from time to time.

If your business does not have the time or in-house expertise in health and safety, SWK Health and Safety Consulting can assume the role of your competent person and give you more time to focus on growing your business. We will deliver a comprehensive service that provides access to a qualified health and safety professional.

This service can be tailored to your business’s individual requirements and budget. As a minimum, the following is included:

• SWK will act as your designated competent person to meet the requirements of Section 7 of The Management of Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2000.
• Access to advice and support by email and telephone.
• Onsite visits (frequency as agreed).
• Fully insured for additional protection.
• Advice and updates as health and safety legislation changes.
• Named competent person on any official documentation including tender submissions.
• Assistance with reporting incidents to HSENI if necessary.
• Provision of checklists and templates.
• Discounts on training and other services for retained clients.

The Competent Person Service offers vital support to your business to give you the peace of mind that your health and safety is being looked after.

If you are an employer, owner or occupier of premises that isn’t a ‘single private dwelling’ you are legally required to carry out a fire risk assessment. This must thoroughly examine and evaluate the potential risk of fire to your business and threat to life. A fire risk assessment must include suitable measures that will eliminate or reduce the risk of fire and identify persons at risk. This must be recorded where there are five or more employees.

Depending on the size and nature of your business, a fire risk assessment can be extremely complex and therefore it is vitally important that all of the necessary elements are covered.

We understand that the fire risk in every business varies which is why we take a site-specific and systematic approach with our fire risk assessments. A fully qualified fire risk assessor will visit your premises, look at your fire safety records and then carry out a site walkaround to identify potential fire hazards. Following this we will provide you with a comprehensive fire risk assessment report with prioritised recommendations to improve your fire safety management. We will not burden you with unnecessary control measures that are not required.

A health and safety inspection is the process of reviewing operations and activities at a workplace or site. The purpose of this is to identify and evaluate potential hazards, while ensuring compliance with the company’s Health and Safety Policy and legal requirements.

Whether it is an office, factory, construction site, retail outlet, school or hotel, a health and safety inspection is a valuable tool in assessing and managing the needs of your workplace.

Conducting regular health and safety inspections demonstrates a proactive approach to risk management which aims to address issues before they arise.
SWK Health and Safety Consulting can carry out site specific inspections of your workplace or process to evaluate compliance. A report will be issued detailing any actions required and recommended timescales for completion.

A health and safety audit is a methodical review of an organisation’s policies, procedures and operational protocols in order to measure the extent of their alignment with the company’s Health and Safety Policy and legal requirements.

The main objective of a health and safety audit is to evaluate the effectiveness of an organisation’s health and safety management system and to give assurance that compliance obligations are being met. Carrying out regular audits demonstrates the organisation’s commitment to maintaining a safe and healthy workplace. This may also identify areas for improvement to ensure compliance with legislation and industry standards.

How SWK Health and Safety Consulting can help

• We will visit your workplace and assess your current arrangements by carrying out a gap analysis.
• Following the on-site audit a detailed audit report and prioritised action plan will be prepared that will be easy to follow and interpret. This will include assessing your current compliance levels against legislative requirements.
• All audit reports will be complemented with photos to highlight any physical improvements necessary at your workplace.

Despite the best efforts of employers, it is recognised that accidents can and do occur.
An employer is required to implement procedures for reporting and recording workplace accidents, incidents, and near misses.

The human cost of an incident could potentially be the loss of life from a work-related accident, or it could be other life changing injuries or health condition sustained as a result of the accident. This could be temporary or permanent and the injured person may never be able to work again. This will undoubtedly have a huge impact on family, friends and even the employer.

Incidents should be investigated to identify root causes so that corrective actions can be taken to prevent recurrence. SWK Health and Safety Consulting can help you through this process to ensure all details have been captured. We will carry out a thorough and impartial investigation and make recommendations based on the root cause of the incident.

The following incidents MUST be reported to HSENI under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences (Northern Ireland) Regulations 1997:

• Workplace fatalities
• Specified workplace injuries
• Certain occupational diseases
• Workplace incidents resulting in the injured person being absent from work for more than 3 days.
• Dangerous incidents that had the potential to cause harm

Making a RIDDOR report is a relatively simple process. We can assist you in completing this if necessary.

We can also deliver Accident Investigation Training to your management teams that would enable them to effectively carry out an accident investigation. 

Carrying out regular toolbox talks helps to promote employee engagement and contribute to a safer working environment for everyone. This is an opportunity for workers to share and discuss potential safety related issues with supervisors/management.

Perhaps you don’t know where to start in developing workplace specific toolbox talks. SWK Health and Safety Consulting can provide toolbox talks that can be delivered in 5 -10 minutes, therefore minimising downtime. This will help to ensure that essential information is communicated and that health and safety is kept at the forefront of daily activities.

Examples of toolbox talks include:
Manual handling, working at height, hazardous substances, slips, trips, and falls, work equipment, workplace transport, PPE, workplace noise, electricity, and fire safety, to name but a few.

A health and safety induction is designed to provide new employees with essential information about their responsibilities, the specific hazards and risks associated with their job, as well as the company’s policies and procedures. This ensures they have the knowledge to work safely and effectively.

Employees who do not receive a proper health and safety induction often show higher levels of negligence or fail to comply with health and safety regulations and company policies. This can increase the risk of injury, ill health, and fatality in the workplace, as they may not have the necessary information or knowledge to adequately manage workplace hazards.

How SWK can help

SWK can develop and deliver tailored company inductions that meet your organisation’s specific needs, whether in group sessions or one-to-one. Additionally, we can prepare presentations that can be delivered by a member of your team, therefore, helping to reduce costs.

What it RPE?
Respiratory protective equipment (RPE) is a particular type of personal protective equipment (PPE), used to protect the individual wearer against the inhalation of hazardous substances in the workplace air.

Why do you need to wear a mask?
Airborne substances hazardous to health can be in the form of dust, mist, vapour, or gas (eg wood dust, welding fumes, solvent vapours). You may or may not be able to see these in the air. If workers or other people (eg. visitors) inhale these, they can become unwell. This can result in short term or long-term illnesses and can be fatal.

Why do I need a face fit test?
Face fit testing is a process of ensuring that RPE provides adequate protection to the person wearing it. This method involves checking that the mask achieves a tight seal to the wearer’s face and therefore ensuring full protection.
This is a very simple and straight forward procedure that takes no longer than 30 minutes to complete and can be carried out at your workplace.

COSHH stands for Control of Substances Hazardous to Health. Employers are legally required to prevent, or where this is not possible, reduce workers’ exposure to these substances.

What is a COSHH assessment?
A COSHH assessment is a systematic examination of a task or process that involves using a potentially hazardous substance. Processes and substances hazardous to health can occur in many forms e.g. solids, liquids, vapours, gases, dusts, fibres, fumes, mists, smoke, biological agents with the potential to cause harm if they are inhaled, ingested, absorbed through or come into contact with the skin.

Do I need to carry out a COSHH assessment?
Yes, A COSHH assessment is a legal requirement and is carried out for the purpose of identifying the risks posed by any potentially hazardous substances that may be used in the course of your business. It also determines what control measures you need to be implement whilst using, handling, storing or transporting particular substances.

SWK Health and Safety Consulting can provide individual COSHH assessments or they can be incorporated into general risk assessments.

We can also provide COSHH Awareness Training that is aimed at those in your business who come into contact with hazardous substances. Training can be specific to your workplace environment and can be delivered onsite or at our training venue.

What is DSE?
DSE stands for display screen equipment or sometimes referred to as visual display units (VDU). This encompasses equipment used at work such as laptops, PCs, tablets and smartphones.

With the increased reliance on technology means more of us rely on the use of screens for our work than ever before. In most cases, problems encountered when working with display screen equipment do not arise directly with the DSE themselves but from the way in which they are used.

The main risks include:

• Fatigue and eye strain (from constant periods of concentration)
• Upper limb problems (arms, wrists, hands, muscles)
• Back-ache (from poor posture at the workstation)

As businesses now offer flexible working patterns to their employees, it is important that this element of employee health and wellbeing is effectively managed.

Do I need to carry out a DSE assessment?
Yes, as an employer, you have a responsibility under the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1992 to protect your employees from the health risks associated with display screen equipment. You are considered a DSE user if you use computers as a significant part of your normal work (daily, for continuous periods of an hour or more). The aim of this is to ensure that users workstations are setup correctly to enable them to work safely.

There is also a responsibility to conduct DSE assessments for those who regularly work from home and use DSE. This can be performed by means of a self-assessment checklist and will provide details on how to setup a workstation correctly.

At SWK Health and Safety Consulting, we provide detailed Display Screen Equipment assessments to ensure your staff are working comfortably and efficiently.

We understand that running a business in today’s climate can be tough and that there is not always a unending pot of money available to outsource health and safety advice. 

We have seen over the years that most businesses want to provide a safe working environment for their employees. To assist with this, SWK Health and Safety Consulting will provide you with a simple and straight forward starter pack that includes:

• A site visit by a Health and Safety Consultant
• A Health and Safety Policy
• Fire Risk Assessment for your premises
• Fire Evacuation Procedure
• Accident Investigation Procedure
• Health and Safety Documentation
• Health and Safety Law Poster
• DSE Assessment Template
• Training Matrix
• Accident Forms
• Fire Safety Inspection Template
• General Workplace Inspection Template
• Health and Safety Statutory Inspection Compliance Register