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Health and Safety Manual
Local Health and Safety Arrangements and Procedures
6.1 The following advice is designed to assist senior staff in drafting local
health and safety arrangements and procedures.
6.2 Commitment Statement
This is a statement of commitment that you will manage your undertakings in such a way to assure, so far as you are able, the safety of staff, students and visitors. This is the section where you identify the stakeholders and declare your intention to look after their interests.
6.3 Arrangements
This section will outline the management organisation, describing who is responsible for delivering the commitments made in the above statement. This is the opportunity to inform managers, supervisors and individual members of staff what is expected of them. This should range from the proactive approach required of managers e.g. carry out risk assessments and implement safe systems of work, to the responsibility of members of staff and students e.g. to follow the rules and report any problems.
An organisational chart illustrating the health and safety management structure would be very useful in supporting the allocation of duties and responsibilities.
6.4 Procedures
This section is the most specific, detailing what you do in practice for first aid, accident reporting, fire safety, hazardous substances, manual handling, safety training, electrical safety etc. In many instances you can refer to existing university procedures guidance and the university health and safety manual.
Identify the Health and Safety Unit’s web site as a source of information where a number of university safety documents are available and in a format that can be downloaded. Where you have specific or detailed local rules or guidance these should be identified in this section.
This is also an ideal place to identify where advice for managers can be obtained and what training they are required to undertake to be able to discharge their duties in a competent manner e.g. Health and Safety Unit web-training modules and specific courses related to the level of risk encountered.
Consultation on health and safety is a legal requirement, and you need to identify what procedures you have in place to consult on health and safety. Normally for the most senior staff this would be through you Local Site Health and Safety Panel. Divisional or departmental safety committees, where these are established, are also forums where consulting on health and safety can take place. Other methods can be formal or informal briefings, task groups etc.
6.5 Review
The arrangements and procedures will require auditing and reviewing annually to ensure that they are relevant and up to date.
6.6 Approval
The arrangements and procedures should be approved by the Local Health and Safety Panel.
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