- UNIT OVERVIEW
- This unit covers the basic, legally required health and safety duties of everyone in the workplace.
It describes the competence required to ensure that:
- - your own actions do not create any health and safety risks
- you do not ignore significant risks in your workplace, and
- you take sensible action to put things right, including reporting situations which pose a danger to people in the workplace, and seeking advice from others
- This unit does not require you to undertake a full Risk Assessment.
It is about having an appreciation of significant risks in the workplace and knowing how to identify them and deal with them.
When you have completed this unit, you will have proved you can:
- 1. Identify the hazards and evaluate the risks in your workplace
2. Reduce the risks to health and safety in your workplace
- KEY WORDS AND PHRASES
- The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the body appointed to support and enforce health and safety law. They have defined two important concepts as follows:
Hazard :
- A hazard is something with potential to cause harm. Consideration of hazards should also include aspects of workplace security (e.g. theft, assault, insecure premises, etc.).
- Risk :
- A risk is the likelihood of the hazard's potential being realised.
- Note :
- Almost anything may be a hazard, but may or may not become a risk. For example:
- - A trailing extension lead from a piece of equipment is a hazard. If it is trailing across a passageway, there is a high risk of someone tripping over it, but if it lies along a wall out of the way, the risk is much less.
- Toxic or flammable chemicals stored in a building are a hazard and by their nature may present a high risk. However, if they are kept in a properly designed secure store, and handled by properly trained and equipped people, the risk is much less then if they are left about in a busy workshop for anyone to use - or misuse.
- A failed light bulb is a hazard. It if is just one bulb out of many in a room, it presents very little risk, but if it is the only light on a stairwell, it is a very high risk. Changing the bulb may be a high risk, if it is high up, or if the power has been left on, or low risk if it is in a table lamp which has been unplugged.
- A box of heavy material is a hazard. It presents a higher risk to someone who lifts it manually than if a mechanical handling device is properly used.
- Workplace :
- This word is used to describe the single or multiple areas in which you carry out your work.
- Working practices :
- Any activities, procedures, use of materials or equipment and working techniques used in carrying out your job. In this unit it also covers any omissions in good working practice which may pose a threat to health and safety.
- Workplace policies :
- This covers the documentation prepared by the employer on the procedures to be followed regarding health and safety matters. It could be the employer's safety policy statement or general health and safety statements and written safety procedures covering aspects of the workplace that should be drawn to the employees' (and 'other persons') attention.
- Other persons :
- This phrase refers to everyone covered by the Health and Safety at Work Act, including visitors, members of the public, colleagues, contractors, customers, patients, students, pupils.
- Personal presentation :
- This includes personal hygiene, use of personal protective equipment, clothing and accessories suitable to the particular workplace.
- Responsible persons :
- The person or persons at work to whom you should report any health and safety issues or hazards. This could be a supervisor, line manager or your employer.
- Key Points Regarding Health and Safety Legislation and Regulations
- Health and Safety At Work Act 1974
- The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 is the main piece of legislation under which nearly all the other regulations are made. It is for this reason that only this piece of legislation is specifically referred to in this unit.
Employers have a legal duty under this Act to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of the people for whom they are responsible and the people who may be affected by the work they do.
Under this Act it is also important to be aware that all people at work, not just employers, have a duty to take reasonable care to avoid harming themselves or others through the work they do. Risks should be reduced 'so far as is reasonably practicable'. This term means the duty-holder (in most instances the employer) can balance the cost against the degree of risk although obviously, any Health and Safety Inspectors would expect that relevant good practice is followed.
According to the Act:
Employers must safeguard so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all the people who work for them and 'other persons'. This applies, in particular, to the provision and maintenance of safe plant and systems of work, and covers all machinery, equipment and substances used.
People at work also have a duty under the Act to take reasonable care to avoid harm to themselves or to others by their working practices, and to cooperate with employers and others in meeting statutory requirements. The Act also requires employees not to interfere with or misuse anything provided to protect their health, safety or welfare in compliance with the Act.
- Other legislation
- There is an array of health and safety regulations and codes of practice which affect people at work.
There are regulations for those who, for example, work with electricity, or work on construction projects, as well as regulations covering noise at work, manual handling, working with VDUs, or dealing with substances hazardous to health, etc.
The specific requirements for all or any of these can be obtained from HSE local offices.
As many of the regulations are only relevant to certain workplaces or working practices, no specific reference has been made in the 'What you must know' section to any of these regulations. The phrase 'your responsibilities for health and safety as required by any specific legislation covering your job role' is intended to relate to those specific pieces of legislation important to your workplace and or working practices which you should be able to find out about.
- SCOPE OF THIS UNIT
- All of the items listed below form part of this National Occupational Standard
1. Risks resulting from
- a. the use and maintenance of machinery or equipment
b. the use of materials or substances
c. working practices which do not conform to laid down policies
d. unsafe behaviour
d. accidental breakages and spillages
e. environmental factors
- 2. Workplace policies covering
- a. the use of safe working methods and equipment
b. the safe use of hazardous substances
c. smoking, eating, drinking and drugs
d. what to do in the event of an emergency
e. personal presentation
- ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE
- You need to understand:
Health and Safety Legislation and Workplace Policies
- 1. your legal duties for health and safety in the workplace as required by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
2. your duties for health and safety as defined by any specific legislation covering your job role
3. agreed workplace policies relating to controlling risks to health and safety
4. responsibilities for health and safety in your job description
5. the responsible persons to whom you report health and safety matters
- Risks to Health and Safety
- 6. what hazards may exist in your workplace
7. the particular health and safety risks which may be present in your own job role and the precautions you must take
8. the importance of remaining alert to the presence of hazards in the whole workplace
9. the importance of dealing with or promptly reporting risks
10. the requirements and guidance on the precautions
11. the specific workplace policies covering your job role
12. suppliers' and manufacturers' instructions for the safe use of equipment, materials and products
13. safe working practices for your own job role
14. the importance of personal presentation in maintaining health and safety in the workplace
15. the importance of personal conduct in maintaining the health and safety of yourself and others
16. your scope and responsibility for rectifying risks
17. workplace procedures for handling risks which you are unable to deal with
- PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES
- 1. Identify the hazards and evaluate the risks
- To be competent you must:
a. name correctly and locate the persons responsible for health and safety in the workplace
b. identify which workplace polices are relevant to your working practices
c. identify those working practices in any part of your job role which could harm yourself or other persons
d. identify those aspects of the workplace which could harm yourself or other persons
e. evaluate which of the potentially harmful working practices and the potentially harmful aspects of the workplace are those with the highest risk to you or to others
f. report those hazards which present a high risk to the persons responsible for health and safety in the workplace
g. deal with the hazards with low risks in accordance with workplace policies and legal requirements.
- 2. Reduce the risks to health & safety in your workplace:
- To be competent you must:
h. carry out your working practices in accordance with legal requirements
i. follow the most recent workplace policies for your job role
j. rectify those health and safety risks within your capability and the scope of your job responsibilities
k. pass on any suggestions for reducing risks to health and safety within your job role to the responsible persons
l. ensure your personal conduct in the workplace does not endanger the health and safety of yourself or other persons
m. follow the workplace policies and suppliers' or manufacturers' instructions for the safe use of equipment, materials and products
n. report any differences between workplace policies and suppliers' or manufacturers' instructions as appropriate
o. ensure your personal presentation at work
- i. ensures the health and safety of yourself and others,
ii. meets any legal duties, and
iii. is in accordance with workplace policies
- EVIDENCE REQUIREMENTS
- General Requirements
You must :
- 1. produce evidence to show you meet all of the performance objectives consistently
2. produce evidence to show that you have covered all the items listed in the scope for this unit
3. produce evidence to show that you possess all the knowledge required
4. produce performance evidence resulting from work you have carried out in your normal workplace or in a realistic working environment (RWE) as managed and organised by an approved centre when naturally occurring performance evidence does not occur at frequent intervals in your normal workplace or when safety is at risk.
5. be observed by a qualified assessor carrying out work in
- - your normal workplace
- and approved centre, or
- a combination of both
- Specific Performance Evidence for this Unit
- 6. Evidence must be provided to demonstrate competence in identifying hazards with reference to working activities or aspects of the workplace and acting upon your decisions as to whether the hazard presents a high or low risk.
- You must :
- 7. identify risks which may result from at least 2 of the items listed below:
- a. the use and maintenance of machinery or equipment
b. the use of materials or substances
c. working practices which do not conform to laid down policies
d. unsafe behaviour
e. accidental breakages and spillages
f. environmental factors.
- 8. produce evidence of following at least 4 of the workplace policies listed below:
- a. the use of safe working methods and equipment
b. the safe use of hazardous substances
c. smoking, eating, drinking and drugs
d. what to do in the event of an emergency
e. personal presentation.
- 9. Your assessor must observe you following workplace policies on at least 2 occasions.
10. Your evidence must include risks you have identified from at least 1 of the items listed, and at least 3 instances of you following workplace policies, within your normal workplace.
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