What we are offering

If you employ five or more people you are legally obliged to have a written Health and Safety Policy. A Health and Safety Policy clearly sets out how you are going to manage health and safety issues within your organisation.

If your business employs less than five people you are not legally required to have a written Health and Safety Policy. However, when tendering for contracts with reputable organisations, you will almost certainly be asked to provide them with a copy of your Health and Safety Policy as part of the tendering process to demonstrate your commitment to health and safety and how you manage the risks associated with your work.

A Health and Safety Policy usually comprises three elements:

1. A ‘Statement of Intent’ detailing your commitment to health and safety

1. An ‘Organisation’ section that details who is responsible for what in terms of managing health and safety

1. An ‘Arrangements’ section that contains details of measures you will put into place to eliminate or reduce the risks posed by the hazards in your workplace(as identified in your risk assessment).

Many organisations misunderstand the purpose of a health and safety policy, as too much emphasis is often placed on paperwork. There is a common lack of understanding of the risk management process which leads to confusion and poor assessment of the risks within the workplace. In order to stay true to our value to raise HSE standards, we are offering a basic Health and Safety Policy template as a starting point to help direct organisations towards the typical risks that they should be looking to manage within their operations.

In our experience, an organisation can have fantastic safety management system on paper, but the success of that system relies heavily on the people who are implementing it. An improved understanding of the process will allow duty holders to conduct a more thorough assessment of the risks and free up more time to develop safety leadership amongst their teams.

The free policy includes a Statement of Intent and a detailed Arrangements section covering many of the key areas of which most organisations are affected, regardless of size or industry.

These include:

1. Risk Assessment
2. Fire Safety
3. First Aid
4. Accidents/ Incidents
5. Electrical Safety
6. Work Equipment
7. Hazardous Substances
8. Manual Handling
9. Housekeeping
10. Noise
11. Consultation with Employees
12. Other workplace issues.