Health & Safety Policy

HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICY STATEMENT
PART 1 –STATEMENT OF INTENT

 

We aim to achieve continuous improvement in standards through the setting of objectives and targets for their achievement. Compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and other relevant statutory provisions will be considered to be the minimum acceptable standard.

If people are our most important asset, higher standards of health and safety and employee welfare must be an integral part of our improving performance. Our health and safety policy is consistent with and complements other policies that aim to improve our performance and the quality of work with or in REVO e.g. corporate environmental policy, achieving excellent services, promoting community safety, supporting business, and creating a modern well-managed authority.

We recognise that health and safety is a prime responsibility of REVO, mentors, managers, supervisors and team leaders who have direct responsibility for activities, employees and candidates under their control. Further, that this duty extends to ensuring that participants or attendees should enjoy safe and healthy access to, and use of, all REVO services and facilities.

In particular, so as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of its employees and other persons who are liable to be affected by its activities REVO will:

  • Keep up to date with Covid-19 guidelines and updates;
  • Provide PPE, PPC, plant, equipment and work procedures that are safe;
  • Provide a safe place of work, healthy working environment and adequate welfare arrangements;
  • Provide comprehensible and relevant information relating to health and safety for all employees;
  • Provide appropriate instruction, training and supervision to enable all employees to work safely and carry out their duties and responsibilities under the policy;
  • Establish effective consultation procedures to enable all employees and candidates to be involved in the policy and its implementation;
  • Provide adequate and appropriate resources to implement the policy, including the provision of competent health and safety assistance;
  • Review its policy and management systems e.g. as part of its annual review, and regularly audit compliance.
  • Take whatever other measures may be necessary to ensure the health, safety and welfare of those who work for REVO, visit its premises or are affected by its work activities.
  • REVO Health and Safety Policy refer to all offices, workplaces and establishments.

PART 2 – ORGANISATION

2.1 Health and Safety will be managed by using the REVO’S existing management systems where practicable.

Details of the REVO organisational arrangements for health and safety, including the responsibilities of particular posts, are given below and an organisation chart is shown in annexe 1.

Corporate Health and Safety Organisation

2.2 REVO

  • REVO is defined in law as the employer and therefore is the corporate body that has overall responsibility for the health and safety policy and its implementation. The responsibility is discharged through the following organisational arrangements.

2.3 The Managing Director will

  • Have overall responsibility for the implementation of the REVO’s policy
  • Sign the REVO’S Health and Safety Policy Statement to demonstrate that commitment to it starts at the highest level
  • Promote a positive health and safety culture across the REVO
  • Ensure that adequate and competent health and safety advice and assistance is available to all employees

2.4 Management Team will

  • Receive an annual review of health and safety performance and agree the health and safety action plan
  • Approve the REVO’s health and safety policy and agree its signing by the MD
  • Approve budgets which include sufficient resources to enable health and safety risks to be controlled
  • Receive any exceptional reports on urgent or critical health and safety issues requiring a corporate executive decision

2.5 Strategic Planning will  

  • Develop strategies for promoting a health and safety culture e.g. by integrating the management of health and safety into general organisational management practices
  • Receive reports from employees and candidates on health and safety matters
  • Provide information to facilitate the participation in, and scrutiny of, the REVO’s health and safety strategy, policy and performance by employee representatives with particular reference to the Corporate Health and Safety Committee.

Service Unit Health and Safety Management Framework

2.6 Management will

  • Exercise overall control within their area of responsibility to ensure compliance with health and safety legislation and that the REVO’s Policy. In particular Heads of REVO will ensure that the following are carried out: –
  • Organise their Service Area to discharge its health and safety responsibilities and maintain a record of the arrangements
  • Provide sufficient resources to fulfil the service’s health and safety responsibilities including making provision for competent health and safety advice and assistance appropriate to the size and complexity of the service area; Arrange for a suitable and sufficient assessment to be made of the risks to the health and safety of employees, candidates and others who may be affected by the work of the REVO and is recorded as a general assessment and/or a statement of health and safety arrangements;
  • Arrange for systems of work to be developed which are safe and which include a description of the task, safe working procedures, maintenance procedures, information on hazards and emergency procedures;
  • New installations, workstations, equipment and substances are assessed for health and safety compliance before they are purchased, installed or brought into use;
  • Contractors are assessed for health and safety competence before being employed by the REVO and once employed, are made aware of their health and safety responsibilities, duties and liabilities;

2.7 Each Management Team

  • Ensure that the REVO’s health and safety policy is implemented within their working areas. Implementation will include clearly defined health and safety arrangements and responsibilities of all levels of staff.
  • Ensure that there are adequate and effective arrangements in place for consulting all employees and candidates within their Service Areas on matters that affect their health and safety
  • Promote a positive health and safety culture within their Service Areas
  • Monitor the Area’s health and safety performance e.g. by arranging regular e.g. quarterly workplace H&S inspections, preparing an annual report of the Service Area’s health and safety performance
  • Approve a Service Area health and safety action plan that sets targets for improving health and safety performance
  • Arrange for a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks associated with new projects/ companies or services in consultation with mentors or REVO
  • Allocate sufficient resources to fulfil the Service Area’s health and safety responsibilities
  • Design, or commission the design of, a health and safety management system for the Service Area and communicate it around the Area. This will include safe working procedures, systems for assessing and controlling risks and for monitoring health and safety performance e.g. H&S Inspections;

 

2.8 Mentors*/ Team Leaders/ Supervisors will

* includes tutors or supervisory responsibilities

  • Be responsible for employees and activities under their control and will ensure that the requirements of the REVO’s health and safety policy are adhered to, in particular, they will (where appropriate) undertake suitable and sufficient risk assessments and ensure that adequate measures are taken to minimise the health and safety risks to the employees under their control and to any other persons who may be affected by work carried out by these employees;
  • Develop safe systems of work and ensure that they are implemented;
  • Ensure action is taken to resolve any situations that may adversely affect the health and safety of employees or other persons. They will rectify any problem within their own resources or see it is raised with the appropriate manager without delay;
  • Ensure that all employees under their control are given adequate information, instruction, training and supervision to carry out their duties safely and competently, paying particular attention to new / inexperienced employees and trainees;
  • Maintain records of the training undertaken by their direct reports;
  • Ensure that all plant and work equipment provided is suitable, properly maintained and necessary tests and examinations have been carried out;
  • Accident / incident reports are completed, investigated and acted on without delay.

2.9 Employees/ Candidates will

  • take reasonable care for the health and safety of themselves and for those other persons who may be affected by their acts or omissions.
  • report accidents, incidents and near misses with the potential for injury or damage to their line manager
  • report to their immediate supervisor, hazardous situations and defects found in work places, plant and equipment wherever work is undertaken by the REVO.
  • report loss of, or damage to, their personal protective equipment
  • exercise reasonable standards of housekeeping and hygiene
  • co-operate with their managers and colleagues in matters relating to the REVO’s Health and Safety policy and procedures.

Employees/ candidates with special health and safety responsibilities

2.10 Health and safety officers and advisers

REVO appoints health and safety officers to provide authoritative and independent advice and competent assistance on health and safety.

In particular, health and safety officers advise on:

  • Formulating and developing health and safety policies for existing activities and new or proposed services or processes
  • Promotion of a positive health and safety culture and effective implementation of the policy
  • Planning for health and safety including the setting of objectives, and priorities and establishing adequate systems and performance standards
  • Implementation and monitoring of plans e.g. accident/incident investigation, reporting and analysis
  • Review of performance and undertake

Health and safety officers also assist with:

  • Identification of training needs and the planning and delivery of health and safety training
  • Risk assessment to ensure that assessments are suitable and sufficient
  • Audits of the whole health and safety management system
  • Investigation of accidents and incidents where specialist assistance is needed
  • Selection and monitoring of contractors

In addition, health and safety officers have authority to act on behalf of the Chief Executive to stop work if it contravenes agreed standards and presents a serious and imminent risk of injury.

2.11 The REVO’S occupational health contractors will

  • Provide the contracted service including advice on medical and health assessments, pre-employment assessments, risk assessment advice, health promotion events etc.
  • Liaise with the Director of Health, Safety and Licensing to co-ordinate a complementary programme of work

2.12 Risk Management Working Party will

  • Encourage and assist the promotion, identification, measurement, control, financing and transfer of the REVO’S risk. In particular it will:
  • Develop risk management action plans
  • Support key risk reduction initiatives and provide match funding to initiatives that meet its specified criteria.

2.13 The Asset Management will

Ensure that suitable and sufficient health and safety arrangements (e.g. control of asbestos, lift maintenance, common notices, maintenance of means of escape etc.) are in place in respect of the premises they are responsible for.

2.14 Other officers with special responsibilities

The implementation of the REVO’S health and safety policy depends on the contribution of many mentors, members, employees, candidates and volunteers with various responsibilities that it would not be appropriate to attempt to list in this policy, e.g.

  • First-aiders

The responsibilities of these potholders will be specified in service area statements of organisation, job descriptions, training technical standards etc…

Consultative Arrangements

Safety representatives will

  • represent employees in consultation with management on issues of health and safety.Safety representatives are valued by the REVO as having an important role in achieving employee involvement and in creating and sustaining a positive health and safety culture within the organisation. In addition to the responsibility to represent employees Safety representatives have a number of other functions, which they are entitled by law to exercise, which are set out in the REVO‘s health and safety technical standards:

    16 PART THREE- ARRANGEMENTS

    The delivery of the REVO’S policies is primarily through its Service Areas. Each Service Area and will draw up its own arrangements for the management of health and safety risks based on its risk assessment and the REVO’S corporate health and safety standards and guidance. The standards are made available to all employees in the REVO Health and Safety standards folder.

    The arrangements included in the Policy Statement are therefore limited to corporate arrangements intended to direct and complement the management systems described in Part Two of the Policy Statement. The principal arrangements are set out below

3.1 IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY

The REVO has adopted the Health and Safety Executive’s “Successful Health and Safety Management” approach to developing and implementing a robust health and safety system that controls risks and protects its employees and others from harm. Building on the strengths of the strategy adopted following the last review of policy e.g.

  • Integrating the management of health and safety into new and existing performance measurement and management systems
  • Gaining increased participation of employees and their representatives in raising workplace H&S standards e.g. by establishing more workplace H&S committees
  • Improving the quality of information on health and safety to facilitate benchmarking and other performance measurement systemsThe REVO has decided to prioritise the following measures that best complement its strategy for Improving working:

3.2 HEALTH AND SAFETY TRAINING

  • Build on the Corporate standards that have been established for induction of staff by establishing health and safety competencies for senior managers and other staff with specific health and safety responsibilities

3.3 THE USE OF CONTRACTORS AND SUBCONTRACTORS

  • To extend the corporate standard for the selection of contractors that has been established to encompass a wider range of contracted activities.
  • To improve the monitoring of contractor’s health and safety arrangements

3.4 PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND AUDIT

  • Include health and safety performance in the REVO’S increasing emphasis on performance management as an aid of achieving and gaining recognition of excellent services
  • Adopting a new approach to health and safety audits with the aim of generating more performance information for management and less weighty and comprehensive assessments of the full picture on legal compliance

3.5 HEALTH AND SAFETY ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE

  • To help managers respond to the higher expectations of them in respect of health and safety performance additional H&S advisors are being employed and deployed within Departments to advise and assist managers to meet the new standards

3.6 OTHER RISK-SPECIFIC HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICIES

Where it is felt to be desirable to make an explicit public statement on a specific risk this general statement of policy will be supplemented by risk-specific policies that will be implemented via the organisation and arrangements herein.

Review

This policy is reviewed regularly and updated as required.

Adopted on:……………… 13/10/2022

next reviewed:………………………… 14/10/2023