NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED FORCE PROCEDURES. Health and Safety Audit Procedure

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1 FORCE PROCEDURES Health and Safety Audit Procedure Procedure Reference Number: Procedure Author: Wendy Astle-Rowe, Health and Safety Unit Procedure Review Date: April 2012 At the time of ratifying this procedure, the author is satisfied that this document complied with relevant legislation and Force requirements. Sign and date Wendy Astle Rowe (Author(s)) June 09 1

2 Procedure Index ELECTRONIC NAVIGATION: - move the cursor over the page number in the index or blue underlined text until a hand appears. Click the left mouse button once and it will jump to the specified part of the document. 1. Responsibilities Guidance Procedure Aim Appeals Review Appendices...5 June 09 2

3 1. Responsibilities 1.1 Area Commanders/Heads of Department will be responsible for ensuring documentation required to be inspected as part of the audit is available and that staff are available for consultation where required by the audit. 1.2 Area Health and Safety Advisers will be responsible for cross auditing other areas of the force. 1.3 Staff associations will be responsible for representing staff interests during the audit process. 1.4 Force Health and Safety Advisers will lead the audit process and be responsible for notifying Areas/Departments of the dates of proposed audits. 2. Guidance 2.1 Audits will take place on an annual basis in Areas and main HQ Departments. The auditing team will typically consist of a Force Health and Safety Adviser, Area Health and Safety Adviser, Area Commander/Department Head, Staff Association/ Union representatives as appropriate. 2.2 The audit will be conducted by a member of the Force Health and Safety Unit and an Area Adviser from another Area other than that being audited. All audits will be conducted using the Force Audit Document and will be scored in accordance with the guidance to it (see Appendix 1). 2.3 The audit will include examining documentation and notice boards and questioning a number of staff locally about health and safety management issues. 2.4 Documents required for the audit date include:- H&S policy statement Local H&S management structure chart Minutes of previous 12 months H&S meetings Local accident and near miss reports Accident investigations Local risk assessments Display screen equipment assessments Fire risk assessments Manual handling risk assessments Lone worker risk assessments Example operational orders Inspection/tour documentation Accident/incident statistics H&S training documents (records/plans) H&S Plans June 09 3

4 2.5 Once all audits for HQ/Areas have been conducted and the Force Audit Document will be completed, scores will be given and recommendations for improvements will be outlined. The pass mark for the audit is 85 per cent and efforts should be made to achieve this pass mark. 2.6 A copy of the completed document will be made available to those involved in the audit process. 2.7 Each Area/HQ Department Head will be responsible for developing their own action plans to make any improvements necessary as identified by the audit process. 3. Procedure Aim 3.1 The Audit Procedure aims to introduce clear directives and methodology to ensure that health and safety audits are administered efficiently and effectively in compliance with the force health and safety policy. The Audit Procedure focuses on the management systems in place within force which are considered to be essential for a positive health and safety culture to be embedded. 4. Appeals 4.1 There is no specific appeals process to this procedure as the main reasons for this procedure is to set out the roles and responsibilities in relation to Health & Safety Audits. There will be a number of other associated procedures linked to this procedure which will set out the specific methods and processes to be used to ensure effective Health & Safety Managements and these will contain the necessary appeals processes 5. Review 5.1 This document will be reviewed within a three year period from the date of writing or in the event of :- Any circumstances likely to affect its effectiveness Any changes to legislation Any challenges to the procedure Any additional requirements becoming evident Any identified inefficiencies in relation to implementation Impact on diversity and equality (Low on the Race Diversity Impact Assessment Template) June 09 4

5 6. Appendices 6.1 Appendix 1 Blank Force Audit Guidance Document Audit Blank Guidance Document.xls June 09 5