Unit 33: M aintaining systems for health, safety, welfare and environmental protection in the workplace. 33 4 Health and safety inspection, monitoring and review It is a management responsibility to inspect, monitor and review the status of health and safety within the company and on site. The overall purpose of inspection, monitoring, review and audit is to gauge the effectiveness of the health and safety culture within an organisation. Inspection is the blunt instrument; the spot check or prearranged visit by a safety officer, union safety representative, or even a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector or fire officer. Monitoring is a more subtle process, sometimes conducted over a length of time and used to measure the effectiveness of the system. Reviewing a system involves staying abreast of new developments and ensuring that existing systems do not become obsolete. Links This topic guide links to: HNC in Manufacturing Engineering Unit 6: LO1 and LO4; NVQ Unit 33: LO2, LO3 and LO7. This topic guide will cover: inspection monitoring review audit. 1
Key term Sampling it may be impracticable to inspect an entire area or every item in a delivery of materials. If this is the case, a sample can be inspected instead. This sample should be representative and, as far as possible, random. For some inspections, for example electrical installation testing, there are guidelines for the size of the sample to be inspected. 1 Inspection Inspections can be carried out at any time. It is preferable for an organisation to draw up a programme of inspections, as well as conducting spot checks. These inspections should not be seen as an opportunity to berate staff on poor health and safety practice or a chance to catch people out. The purpose is to maintain and improve the health, safety and welfare of a workplace. The frequency of inspections will depend on the type of workplace. A construction site will require more frequent inspection than an office or library for example, simply because it is by its very nature a particularly hazardous environment. There are different types of health and safety inspection. These are outlined below. General inspections of the workplace often conducted by a safety officer or by a representative from a health and safety organisation such as HSE or the fire service. This is a look at the workplace itself, and seeks to identify any hazards present. Examples of items are: obvious hazards such as unsafe stacking of materials personal protective equipment (PPE) use and condition presence of safety notices enforcement of restrictions, e.g. no entry to person unless they wear the appropriate PPE tripping hazards and general housekeeping compliance with specific regulations and guidelines emergency exits (which should be kept clear). General inspections of particular dangerous activities, processes or areas these are the same as any other general inspection, except that they are focused on the hazards present in the area under inspection, for example the safety of a trench or scaffold. Sampling often used for a dangerous activity or process. It can also be carried out in a hazardous area. This type of inspection involves a check of a particular area or part of the process. This can be a systematic process, organised so that the entire area or process is inspected over time. Incident inspections these are carried out by the HSE, sometimes in conjunction with the police, following a workplace accident that results in a hazardous occurrence or malfunction, an injury or death, and when there are incidences of severe, work-related ill health. Planning a health and safety inspection An inspection needs to be planned, both in relation to when it is to take place and how it will be conducted. Both of these are of equal importance. A spot check might take place at short notice and be carried out for a specific reason, but for a more routine inspection a checklist should be drawn up. If it is a planned visit, the relevant people should be informed that an inspection is due. It may also be appropriate to work with the union safety representative. It may be necessary to bring in a specialist for certain areas or work processes. These specialists can either be external experts or people from within the organisation. 2
Inspection follow-up An inspection is of little use if there is no follow-up. This is usually in the form of a report. This report should highlight good practice as well as any problems. The report should also recommend corrective actions and appoint a responsible person to carry them out within an agreed timescale. If there are issues to be rectified, then a return inspection will need to be arranged. Portfolio activity (7.1) Working with the site safety officer and safety representative, carry out a full health and safety inspection on a site your company is working on, or part of their premises, e.g. a workshop or material stores and yard. The inspection must be valid. Any issues raised must be dealt with as part of an improvement plan. It is important to arrange the visit through the proper channels within your company. Prepare a checklist and, if necessary, arrange for specialists to accompany you when inspecting work processes that are out of your own area of expertise. Set up a meeting with the fire warden, safety officer and local safety representative. Ask to see one or more work processes being carried out, for example ladder erection. Write a report including any actions, who is responsible for them, and deadlines. Follow up on these and record what actions are actually taken to rectify the situation. Portfolio activity (7.2, 7.3) Based on your experience and on research, write a five-point guide to organising and carrying out safety, welfare and environmental inspections within your company and on its sites. Make the guide practical, informative and easy to use so that it could be employed as part of the company training or as general work process information. Subjects to cover include: the need for regular inspection a brief explanation of health, safety and environmental protection a summary of the main statutory regulations that apply to the work carried out by your organisation a health and safety organisational chart for your organisation the area to be covered by an inspection. Portfolio activity (7.2, 7.3) Write an inspection checklist make this specific to your organisation and produce a template which can be photocopied and used for future inspections. Portfolio activity (5.1, 7.1 7.3) Carry out an audit of the electrical equipment used by your organisation (or part of your organisation). Check: 1 that equipment has been tested 2 that each item displays an inspection and test label, and that the equipment is within its test date 3 whether the item (as defined by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Code of Practice for In-service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment) is: portable hand-held movable stationery. 3
Portfolio activity (5.1) 1 Investigate your organisation s maintenance periods and reports for: PPE tools and equipment protective clothing firefighting equipment storage and security of materials and equipment first-aid facilities and arrangements. 2 Familiarise yourself with the main requirements of: the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) the IET Code of Practice for In-service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment (Fourth Edition) other regulations or Codes of Practice relevant to the equipment used by your organisation. 3 Investigate how your organisation fulfils the requirements of the relevant regulations and Codes of Practice. Is there a formal procedure? Are records held? What is the procedure for issuing PPE and checking that everyone in the organisation has the PPE they need? Does it meet both organisational and statutory requirements? 4 Pick a selection of equipment and PPE items. Carry out an audit on their control and maintenance by tracing them through organisational records. 5 If there is no formal procedure, draft a proposal for one. Base it on organisational and regulatory requirements. What are the recommended maintenance and replacement periods? How can issue and inspection be planned and controlled? 2 Monitoring Monitoring is different from inspection. Monitoring means measuring health and safety practice and policy against an organisation s own health and safety plans and standards. The main purpose of monitoring is to make sure that health and safety are being effectively managed. Monitoring can be made up of many activities, including: workplace inspections general inspection of health and safety equipment and the conditions of the workplace or site. Are there obvious hazards present? Is housekeeping effective in reducing the risk? watching how people work observing normal practice to assess whether it is safe. Are the staff wearing the correct PPE? Is equipment being used correctly and is it in a safe condition and fit for purpose? Is it being tested regularly and are there any records for these tests? Are work processes being carried out in a safe manner and are there any points where they could be changed? training records check training records to make sure staff have received the appropriate training and also to gauge whether extra training is needed. Is the training that has been carried out effective? welfare particularly sickness. What are the sickness rates, how much time is being lost and what type of sickness is occurring? Could the cause be related to work activity? 4
staff surveys this can be a formal survey or informal conversations and meetings with staff. The people carrying out the work are often the best people to ask about the work processes, equipment and safety. The HSE advises managers to follow the advice outlined below when monitoring health and safety. Lead by example. Check that work is properly planned and significant health risks are assessed. Take fair action to deal with immediate risks. Understand how and why health risks are not properly controlled, to create a situation where operatives are safe as well as productive. Make sure that operatives do not ignore poor practice. Remember, staff will not circumvent health and safety procedures for the sake of it. It can often be because they do not see the point of heavy-handed policies. Also, they may be under pressure to complete jobs within tight timescales and do not feel they have time for the niceties of what they see as health and safety pedantry. It is important that monitoring is carried out frequently enough to be effective but not so frequently it disrupts the workforce and wastes time and resources. Monitoring should not be carried out simply for the sake of it; there should be an effective use of the data to bring about improvement to the health and safety of the company and site. Findings should form the basis of changes to policy and these changes must be implemented in a controlled manner. Setting SMART targets Targets help structure changes and the development of a health and safety management system, and also provide a motivation to implement actions. Targets should be SMART. This is what that means in practice. Specific avoid woolly targets such as Improve the health and safety of ladder use. A better one would be Make sure all staff are trained in correct ladder use. Measurable leading on from specific, targets can be measured, for example our ladder target s measurement would be All staff trained in correct ladder use. Appropriate a target must have a purpose. It must be directly related to the work and to the staff involved in that work. Realistic what you would like to achieve must be achievable. If it is too big a task to train every member of staff on ladder use, then only include those who will actually use the ladder in your target. Timed a target is of little use if it is open-ended. There must be a completion date which acts as a motivation for the target to be met. Again, this should be realistic. An example of a SMART target is on the next page. 5
Problem Staff are not attending half-day first-aid sessions provided by the company. There is always an excuse that there is too much work to do or timescales are tight on a particular job. Overall objective To get all staff to attend a basic annual half-day first-aid training session. SMART objective To draw up a rota, by 10 November, for staff to attend a first-aid training session and for cover to be provided. Specific: one definite task is to be carried out. Measurable: the rota is the finished product; therefore the objective is complete when the rota is drawn up. Appropriate: the task will produce a definite timetable for attendance and for cover, which will eliminate the excuses about having to get work completed, etc. Realistic: the rota is achievable and provides a tool for ensuring the overall objective is met. Timed: the objective has been given a deadline. Case study: Faulty pipe On 11 May 2004, an explosion and subsequent fire completely destroyed a plastics factory in Glasgow. Nine workers were killed and several others injured. The cause of the accident was found to be a buried LPG pipe. The pipe was old, not installed according to correct procedure and, as a result, poorly protected from detrimental external influences. Corrosion caused the pipe to fail. An inquiry found that the company had not inspected the pipe on a regular basis. If they had done so they would have revealed the problem and replaced the faulty part. The accident was put down to poor maintenance. How would a health and safety monitoring scheme have helped prevent this accident? Portfolio activity (2.2, 7.2, 7.3) 1 Select two areas, one relating to welfare and the other to environmental protection, with regard to your company. Decide on a period of time over which to carry out the monitoring exercise. 2 Observe work processes, for example look at sick records and see if there is a correlation between these and any work-related activities. Take noise measurements in the work area. How could exposure be minimised? 3 Write a report on your findings. In particular, discuss ways in which the welfare and environmental protection areas of your company could be improved. Include a proforma in the document on which your recommended improvements and the targets, responsibilities and actions taken can be recorded. 4 Follow up on your recommendations and reissue the report, this time including the improvements made. 6
3 Review If left alone, a health and safety management system will become obsolete and even deteriorate into a system of the way we ve always done things here. The building services engineering industry is constantly changing and this means that new equipment, materials and tools bring changes to working practices and, at the same time, new hazards. For example, renewable technologies, which are changing the way installations are powered and heated, sometimes feature brand new technologies, or a new slant on existing technologies. Case study: Nanotechnology One new development that could have implications for the building services engineering industry is nanotechnology. Difficult to define exactly, nanotechnology is essentially the application of man-made materials of microscopic dimensions. The HSE defines an item of nanotechnology as an artificial object that is no more than 0.1 mm at its largest dimension. The implication for the user is that this material can enter the body by being inhaled, even directly through the skin. There are currently no specific health and safety regulations governing the production and use of nanotechnology. As a result, the HSE has carried out a review of current regulations to assess whether it is sufficient to provide guidelines for its safe use. An example of this is COSHH, which does include a section on nanotechnology use and handling. Portfolio activity (7.1) Read the HSE review of nanotechnology at www.hse.gov.uk/nanotechnology/regulatoryreview.pdf 1 Do you agree with its conclusions? 2 Research the various guidelines and Codes of Practice covering this technology. Review is an ongoing process. An organisation needs to comply with existing legislation and regulatory requirements. To do this there must be an awareness of any changes to these. Placing health and safety on the agenda of regular organisational and site meetings is an effective method for triggering reviews of its effectiveness. It is not always the whole health and safety management system that is reviewed but parts of it. For example, all risk assessments must include a review date, which means that these will be regularly reviewed and updated as appropriate. Reviews are often carried out in the wake of a health and safety related incident, either as an internal process or, in the case of a serious accident, by an independent body such as the HSE. Although there may be a legal obligation to apportion blame, there is equally a need to change and improve processes and procedures to ensure the incident is not repeated. 7
4 Audit Just as an organisation s financial and management systems must be regularly audited, so should its health and safety management system. The HSE guide, HSG65 Successful health and safety management, lists three items to be addressed by a health and safety management system audit, to ensure that: appropriate management arrangements are in place adequate risk control systems exist, are implemented, and are consistent with the hazard profile of the organisation appropriate workplace precautions are in place. Information gathering Ideally, all those involved directly with managing the health and safety system should be involved in the review from the head of the organisation to the local safety representative. The essence of a review is to collect as much information about the management system as possible. The main sources are: interviews a range of individuals must be interviewed, from the top levels of the company to the employee on the shop floor ; interviews should be non-judgemental and focused on obtaining information documents health and safety documentation must be examined; this includes policies, problem-handling procedures, risk assessments and any incident reports. Any document trail following an incident or problem should be traced from its beginning to its resolution observation as with monitoring, actual work practices should be observed and any non-compliance or examples of outdated or inadequate practices noted. Portfolio activity (2.1, 2.2) Working with an experienced health and safety person, arrange to carry out a review of the health and safety arrangements where building services engineering work is being carried out. 1 Identify documentation, regulatory and other information required for the review. 2 Have there been any health and safety related incidents? 3 Interview people, including those with direct health and safety responsibilities and employees working on the shop floor. 4 Formulate a report of your findings and report back at a regular management meeting. 5 Include any problems found and proposed improvements. Portfolio activity (2.3) Following on from the activity above, formulate a plan to address the issues identified and put the plan into action. 1 Translate the corrective action into a series of tasks. These must be SMART. 2 If necessary, arrange and chair a meeting of the relevant people to set these objectives. 3 Once the improvements have been put in place, carry out a further review to measure the effectiveness of the measures. 4 Add an account of this process to your original report. 8
Checklist At the end of this topic guide you should be familiar with: inspection organising and undertaking monitoring purpose, principles and setting objectives setting SMART objectives reviewing and auditing health and safety. Further reading and resources Health and safety inspections: A TUC guide: www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/ insbooklet30auglowres.pdf How to carry out a safety inspection: www.workplacesafetyadvice.co.uk/carry-out-safetyinspection.html What to expect when a health and safety inspector calls: www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/hsc14.pdf Monitor health and safety: www.hse.gov.uk/leadership/monitor.htm Acknowledgements The publisher would like to thank the following for their kind permission to reproduce their photographs: DK Images: Paul Harris (1) All other images Pearson Education Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders and we apologise in advance for any unintentional omissions. We would be pleased to insert the appropriate acknowledgement in any subsequent edition of this publication. 9