New health and safety protocol launched

Health and Safety Services has launched a new protocol to help us to ensure that our health and safety practices live up to our policies.

It gives Deans and Heads of Service Group valuable information on their health and safety strengths, as well as flagging up areas where resources should be focused.  Health and Safety Managers will be supporting senior managers to implement the new protocol which draws on four key areas:

  • Inspection - Heads of School/ Service run checks of the 'on-the-ground' situation to which trade union representatives must be invited. These are closely linked to other types of inspection that can take place such as spot-checks, ad hoc inspections and specialist inspections.
  • Audit - Health and Safety Services carry out this detailed process to collect evidence of the effectiveness of local systems for managing health and safety risks. Audit helps each school or service to focus resources by gaining valuable information on their strengths and areas of greatest risk.
  • Health and Safety Review - Once a year Deans and Heads of Service Group, Heads of School/Service and Health and Safety Managers consider each school or service's current health and safety position against their objectives and plans. They complete the self assessment form to review progress on the key performance indicators and support future planning.
  • Benchmarking - Health and Safety Managers (or Co-ordinators) collect information to identify trends around accidents, near misses or incidents for discussion at Health and Safety Committees.

The monitoring results will provide accurate information for senior managers to see where their health and safety strengths lie, and identify areas which will require more resources.

Read more about the protocol.

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