Both employers and employees have a legal responsibility for ensuring health and safety in the workplace.

As an employer you have a duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of your employees and other people who might be affected by what you do. You must also keep your employees informed of current health and safety issues. The law states that you must do whatever is reasonably practicable to achieve this.

As an employee you have a responsibility to look after yourself and to follow health and safety guidelines at all times.

A Safety Management System provides a framework for meeting these duties. It documents all standard practices and procedures to promote and maintain safety and clearly defines the responsibilities of staff for implementing them. The five key elements of an effective safety management system are:

Clear policies – your rule book
Effective organisation – allocation of responsibilities and training
Systematic planning – risk control arrangements
Performance measures – how are you performing against your plan?
Audit and review – Keeping up to date and making improvements

The starting point of a robust system is a Health and Safety Policy Statement. Under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and subsequent regulations, it is a legal requirement that firms with five or more employees must:

have a written health & safety policy
record risk assessments and implement controls.

We believe it is good practice for companies with less than five employees to do the same.

We can provide comprehensive audits, documented individual health and safety policies and procedures, personalised employee handbooks and risk assessments at highly competitive rates.