Unit 27 – Understanding Health and safety in the Business Workplace
P1/M1–
All work places need to ensure the health and safety of their employees, customers and any persons who will be entering the premises of a business.
Businesses have a legal obligation to do so therefore Legal requirements have to be met and guidelines to be followed such as COSHH, RIDDOR, COMAH and other safety factors have to be followed.
Legislations such as the Health and Safety Act 1974 ensured that all employers would have certain duties they must perform toward their employees and customers and what duties employees would have with other employees and customers, This act did not state that employers would have to take action in reducing any risks in the work place if it impossible or that the time, cost or trouble involved outweighed the risk. This Act just ensures businesses have good management and tackle any risks that occur in a sensible manner, unlike the next legislation.
The Health and Safety at work Act 1999 ensure business follow guidelines implemented by the law. It gives more explicit instructions on what employers and employees must do within with workplace to keep it a healthy and safe environment. This Act states that A business or employer must do everything they can to reduce the Risk of any injury to an employee.
If they do not only could they face legal action against an employee or customer they could face criminal legal action against the court for failing to follow the Health and Safety act Legislation, Due to this legislation companies must conduct and complete actions such as Risk assessments and have regular safety inspections.
All employees or an appointed team in a business will carry out a Risk assessment to ensure that a workplace is at its safest to reduce risk, regular risk assessments are conducted to identify risks and find the best way to reduce the risk or avoid the risk if they can, all employees will then go through a risk assessment to ensure all staff know what risks there are is proper precautions are not taken.
COSHH – Control of substances hazardous to health.
If these guidelines are not followed then serious injury could be cause to an occupant in the workplace, many places may contain hazardous substances that can cause serious injury to the body if not properly controlled. Breaking these guidelines could cause guidelines in both RIDDOR and COMAH to be broken as well.
RIDDOR – Reporting of injury, disease or dangerous occurrences.
Any incident in the workplace should be reported to the correct persons, if not injury could be caused or guidelines within COSHH or COMAH could be broken. Within most workplaces there will be appointed persons to deal with each situation (i.e. Cleaners with the appropriate cleaning equipments and clothing to clean up any substances that could harm other employees or themselves.) therefore any incident that may happen should be reported to them.
COMAH – Control of major accident hazards.
Occasionally there will be an incident within a workplace that will cause injury, COMAH are guidelines to be followed to control the outcome of the incident and reduces the risk of causing more injury (i.e. Fire Alarms and Exits are in place to get all employees and persons out of the building as quickly but safely as possible so there is minimal injury to any occupants in the building.).
If all guidelines are followed then the chances or injury are risk are highly reduces in the work place making it a much safer environment for all occupants.
On top of these guidelines there are also Laws that must be followed, each type of workplaces will be obligated to follow different rule sets, for example there will be different laws for a factory based environment than there would be to a small office environment.
P2 –
In a workplace with a physical environment there are many factors to think about, what could cause potential injury or harm to employees or customers.
I work in Lidl warehouse, in which there are lots of aspects to think about to avoid injury to the employees, there is a constant risk of injury due to the type of work.
In the warehouse there is the use of forklift trucks by all personnel and constant lifting of objects by staff and other members who are walking around the warehouse doing other jobs.
When starting at the warehouse all staff are given training on all machinery in the warehouse even if they will not be using it on a regular basis, once training is given they pass the course they are then able to continue with the job, all safety signs are gone through so all members of staff know what each sign means and can safely operate around these signs, they are also taught the correct way to pick up heavy items to ensure they do not injure themselves while working.
While driving around the warehouse right of way is always given to pedestrians walking around to ensure no injury is cause to anyone who may be walking around the warehouse and they also have designated areas to walk in and doors pedestrians bust use to ensure they do not get injured by moving trucks coming though bay doors.
While working there are certain items needing to be picked up that contain gases or hazardous substances which are indicated with certain stickers, different substances may be labelled with different signs depending on how hazardous the substance is or the type or substance. To sure who ever unpacks these substances knows extra stickers are placed on the pallet so they know there is a hazardous substance.

While forklifts drive around they must obtain pallets of items from shelves which are stacked quite high, to ensure there is no injury if an accident was to occur all other drivers and pedestrians do not get caught in the accident they must stay at least 15ft away from any forklift performing the operation. This way the risk of injury is reduced substantially.
No use to mobile devices or music devices are allowed in the warehouse to ensure concentration is high and each employee has awareness of what is happening around them. No music is to be listened to so they can hear what is going on around them (i.e. someone calling for help, fire alarm.)
P3/M2–
In each work place there will be designated staff that will carry our risk assessments on a work place, have meeting on how they could improve on the health and safety and come up with new ideas.
Their roles are to go around the warehouse on a weekly basis and go though any reports on injuries that have happened in the work place or anything that may have cause for concern and find the best way to manage the situation and find a new policy to help avoid the same thing in the future, every so often they will go around and fill out a risk assessment form, they will identify what could cause risk, how high the risk is and what they can do to avoid the risk, they may even remove the risk all together if they can, not all risks can be removed but can be avoided with the appropriate precautions.
In detail each member of health and safety personnel will create a risk assessment, go over basic health and safety implications such as posters and correct signs for the risk of the job to prevent injury, following that they will undergo a risk assessment assessing all aspects of the workplace ensuring it is safe and healthy for employees, they will also need to ensure that they have sufficient number of first aiders too help with any injuries that may occur in the workplace, and prevent any minor injury becoming a major injury or fatal injury. They’re responsible for all employees’ safety at work. This is a lot of responsibly and are being relied on my employers and their colleges to keep themselves and the working environment safe.
They are responsible for ensuring the health and safety of all staff and visitors in the work place, they need to make sure that all safety equipment is working and functional (i.e. Fire alarm and extinguishers are working. Fire doors are working). They need to make sure all books are kept up to date and laws are being followed as well as health and safety guidelines so they can ensure everyone is safe, this will also make the employees feel safer knowing they are being kept safe.

P4 – Plan a Risk Assessment. Risk Assessment Sheet – | | Assessor’s Name: | Date: | | Are health and safety posters displayed? | Yes/No | Training provided to new employees? | Yes/No | Health and safety talks given? | Yes/No | | Risk | Chance of injury
H – High, M- Medium, L - Low | Who may be harmed | Ways of preventing | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |