Unit A6 Questions Ollie Flashcards
Q1
(a) Explain the objectives of:
(i) active health and safety monitoring; (5)
(ii) reactive health and safety monitoring. (4)
(b) Outline a range of active health and safety monitoring methods. (5)
(c) Outline examples of reactive performance data that could be used to benchmark health and safety
performance. (6)
(a) (i)Active / Proactive monitoring systems are to ensure that health and safety standards are correct in the workplace before accidents, incidents or incidents of ill-health occur.
(ii) Reactive Monitoring measures previous failure in performance, highlighting areas of concern and enabling an organisation to learn from mistakes.
(b)Active Monitoring includes:
• Physical inspection of work place to identify hazards and unsafe conditions
• Safety audits where the systematic critical examination of all aspects of an organisation’s H&S
performance against stated objectives is carried out.
• Safety sampling of a specific area or particular items of plant with repeated sampling to observe the
trends.
• Safety surveys involving in depth examinations of specific issues or procedures such as changes in
work procedures
• Safety climate survey results can be an excellent indicator of culture and survey can be designed and
tailored specifically to measure culture
• Measuring of environmental conditions such as dust levels in the workplace
(c)Reactive Monitoring includes:
• Accident rates, measuring the number of accidents over a certain time period
• Sickness reports which provides information about work related conditions and issues that affect health
• Near-miss and dangerous occurrence reports which provide details of events that point to root causes
common to accidents and point to failures in control measures.
• Measurement of Enforcement action which relate to specific breaches of the law and the need for the
improvements in health and safety
• Measurement of the number of civil claims made pointing to areas where improvement is necessary.
• Complaints from the workforce
An organisation is due to have an external certification audit of its health and safety management system against a recognised standard. The information from the audit will be used in a formal review of health and safety performance.
(a) Outline the purpose of health and safety management system auditing. (4)
(b) Describe the in-house safety practitioner’s role in this external audit. (6)
(c) Outline the purpose of a health and safety management performance review. (2)
(d)
(i) Outline possible inputs to the health and safety management performance review. (6)
(ii) Outline possible outputs from the health and safety management performance review. (2)
(a)The purpose of an audit is to
Identify areas of Legal non compliance
Assess the quality & implementation of the safety policy
Identify potential risks and associated control measures
Analyse workplace activities and assess if they are being carried out safely Test the reliability and effectiveness of procedures and systems
Assist in the allocation of resources
Assist in the continual improvement of H&S performance
(b)In house H&S practitioner’s role:
• To ensure that the external auditor has access to any documentation requested.
• Organise interviews with key staff
• Brief staff beforehand•
Relevant senior management is available for the kick off and close out meeting.
Advise auditor on activities taking place and control systems in use
(c) Purpose of review:
• To see whether the health and safety management system is working as intended
• Identify systems requiring change
• To keep employees at all levels motivated in order to improve health and safety performance.
(d) Inputs to review:
• Evaluation of compliance with legal and organisational requirements
• Any developments in legal requirements or best practice within the industry
• Communications from enforcing authorities and insurers
• Whether health and safety objectives have been met
• Whether actions from previous reviews have been completed.
• Any Changes in organisation or processes
• Audit, inspection results and implementation
• Output and Effectiveness of consultation and internal communications
• Incident data, recommendations and action plans from investigations
• Absences and sickness records and their analysis
• Complaints from neighbours, customers and the public.
(e) Outputs from review
• SMART actions to address any weaknesses and system to monitor implementation
• New performance targets
• Report to key stakeholders eg shareholders, employee groups
Health and safety performance objectives are being reviewed at an annual senior management meeting.
Outline what should be considered when setting health and safety performance objectives. (10)
Consideration should be given to
• Any legislative requirements that apply
• Company standards or priorities of the company/business
• Who should be involved in setting the objectives, and their level of knowledge and experience?
• Should they top down (Company to site) or bottom up (Site to Company)
• Any there any industry benchmarks?
• How will performance be measured?
• Over what timescales would they be set and reviewed – short term v’s long term
• Financial constraints on improvement measures
• Availability of trained personnel/requirements for further training
(a) Outline the purpose of health and safety management auditing. (4)
(b) Describe factors that should be considered when planning an audit programme. (12)
You do not need to consider specific factors to be audited.
(c) Outline how senior managers can assist in the auditing process. (4)
(a)The purpose of an audit is to
• Identify areas of Legal non compliance
• Assess the quality & implementation of the safety policy
• Identify potential risks and associated control measures
• Analyse workplace activities and assess if they are being carried out safely
• Test the reliability and effectiveness of procedures and systems
• Assist in the allocation of resources
• Assist in the continual improvement of H&S performance
(b)Factors to consider:
• Selection of the audit team and audit leader with the appropriate range of skills and competence;
• Definition of the extent / scope of audit – Will it cover entire H&S management system or just particular
aspects?
• Any specific activities/processes that need to be covered (possibly as a result of previous audit findings)
• Developing documentation – Audit protocol or questionnaires etc;
• Obtaining permission and support of management / staff in order to get the most out of the audit
• Allocation of resources; Agree timescales and timetable for audit
• Identification of key personnel for interview
• Arranging appointments for interviews with key personnel – (dates/times if possible)
• Establishing the best means of feedback – how will findings be reported – at end of audit and/or via
report/presentation
• What pre-audit information will be required/be useful – to build up knowledge about the organisation and
services before audit begins
(c)Senior managers can assist by:
• Informing staff and encouraging their cooperation
• Participating in the audit themselves
• Provide necessary resources are available such as documents, records, interview room
• Ensure relevant staff are available for interview
• For internal audits, the senior management may be involved in appointing the auditing team
• Provide necessary training required for audit team
• Ensuring that any actions from the audit are implemented in a timely manner
An organisation uses accident, incident and ill-health data to assess its health and safety performance. A campaign to raise health and safety awareness has been recently introduced. No change in health and safety performance has been noted.
(a) Outline why it appears that the campaign is ineffective. (4)
(b) Outline the objectives of active monitoring. (8)
(a) The ineffective campaign outcomes:
Lack of commitment and engagement from senior management
Lack of resources by the organisation and senior management
Lack of incident and accident reporting
Employee morale is low in the workplace
(b)Active Monitoring includes:
• Physical inspection of work place to identify hazards and unsafe conditions
• Safety audits where the systematic critical examination of all aspects of an organisation’s H&S
performance against stated objectives is carried out.
• Safety sampling of a specific area or particular items of plant with repeated sampling to observe the
trends.
• Safety surveys involving in depth examinations of specific issues or procedures such as changes in
work procedures
• Safety climate survey results can be an excellent indicator of culture and survey can be designed and
tailored specifically to measure culture
• Measuring of environmental conditions such as dust levels in the workplace
Outline how the following active monitoring techniques can be used to assess the organisation’s health and safety performance:
(i) safety tours; (2)
A safety tour is a brief (usually 15-20 minutes) walk around a work area, by the responsible manager (or sometimes management team, looking at one or more aspects of the work areas activities (for example: checking PTW compliance.).
The main purpose of a safety tour is to demonstrate management commitment to OHS.
(ii) safety sampling; (2)
Safety sampling is a technique performed in a workplace that is used to measure the potential for accidents. It can be performed by supervisors, workforce representatives or OHS personnel.
The defects that are spotted are noted and the total number of defects is added up to give an index of accident potential. You will appreciate that both trivial and major defects will register the same.
It is usually a timed activity over a nominated route and is repeated periodically to determine improvement or deterioration.
(v) Safety Surveys(2)
Involves a detailed investigation of a specific aspect of the workplace when, for example, an OHS inspection has shown a possible hazard that needs analysis.
(For example a perceived high level of noise in an area during an inspection, which needs detailed measurement and analysis.).
The purpose of the survey is to determine whether there is a hazardous situation.
iv) safety audits. (2)
The audit will generally start with a meeting between the audit team and the organisation management. This will confirm the scope of the audit, timings and feedback mechanisms. The audit team will then start to collect evidence on which to base its findings. This is usually done by:
Examination of documents and records. Interviewing personnel (a cross section). Observation of the activities and workplace conditions.
General Inspection.
This involves a walk around the workplace, often using an appropriate checklist, to identify poorly controlled hazards associated with the workplace itself, equipment, or activities being undertaken (for example poor housekeeping; inadequately guarded machinery; non-use of PPE; blocked fire exits; compliance with an OHS procedure or permit to work.
Benchmarking.
Health, Safety and Environmental Protection Benchmarking is a planned process by which an organisation compares its health and safety processes and performance with others to learn how to:
Reduce the incidence of injury and ill-health.
Improve environmental protection and sustainability measures.
Improve compliance with regulations.
Reduce health and safety-related costs.
Enhance Company reputation.
Benchmarking.
Health, Safety and Environmental Protection Benchmarking is a planned process by which an organisation compares its health and safety processes and performance with others to learn how to:
Reduce the incidence of injury and ill-health.
Improve environmental protection and sustainability measures. Improve compliance with regulations.
Reduce health and safety-related costs.
Enhance Company reputation.
Benefits of Benchmarking include:
Improved health and safety performance.
Reduced injury/ill health costs.
Reduced incident response costs.
Improved reputation (held in high regard by public and industry). Striving to be “best in class”
Lower insurance costs.
Avoid “reinventing the wheel” - learn from others, pick up on “best practices”.
Motivated workforce - increased productivity; less turnover of staff.
The senior managers at your workplace participate in formal annual reviews of health and safety performance as part of the health and safety management system.
Outline the types of information that should form the inputs to this review process. (10)
Inputs to review:
• Evaluation of compliance with legal and organisational requirements
• Any developments in legal requirements or best practice within the industry
• Communications from enforcing authorities and insurers
• Whether health and safety objectives have been met
• Whether actions from previous reviews have been completed.
• Any Changes in organisation or processes
• Audit, inspection results and implementation
• Output and Effectiveness of consultation and internal communications
• Incident data, recommendations and action plans from investigations
• Absences and sickness records and their analysis
• Complaints from neighbours, customers and the public.
(a) Outline the strengths of using accident rates as a measure of health and safety performance (3)
(b) Outline the weaknesses of using accident rates as a measure of health and safety performance (7)
(a) Strengths;
Measurable number with defined criteria, easy to plot a trend, benchmark data may be available, represents categories of loss events which have actually happened, and which are undesirable.
(b) Weaknesses:
Historic measure of performance / cannot predict future performance; measures previous not current safety measures effectiveness in the short term; subject to random fluctuations / number of accidents often too small to be used as reliable performance indicators; accidents may not be reported / recorded / disclosed; absence of accidents does not necessarily indicate that procedures are safe; does not measure actual or potential severity of accident; unable to identify high consequence, low probability risk; does not reflect chronic health issues; affected by propensity to take time off / morale; other near misses / minor accidents / incidents are not included; different definitions of ‘accident’ / different treatment of part-time workers / contractors may make data and / orcomparisons invalid.
An organisation employs 900 people at a warehousing and distribution site. The site manager has asked for a set of summary information to be provided each month for its executive meetings in order to monitor the overall health and safety performance of the site.
Outline the possible contents of that set of information. (10)
The information set should contain both reactive and active (proactive) data:
Reactive performance indicators include: numbers of accidents / ill-health / sickness absence / absenteeism / staff turnover / near-misses / numbers of RIDDOR reportables - accidents, ill-health and DOs; levels of litigation/ enforcement action - INs / PNs / PRs; civil claims; amount of property damage; responses to staff surveys / questionnaires – levels of (dis)satisfaction.
Data should be presented as raw totals and also as rates - LTA rate, frequency, incidence rates etc. Data should be presented to show patterns and trends over time etc.
Data should be provided as site totals and also per department / activity / shift; results of staff surveys / questionnaires - satisfaction levels;
Active performance indicators include: summary results of H&S audit data; numbers and outcomes of workplace inspections; numbers of actions outstanding; summary of behavioural observation / job safety (task) analysis outcomes; health surveillance data / records; results of atmospheric / environmental monitoring; - air; noise etc; competence levels - H&S training records / outcomes / feedback; efficiency / productivity improvements; tenders won where H&S standards / performance was a factor; level of maintenance carried out; improved image of company; budget / resources allocated; benchmarking data - comparisons with industry sector average etc; progress in meeting H&S targets; levels of hazard reporting; safety climate / survey results - better industrial relations - extent of liaison / co-operation between staff & managers
(+ example in each case)
