I need a health and safety plan – Where do I start? 

It’s probably not at the top of your ‘must-do’ list; but when it comes to the workplace, having a health and safety plan in place is vitally important so you can manage risks to protect your workers and your business. It’s also an essential area for every business to get right.

Do I need a health and safety plan?

While prioritising the health, safety and wellbeing of workers is a legal obligation for any organisation, it also makes good business sense. The cost of workplace injuries and illnesses to business is high; sick days slow down production, fines for poor health and safety processes cause financial damage and you can face compensation claims.

• £26.9 million = Fines resulting from prosecutions
• £10.0 million (up to) = Employers can face criminal proceedings and be fined by the HSE
• £7.6 billion = Annual costs of work-related injury in 2019/20
• 36.8 million = Working days lost due to work-related ill health and non-fatal workplace injury

That’s why planning is essential to achieving good health and safety performance and a strong safety culture.

Why do I need a plan?

At its simplest, the key aim of a health and safety plan is to reduce risk. The most important purpose is that it explains what your workplace does to keep people healthy and safe and your commitment to health and safety.

Here’s just a few reasons why you should have a health and safety plan for your business:

• Compliance – as a business you need to be compliant and provide a primary duty of care for the health and safety of workers. With a health and safety plan, you can show that you’ve followed your legal obligations and taken the right steps in creating a safer workplace.
• Reduce risks – Risk management in your plan helps you take the appropriate action needed to prevent workplace injuries or death. When you properly manage your health and safety risks, you protect your workers and avoid and mitigate losses.
• Keeps everyone safe – As a business, you’re responsible for the health and safety of everyone that enters your workplace, including visitors, volunteers and contractors. A health and safety plan reassures everyone that you’re prioritising their safety and if an incident were to occur, you’re fully prepared to take action.
• Helps you prepare – The reality is that incidents and accidents are inevitable. So, whenever an accident or incident does occur in the workplace, having a health and safety plan will allow you to act swiftly and respond with the correct procedures.
• Retain staff – Putting your workers’ health and safety as a priority creates a more productive workplace. A strong health and safety plan proves that you’re committed to keeping them safe and make them feel more valued, motivated and happier knowing they’re being looked after at work.

A health and safety plan is more than just a document. It’s core to how you manage all aspects of health and safety, and helps everybody understand how the workplace should operate.

Before you start to develop your plan, you need to be familiar with how your health and safety is currently performing. This can be achieved through an audit or review. Following the review, the information gathered can then help you determine your health and safety priorities over the next 12 months.

What should I include in a health and safety plan for my business?

Here are the main aspects to include:

• Specific goals and objectives you want to achieve
• Risk management and risk assessments
• Emergency procedures
• Roles and responsibilities
• Arrangements for health and safety
• Maintaining plant and equipment
• Safe handling and use of substances
• Information, instruction and supervision
• Worker/staff training
• Monitoring hazards and risks
• How you will measure and track performance

All employees should be made aware of your plan and policy, which should be subject to regular review and revision to reflect any accidents or injuries that have occurred, changes in the nature of work carried out, or any changes in legislation.

While your business can never guarantee the absolute safety of your workers it can do everything to ensure the very lowest risk, which begins with a strong health and safety plan.

Click here to read some frequently asked questions about health and safety.