topic guide 16.7 health and safety inspection, monitoring ...-monitoring-and-review.pdf · 3 unit...

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Unit 16: Managing health and safety in the building services engineering work location

It is a management responsibility to inspect, monitor and review the status of health and safety within the company and on site. The overall purpose of inspection, monitoring and review is to gauge the effectiveness of the health and safety culture within an organisation.

Inspection is the blunt instrument; the spot check or prearranged visit by a safety officer, union safety representative, or even a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector or fire officer.

Monitoring is a more subtle process, sometimes conducted over a length of time and used to measure the effectiveness of the system.

Reviewing a system involves staying abreast of new developments and ensuring that existing systems do not become obsolete.

This topic guide will cover: planning and carrying out health and safety inspections of both

equipment and health and safety systems planning and carrying out health and safety monitoring, and setting

objectives reviewing health and safety management systems.

LinksThis topic guide links to HNC in Building Services Engineering Unit 6: LO4; NVQ Unit 16: LO35.

Health and safety inspection, monitoring and review16.7

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16.7: Health and safety inspection, monitoring and review

1 InspectionInspections can be carried out at any time. It is preferable for an organisation to draw up a programme of inspections, as well as conducting spot checks. These inspections should not be seen as an opportunity to berate staff on poor health and safety practice or a chance to catch people out. The purpose is to maintain and improve the health, safety and welfare of a workplace. The frequency of inspections will depend on the type of workplace. A construction site will require more frequent inspection than an office or library, for example, simply because it is by its very nature a particularly hazardous environment.

There are different types of health and safety inspection. These are outlined below. General inspections of the workplace often conducted by a safety officer

or by a representative from a health and safety organisation such as HSE or the fire service. This is a look at the workplace itself, and seeks to identify any hazards present. Examples are:

obvious hazards such as unsafe stacking of materials personal protective equipment (PPE) use and condition presence of safety notices enforcement of restrictions, e.g. no entry to person unless they wear the

appropriate PPE tripping hazards and general housekeeping compliance with specific regulations and guidelines emergency exits (which should be kept clear).

General inspections of particular dangerous activities, processes or areas these are the same as any other general inspection, except that they are focused on the hazards present in the area under inspection, for example the safety of a trench or scaffold.

Sampling often used for a dangerous activity or process. It can also be carried out in a hazardous area. This type of inspection involves a check of a particular area or part of the process. This can be a systematic process, organised so that the entire area or process is inspected over time.

Incident inspections these are carried out by the HSE, sometimes in conjunction with the police, following a workplace accident that results in a hazardous occurrence or malfunction, an injury or death, and when there are incidences of severe, work-related ill health.

ActivityDecide on the sampling percentage for a health and safety inspection carried out on a major construction site. What items can be sampled, and what items cannot?

Planning a health and safety inspectionAn inspection needs to be planned, both in relation to when it is to take place and how it will be conducted. Both of these are of equal importance. A spot check might take place at short notice and be carried out for a specific reason, but for a more routine inspection a checklist should be drawn up. If it is a planned visit, the relevant people should be informed that an inspection is due. It may also be appropriate to work with the union safety representative.

Key termSampling it may be impracticable to inspect an entire area or every item in a delivery of materials. If this is the case, a sample can be inspected instead. This sample should be representative and, as far as possible, random. For some inspections, for example electrical installation testing, there are guidelines for the size of the sample to be inspected.

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It may be necessary to bring in a specialist for certain areas or work processes. These specialists can either be external experts or people from within the organisation.

Inspection follow-upAn inspection is of little use if there is no follow-up. This is usually in the form of a report, which should highlight good practice as well as any problems. The report should also recommend corrective actions and appoint a responsible person to carry them out within an agreed timescale. If there are issues to be rectified, then a return inspection will need to be arranged.

2 MonitoringMonitoring is different from inspection. Monitoring means measuring health and safety practice and policy against an organisations own health and safety plans and standards. The main purpose of monitoring is to make sure that health and safety are being effectively managed. Monitoring can be made up of many activities, including:

site inspections general inspection of health and safety equipment and the conditions of the workplace or site. Are there obvious hazards present? Is housekeeping effective in reducing the risk?

watching how people work on site observing normal practice to assess whether it is safe. Are the staff wearing the correct PPE? Is equipment being used correctly and is it in a safe condition and fit for purpose? Is it being tested regularly and are there any records for these tests? Are work processes being carried out in a safe manner and are there any points where they could be changed?

training records check training records to make sure staff have received the appropriate training and also to gauge whether extra training is needed. Is the training that has been carried out effective?

welfare particularly sickness. What are the sickness rates, how much time is being lost and what type of sickness is occurring? Could the cause be related to work activity?

staff surveys this can be a formal survey or informal conversations and meetings with staff. The people carrying out the work are often the best people to ask about the work processes, equipment and safety.

The HSE advises managers to follow the advice outlined below when monitoring health and safety.

Lead by example. Check that work is properly planned and significant health risks are assessed. Take fair action to deal with immediate risks. Understand how and why health risks are not properly controlled, to create a

situation where operatives are safe as well as productive. Make sure that operatives do not ignore poor practice.

Remember, staff will not circumvent health and safety procedures for the sake of it. It can often be because they do not see the point of heavy-handed policies. Also, they may be under pressure to complete jobs within tight timescales and do not feel they have time for the niceties of what they see as health and safety pedantry.

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It is important that monitoring is carried out frequently enough to be effective but not so frequently it disrupts the workforce and wastes time and resources. Monitoring should not be carried out simply for the sake of it; there should be an effective use of the data to bring about improvement to the health and safety of the company and site. Findings should form the basis of changes to policy and these changes must be implemented in a controlled manner.

Setting SMART targetsTargets help structure changes and the development of a health and safety management system, and also provide a motivation to implement actions. Targets should be SMART. This is what that means in practice.

Specific avoid woolly targets such as Improve the health and safety of ladder use. A better one would be Make sure all staff are trained in correct ladder use.

Measurable leading on from specific, targets can be measured, for example our ladder targets measurement would be All staff trained in correct ladder use.

Appropriate a target must have a purpose. It must be directly related to the work and to the staff involved in that work.

Realistic what you would like to achieve must be achievable. If it is too big a task to train every member of staff on ladder use, then only include those who will actually use the ladder in your target.

Timed a target is of little use if it is open-ended. There must be a completion date which acts as a motivation for the target to be met. Again, this should be realistic.

Below is an example of a SMART target.

Problem

Staff are not attending half-day first-aid sessions provided by the company. There is always an excuse that there is too much work to do or timescales are tight on a particular job.

Overall objective

To get all staff to attend a basic annual half-day first-aid training session.

SMART objective

To draw up a rota, by 10 November, for staff to attend a first-aid training session and for cover to be provided.

Specific: one definite task is to be carried out. Measurable: the rota is the finished product; therefore the objective is

complete when the rota is drawn up. Appropriate: the task will produce a definite timetable for attendance

and for cover, which will eliminate the excuses about having to get work completed, etc.

Realistic: the rota is achievable and provides a tool for ensuring the overall objective is met.

Timed: the objective has been given a deadline.

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Portfolio activity (3.13.4)1 You are going to organise a monitoring programme for welfare and environmental protection

for your company. Decide on a period of time over which to carry out the monitoring exercise.2 Observe work processes, for example look at sick records and see if there is a correlation

between these and any work-related activities. Take noise measurements in the work area. How could exposure be minimised?

3 Monitor the use of access equipment, with particular regard to compliance with regulatory requirements and the manufacturers instructions.

4 Are there any special site conditions?

Portfolio activity (5.1, 5.2)1 Write a report on your findings; in particular, discuss ways in which the welfare and

environmental protection area of your company could be improved. Include a proforma in the document on which your recommended improvements and the targets, responsibilities and actions taken can be recorded.

2 Follow up on your recommendations and reissue the report, this time including the improvements made.

3 ReviewIf left alone, a health and safety management system will become obsolete and even deteriorate into a system of the way we have always done things here. The building services engineering industry is constantly changing and this means that new equipment, materials and tools bring changes to working practices and, at the same time, new hazards. For example, renewable technologies, which are changing the way installations are powered and heated, sometimes feature brand new technologies, or a new slant on existing technologies.

Case study: NanotechnologyOne new development that could have implications for the building services engineering industry is nanotechnology. Difficult to define exactly, nanotechnology is essentially the application of man-made materials of microscopic dimensions. The HSE defines an item of nanotechnology as an artificial object that is no more than 0.1 mm at its largest dimension.

The implication for the user is that this material can enter the body by being inhaled, even directly through the skin.

There are currently no specific health and safety regulations governing the production and use of nanotechnology. As a result, the HSE has carried out a review of current regulations to assess whether it is sufficient to provide guidelines for its safe use. An example of this is COSHH, which does include a section on nanotechnology use and handling.

Portfolio activity (4.2, 4.3) Read the HSE review of nanotechnology at www.hse.gov.uk/nanotechnology/regulatoryreview.pdf1 Do you agree with its conclusions?2 Research the various guidelines and Codes of Practice covering this technology.

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Review is an ongoing process. An organisation needs to comply with existing legislation and regulatory requirements. To do this there must be an awareness of any changes to these. Placing health and safety on the agenda of regular organisational and site meetings is an effective method for triggering reviews of its effectiveness.

It is not always the whole health and safety management system that is reviewed but parts of it. For example, all risk assessments must include a review date, which means that these will be regularly reviewed and updated as appropriate.

Reviews are often carried out in the wake of a health and safety related incident, either as an internal process or, in the case of a serious accident, by an independent body such as the HSE. Although there may be a legal obligation to apportion blame, there is equally a need to change and improve processes and procedures to ensure the incident is not repeated.

AuditJust as an organisations financial and management systems must be regularly audited, so should its health and safety management system. The HSE guide, HSG65 Successful health and safety management, lists three items to be addressed by a health and safety management system audit, to ensure that:

appropriate management arrangements are in place adequate risk control systems exist, are implemented, and are consistent with

the hazard profile of the organisation appropriate workplace precautions are in place.

Information gatheringIdeally, all those involved directly with managing the health and safety system should be involved in the review from the head of the organisation to the local safety representative. The essence of a review is to collect as much information about the management system as possible. The main sources are:

interviews a range of individuals must be interviewed, from the top levels of the company to the employee on the shop floor; interviews should be non-judgemental and focused on obtaining information

documents health and safety documentation must be examined; this includes policies, problem-handling procedures, risk assessments and any incident reports. Any document trail following an incident or problem should be traced from its beginning to its resolution

observation as with monitoring, actual work practices should be observed and any non-compliance or examples of outdated or inadequate practices noted.

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Portfolio activity (4.14.5)Working with an experienced health and safety person, arrange to carry out a review of the health and safety arrangements on site where building services engineering work is being carried out.1 Identify documentation, regulatory and other information required for the review.2 Have there been any health and safety related incidents on the site?3 Interview people working on the site, including those with direct health and safety

responsibilities and employees working on the shop floor.4 Formulate a report of your findings and report back at a regular management meeting.5 Include any problems found and proposed improvements.

Portfolio activity (5.1, 5.2)Following on from the activity above, formulate a plan to address the issues identified and put the plan into action.1 Translate the corrective action into a series of tasks. These must be SMART.2 If necessary, arrange and chair a meeting of the relevant people to set these objectives.3 Once the improvements have been put in place, carry out a further review to measure the

effectiveness of the measures.4 Add an account of this process to your original report.

Checklist At the end of this topic guide you should be familiar with: the need for inspection and monitoring how to plan and carry out an inspection how to plan and carry out a monitoring exercise what should be covered by an inspection and by monitoring setting SMART objectives reviewing health and safety management systems.

Further reading and resourcesHealth and safety inspections: A TUC guide: www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/insbooklet30auglowres.pdf

How to carry out a safety inspection: www.workplacesafetyadvice.co.uk/carry-out-safety-inspection.html

What to expect when a health and safety inspector calls: www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/hsc14.pdf

Monitor health and safety: www.hse.gov.uk/leadership/monitor.htm

AcknowledgementsThe publisher would like to thank the following for their kind permission to reproduce their photographs:

Fotolia.com: markim (1).

All other images Pearson Education

Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders and we apologise in advance for any unintentional omissions. We would be pleased to insert the appropriate acknowledgement in any subsequent edition of this publication.

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About the authorTerry Grimwood is a lecturer and assessor in electrical installation at Oaklands College, St Albans. He has experience in various aspects of the building engineering services industry, including electrical installation, (both on the shop floor and in a supervisory role), project management, quality assurance and technical writing. Terry is the co-author of Pearsons Level 2/3 Diploma in Electrical Installations (Buildings and Structures) resources and a contributor to their two-volume PEO engineering set. He has an MA in technical communication and is also author of three published novels, three plays and numerous short stories.

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