Information on Risk Assessments and Guidance on the Completion of KeeleSU General Risk Assessment Form

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1 SECTION 2 Keele University Students Union HEALTH & SAFETY MANUAL Information on Risk Assessments and Guidance on the Completion of KeeleSU General Risk Assessment Form General Statement KeeleSU accepts that some of its operations, unless properly controlled, create risks to employees and others, and will take all reasonably practicable measures to reduce these risks to an acceptable level. KeeleSU will take all reasonable steps to ensure that risk assessments are carried out which will detail the range of hazards associated with work operations, together with any remedial actions. Anyone who discovers a hazard during a work or work related operation, should report the hazard immediately to their line manager, KeeleSU Safety Advisor and Premises Manager at the earliest opportunity. Definition of Terms Many terms used have developed separate meanings, depending upon where, how and who uses them. To avoid confusion it is important to understand the meaning of certain words in the context of health & safety. Some terms used in this document are: Accident an unplanned, uncontrolled event that has led or could have led to injury to persons, damage to property or some other loss to KeeleSU. Hazard the potential of a situation, substance or activity to cause harm, including ill health and injury, damage to property, machinery, the environment, production losses or increased liabilities. Risk the likelihood that a specified undesired event will occur due to the realisation of a hazard by or during work activities or by the products and services created by those activities. Loss the outcome of that event, it may be measured in financial terms but often includes items impossible to evaluate as hard costs, i.e. death of employee that is a parent, severe disablement of individuals etc. Personal Protective Equipment all equipment (including clothing affording protection against the weather) which is intended to be worn or held by a person at work and which protects him or her against one or more risks to their health & safety. Examples of such at KeeleSU are earplugs, steel toe-capped footwear, gloves for protecting against glass/sharps etc, overalls etc.

2 What is a Rick Assessment? We actually assess risks every day of our lives probably without even realising! Even the simplest of tasks involve assessing the dangers of a particular course of action. Have you ever crossed a road? If so then you have probably done a mental risk assessment in order to decide when it is safe to cross. A Risk Assessment is an exercise that examines a particular operation or activity. It involves identifying the hazards present and evaluating the extent of the risks involved, taking into account whatever precautions are already being taken. A numerical value is calculated in order to put the level of risk into perspective. A good risk assessment should: correctly identify any significant risk that is reasonably foreseeable; identify what action needs to be taken and what the priorities should be; be appropriate for the type of activity; remain valid for a reasonable amount of time; Why should we carry out Risk Assessments? There are a number of reasons for carrying out risk assessments. Legal. Under the Management of Health & Safety at Work regulations 1999, KeeleSU as an organisation must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health & safety of its employees, and any other person who may be affected by its undertakings (visitors, students etc). KeeleSU must record the findings of its assessments and review them as necessary (such as if there are developments that suggest it is no longer valid or that it can be improved). Failure to fulfil our duty in carrying out risk assessments could result in heavy fines being imposed on us. Moral. Identifying and controlling hazards (and subsequently reducing risks) to an acceptable level is a way of looking after staff, students and visitors to our Union. Financial. It has been proven that suitable assessments of risks, coupled with the implementation of precautions to reduce such risks to health & safety, reduces accidents. Accidents cost money, in lost time, damage, increased insurance costs, sick pay, compensation Who should carry out the assessment? The best people to complete the risk assessments are the people that will be carrying out the activity, (together with departmental managers, supervisors, team leaders, most senior member of a society and so on). They know how the activity is to be done, what equipment will be needed, how the equipment is to be used and where the activity is to be carried out. They should therefore be best placed to identify the hazards and persons likely to be affected.

3 A generic risk assessment form has therefore been produced to assist in the recording of the assessments together with the findings. Department managers are responsible for ensuring appropriate risk assessments are completed for risks in there department. The WSA is there as an advisor. The Form Guidance on Completing it. There are various sections at the top of the form to fill in which are fairly straightforward: The date of the assessment; The department, area or society to which it relates; The name of the person carrying out the assessment; When the planned review date is (usually 6-12 months provided there is no change in any factors that could affect its outcome); The activity or event that is being assessed. The main body of the form comprises 7 columns: 1. STEP 1 Hazard. List one hazard in turn. If a number of hazards have been identified for a particular activity, assess each one in turn. A list of general hazards is supplied in appendix (I). 2. STEP 2 Person(s) Affected. List all persons in danger of being exposed to the particular hazard named in column 1. Who is at risk? It may not be just the persons carrying out the activity, it could be that there are likely to be passers by, other people working in the vicinity, cleaning and maintenance staff, customers that use the end product of a process. 3. STEP 3 Likelihood or Harm (1-3). When carrying out the activity, or being exposed to the hazard, how frequently or lengthy is the exposure? For instance, a person changing a light bulb would have quite a low exposure to hazard, but if that person were to spend the full day changing many light bulbs, then the exposure would be much higher. This is measured in a simple scale of 1-3, 1 being the lowest and 3 being the highest. 3 IMMINENT. HIGHLY LIKELY TO OCCUR. 2 PROBABLE. PROBABLY WILL OCCUR IN TIME. 1 REMOTE. UNLIKELY TO OCCUR. Consequence (1-3). Input a value that will accurately reflect the seriousness of the consequences should the hazard be realised, i.e. if someone was harmed by the particular hazard named how severe would it be? In the example above, did the person changing the light bulb receive an electric shock? Did this set fire to any part of the building? Were multiple people injured? This would be quite a high realisation (3), whereas cutting their finger on a broken bulb would be relatively low (1). 3 CATASTROPHIC. IMMINENT DANGER EXISTS, HAZARD CAPABLE OF CAUSING DEATH, MAJOR INJURIES AND ILLNESS ON A WIDE SCALE.

4 2 SIGNIFICANT.HAZARD CAN RESULT IN SERIOUS ILLNESS, SEVERE INJURY, PROPERTY & EQUIPMENT DAMAGE; OR LOSS SUCH AS MORE THAN 3 DAY LOST TIME INJURY OR SIGNIFICANT PROPERTY LOSS. 1 NEGLIGABLE. HAZARD IS NOT LIKELY TO RESULT IN SERIOUS INJURY OR ILLNESS. REMOTE POSSIBILITY OF DAMAGE BEYOND A MINOR FIRST AID CASE. Total rating. Multiply the values for the likelihood of harm and the consequences together. The higher the total, the higher the risk. It will depend upon how high the total risk rating is, whether further action will be necessary. -Risk Rating of: 1 3 No action or low priority action required. 4 Medium priority. 6 High priority. 9 Urgent action required (work should cease until risk adequately reduced). 4. STEP 4 Control of the risks List the risks which are not adequately controlled and the action you will take where it is reasonably practicable to do more. Include level of priority for your Action Plan. Where a risk rating is quite high, further action will be necessary. If this is the case especially for ratings of 6 or above, further action will be required immediately and an action plan (see example form) will need to be established so that remedies can be implemented to lower the risk. This should be done by employing one of the following means. Eliminate the hazard: (use of alternatives, design improvements (to process or equipment), change the process) Substitute the hazard: (for example changing of a chemical to one with less risk) Remove (isolate/segregate) the hazard: use of barriers or guards to prevent persons coming into contact with the hazard (such as a guard on a machine) Reduce the hazard: implement control measures and procedures to lessen the exposure to and effects of a hazard (such as limit the time that persons can undertake a task, provide them with suitable personal protective equipment and so on). Once this is done, a new risk assessment will need to be completed identifying the new suitable control measures or precautions. What now? Now the task can go ahead providing the senior person (department manager or senior member of a society/club etc) has ensured that the control measures have been successfully implemented and are being adhered to. A copy of the assessment should be given to KeeleSU Workplace safety advisor for his/her records and a copy kept in a suitable location on the department or with the society s secretary. Any queries should be directed to the Workplace Safety Advisor in the first instance and then to the Premises and Facilities Manager.

5 Risk Assessments for Societies Before a society can operate the senior member must carry out an initial risk assessment. The assessment should detail the hazards associated with the society s activities. Once this has been done the assessment should be reviewed regularly in order to make sure that it is kept up to date. Reviews should take place: At least annually In the event of any significant changes in the way the society carries out its activities BEFORE a society (or its members) carry out an activity not included in the original assessment In aiming to reduce the risks to which students are exposed, KeeleSU will take all reasonable steps to ensure that risk assessments are carried out. The assessments will detail the range of hazards associated with activities, together with any remedial actions (control measures). Societies are responsible and must produce risk assessments for special arranged activities which are outside their normal operations e.g. outings..