The University aims to continually improve its Health and Safety management processes, structures, and arrangements to deliver effective control of Health and Safety hazards and risks.
The University’s Health and Safety Management System (HSMS) applies the ‘Plan, Do, Check. Act’ continuous improvement methodology, recommended by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in their guidance Managing for Health and Safety and which forms the basis of International Standards Organisation ISO45001 ‘Health and Safety Management System’ Health and safety management systems: ISO 45001
There are some principle elements of the HSMS:
The University’s Health and Safety objectives are articulated in the Health and Safety Strategy, with operational delivery through annual plans of work. The Strategy and Plan of Work are:
Health and Safety Strategy 2024 - 2027
Health and Safety Plan of Work 2024 - 2025
Our Health and Safety priorities are informed by organisational objectives, policy development, stakeholder engagement and safety risk control challenges and compliance management requirements. The Health and Safety Management Statement and Policy articulate these organisational commitments and objectives.
‘Do’ is in effect the delivery of Health and Safety activities to protect the Health and Safety of staff, students, and others.
The University maintains a Risk Profile of Health and Safety Risks to support the prioritisation of risks and controls effectiveness, and reporting of risks to committees.
A range of Risk Assessment formats are used to record specific risks, associated controls and actions arising. Work is underway for all assessments to move on-line to improve user access, availability, and governance oversight.
The University’s Health and Safety committees’ structure and trades union liaison provide important forums for consulting with management and staff representatives on Health and Safety management issues including the effectiveness of the HSMS.
Good quality and reliable data are key to effective monitoring of safety performance and improving insight and informed decision-making, including incident reporting analysis, compliance monitoring, policy reviews and the outputs from accident investigations.
The ‘Act’ phase of the process identifies requirements for the overall improvement in Health and Safety performance.
Lessons learnt from Health and Safety data sets, inspection and audit reports, risk assessments and accident investigations potentially identify requirements for changes to policy, training provision and human factors issues ranging from leadership, culture, and the management of risks.
These elements all drive future decision-making on the requirement for resources, developing competencies and consultation, which feed into the planning and prioritisation of actions.