Posted By Andrew Meiklejohn Mornig All I am about to start my first serious H&S role working with a housing association as a H&S Manager. Have been a rep, an administrator and an advisor before in different industries When starting a new post where do you begin? Currently i think i would have a quick look at the mission statement, move on to have a glance through the accident/incident book and then start with the biggest risk which I would see as fire. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated Andrew

Posted By J Knight Hi Andrew, Good thoughts about where to start. Other issues: Lone working for your Housing Officers, especially important with things like neighbourhood disputes, rent arrears and so on Mains testing Asbestos in old stock Water supply regs stuff (not strictly H&S but I certainly seem to get involved in it pretty frequently) Lots of things for any sheltered/supported housing your employer is engaged in; this kind of thing can verge towards or become full-blown social care depending on what they do; for example, my first H&S job was with a registered HA which was in fact a Learning Disabilities organisation, John

Posted By Lilian McCartney Hi Andrew, as others have advised i would see what you have first. Maintenance and new build/refurb can be big issues. If your organsiation is also providing support to people, and you are in Scotlnad, we have a H&S group for voluntary organisations.

Posted By Malcolm Greenhouse I was in a similar situation in August last year. Here in no particular order are issues I have had. Fire - Have the communal areas of the dwellings been risk assessed? Have the buildings from which the Trust operates been risk assessed? Asbestos - Has a sample survey been carried out for the housing stock? Is there a register for these dwellings, when any direct labour or contractors work in your dwellings it becomes their workplace and you should be able to tell them of the suspected ACM locations. Your own buildings, have surveys been carried out, does a register exist? Control of contractors - moving on from asbestos but in a similar vein, how are contractors controlled? Legionella - Have legionella surveys been carried out in the buildings that the Trust employees work from? Has this result in a risk assessment and has the risk assessment produced a management system. If so is it working. Risk Assessments - direct labour organisation, if you have one have all the major areas of risk been covered, working at height, vibration, noise, manual handling, COSHH etc. Office based staff - workplace risk assessments, DSE, reception areas (any area with public access) Lone Working - Is there a policy, does this translate into an operational system and is it working? Stress - Is there a policy and is it being adherred to? Are the stress related illness statistics reviewed? Accidents - Are they being reported properly, are they being investigated. Same with near misses and violent attacks. Indeed as part of contractor management how do you let contractors know if they are to visit known difficult tenants? Training - What is the level of training of the Trust employees? Have all those who might come into contact with Asbestos been given Asbestos Awareness Training for example? Give me a ring if you want to talk any of the above over and if you are any where near the North West (Liverpool)I am holding a free training event on Thursday you may wish to attend. 0151 510 5154 Mal

Posted By The toecap God afternoon, sorry to rant a bit, but you could start by ensuring any pre tender sftey plans are accurate and provide good relevant information to sub contractors. It gets on my wick when i get plans from housing associations with very poor info' in.