Hi All.

I have to start, pretty much from scratch, a risk assessment programme at site. Now i have not problems with completing risk assessments but in such a large scale project i'mm unsure were/how to start. Is there any strategies/plans that anyone has used before when starting from begining?

Pick a certain area, number of assessments? 5 per month, etc??? Cheers

Very much dependent on the activities taking place at that site.
If this a start from scratch, then it would be prudent to look at emergency procedures first!

It's important to try to minimise the number of different assessments. A way to do this is to 'map' the various working groups and the hazards to which they are exposed.

For example: there will be some site-wide hazards and current controls, including 'site rules', designed to ensure risks are ALARP. These generic issues can be covered in a single assessment, cross-referring to more detailed subsidiary RAs as appropriate. One site-wide hazard is fire, so the FRA(s) can be a sub-set of the site RA. Then there will be different working groups, perhaps office workers, maintenance, operations, catering, etc. each of which can have a 'generic' assessment covering the regular hazards they are exposed to in normal work. Again these can cross-refer to some generic task assessments (e.g. for DSE users) or generic personnel categories, e.g pregnant/nursing mothers, shift workers.

There will also be some task RAs which are not generic, but where the hazards vary significantly with the specific task and its location. For these the RA and controls need to be suitably reviewed before approval is given to commence the task - for example by using a Permit to Work.

In an ideal world, the RAs come before the site procedures, as the latter form part of the control arrangements. In the real world there will probably be some procedures which have no 'underpinning' RA - so you can also work backwards from existing procedures to check where RAs may be needed.

If you combine this approach with other suggestions above, you will end up with a 'map' of required RAs, and also perhaps identify some clearly missing controls - which you can include in the RAs as you work through them!