Hi, I'm trying to move my current H&S MS into a layout that would be consistent with OHSAS 18001 so that, if we are going to go for accredition in furture, the system is designed to that format. I'm looking for some guidance document or template that I could use to build my system around and insert my current policies and procedures into. I want to stress, i'm not asking for copies of anyones system or policies, but simply the outline or skeleton of an 18001 system to use to format my current MS better Thanks,

Hi If you contact me on lee@cablecoromans.com I will send you an 18001 audit template which may point you in the right direction regards lee

You should not need to change the way you do things or your current system at all to meet the requirements of 18001. You may need a document that shows where each of the requirements of the standard are met. For instance you don’t necessarily have to have a single procedure called document control, you could have document control in say 3 different procedures, dependant on what document it is. So long as your “overview /Road Map” of the system shows it is covered in the 3 procedures which may contain other system elements as well as doc control. You do obviously need to ensure that all the requirements of the standard are covered in your system, but there is no set way of laying the system out, and don’t let an external auditor tell you otherwise. Your organisation works the way it works, if you start messing up their procedures and processes you could end up with problems.

safety man Suggest that you purchase a copy of the standard and go from there, we obtained 18001 accreditation 2 years ago and had to do very little work to our current system as it was mostly ensuring that all the requirements are met and in a decent SMS this should not prove to difficult as long as you do what your systems says you do and you can provide the necessary evidence to support this. We used BSI and found them very helpful and they will want you to obtain your accreditation and maintain it in the coming years

Good advice and very true. One small point – you’re ‘certified’ to the standard not ‘accredited’. BSI are accredited i.e. can issue certificates to companies such as yours. A common yet surprisingly irritable error. Tootle pip!