Hello, I'm new to this industry and am looking after the H&S (once qualified/experienced) and the compliance for a plant hire company.

I am booked for my IOSH at the end of the month but currently am trying to get the company up to date on COSHH Risk Assessments.

Is there any training available specifically for understanding and completing risk assessments?

Reviewing an existing one I am confident doing, but I have some to complete from scratch for new substances being used and need guidance/training on where to begin...

Thanks in advance

mlacey,

I second everything that jwk has said above. NEBOSH cert should be obtained if your employer wants to show that their organisation has access to a competent H&S person. You will find the NEBOSH very rewarding and will make your job much easier.

For COSHH it's important not to rely only on what an MSDS say. Many chemical suppliers produce very generic and ambiguous MSDS documents which may say wear all sorts of PPE when in fact how you use the chemical may not pose significant risk, or if you have bulk quantities splashing about then the risks might be very high! So yes, COSHH training will help you to interpret MSDS and to understand chemical hazards.

John

I think that's the most sensible route (did so myself) decent grounding from IOSH MS and the NGC is a superb point from there forwards. NGC isn't easy either from a starting point

Your data sheets are only 8 pages! I have just seen one at 39 pages.

I recently attended a RoSPA course on COSHH. I thought it was good, but only a day, which would still leave most struggling.

Another client paid a consultant to update COSHH assessments last year, only to end up with a set of standardised data sheets - as is so often the case. The HSE inspector (FFI) was scathing of this, and said that training in how to do COSHH 'properly' was poor for safety folk. One for IOSH maybe?

Get training, as said, but also take a good look at the HSE examples:
http://www.hse.gov.uk/coshh/riskassess/index.htm
Plant hire is not going to be a major COSHH problem. The HSE 'engineer' example is probably closest to adopt and adapt for your industry.

Focus on the jobs that are being done, by whom (groups) and the general exposures, rather than the products and data sheets, to provide context; the HSE examples do this to some degree.
Then (and only then) categorise, and examine data sheets.
By-products (dust, welding fume etc) do not arrive with data sheets, so often get missed - context is everything.
In terms of passing information on to hirers - keep it simple and integrated with the standard instructions you already give out.

I'm struggling to think of real significance from substances in plant hire.

If there are maintenance workshops too, yes, to a degree (see HSE guidance on engineering and vehicle maintenance), but just checking and topping up fluids? Maybe running engines for a few minutes for customer demos? (Usually outside in my experience).
I am not dismissing these as 'non-hazardous' but the actual risk?
Could probably come up with a list of 'controls' in less time than reading & writing this post.

You will get a lot from http://www.hse.gov.uk/pUbns/priced/hsg129.pdf on engineering workshops.
This contains many of the 'solutions' (ie control measures) for tasks such as welding, paint spraying etc. where COSHH applies, but also all other H&S situations.

PS - print out a copy for the workshop manager. Use it as an audit tool too. The contents list on its own is a useful starter for risk assessment.