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lgraham15  
#1 Posted : 16 February 2018 15:15:29(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
lgraham15

Hi,

I am revisiting all the policy and guidance documents my colleagues and I have created over the last 5 years. I wondered if there was a general consensus of opinion as to the frequency (not withstanding the usual caveats changes to staff, accidents, legislation etc)? I was thinking every 2-3 years, what are others thoughts?

I work for a County Council and these are policies and guidance around lone working, moving and handling, admin of medication etc.

Thank you

A Kurdziel  
#2 Posted : 16 February 2018 15:27:10(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
A Kurdziel

What do you mean by revisiting? Just rereading them or going over them in detail and checking them for relevance, compliance with current laws and writing style( the longer I do this the more I realise how pompous sounding my earlier efforts were.)

At a previous job we fixed a 2 years cycle, in our electronic document management system, as anything less would end up with us spending all our time on policies without any opportunity for ‘real’ H&S.  

thanks 1 user thanked A Kurdziel for this useful post.
lgraham15 on 16/02/2018(UTC)
lgraham15  
#3 Posted : 16 February 2018 16:37:33(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
lgraham15

Sorry yes I should have said reviewing them.

Thanks

Charlie Brown  
#4 Posted : 16 February 2018 17:20:33(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Charlie Brown

I worked in a multi site hire company that hires 1000 employees and has 28 depots and we did it every year (they still do) and it took 4 of us one day for the RAMS and about half that for the policies. Not too onerous really and you never had to worry if you were up to date.

lgraham15  
#5 Posted : 19 February 2018 08:29:20(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
lgraham15

The difficulty with this Charlie is we have to send reviewed policy documents to the unions for consultation, this creates its own challenges to review them annually and at the same time.

lorna  
#6 Posted : 19 February 2018 09:12:17(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
lorna

My predecessor did a quick review of every policy & procedure every year but now they need a thorough 'going over' so I'm going for 2 years or 'after any significant change'.

A Kurdziel  
#7 Posted : 19 February 2018 09:18:10(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
A Kurdziel

Hi

I am asking questions again. This it about “HAVE to send reviewed policy documents to the unions”. Why do HAVE to send them to the unions. They are your policies and the unions or more accurately the union appointed safety reps are entitled to comment etc.  but not to rewrite them etc. again at my last place the safety reps were reviewers under the electronic record keeping system and they were given a fortnight to comment and then we went ahead with whatever we decided to do. I suppose we were lucky because:

  1. I made sure the policy review dates were staggered over the year  so  wasn’t lumbered with getting it all done in one go
  2. We only had one union to deal with and I had a good relationship with the safety rep and a lot of the stuff was dealt with informally
  3. It was clear that we (the SHE team) were responsible for the policies etc and we had the final say.

It’s not so clear in my current role so you have my sympathy.

lgraham15  
#8 Posted : 20 February 2018 08:59:00(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
lgraham15

I agree with your comments, however as an organisation we have 4 recognised unions and each one has a union appointed safety rep. Our HR director decreed that as an organisation, we will consult with them on all policy documents and reviews, not just H&S. It is, as you say, maintaining that good relationship with them. 

I will also be looking to staggering our reviews, so they are more manageable.

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