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#1 Posted : 15 July 2001 15:06:00(UTC)
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Posted By Nick Higginson It never ceases to amaze me how many people come on here asking for other peoples risk assessments. Surely the whole point in Risk Assessment was self-regulation, i.e. to make individual companies responsible for their own health and safety? How can this be done by cribbing someone elses RA? Is it the case that people are being caught in the trap of trying to produce a near perfect risk assessment, but doing nothing with the results. It doesn't really matter how you do your risk assessment, as there is no prescriptive format. Indeed all regulation 3 of the Management Regs says is that RA's must be "suitable and sufficient". It does not say that you must have a complicated scoring system including Accident Probability x Severity x Frequency x No. of people = 1033556 Hazard Rating Number etc. I agree that something more complicated is needed for high risk situations, but not some of the requests on this message board - offices, manual handling, young people etc. SO grab a copy of 5 steps to risk assessment and as many free HSE leaflets as you can get and have a go! As long as you identify all the hazards, and actually DO something about them, who cares what your form looks like? Any thoughts/comments anyone?
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#2 Posted : 15 July 2001 19:38:00(UTC)
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Posted By Graham Sargeant Found your comments very refreshing, although I've been involved in tool hire and construction for some time, only recently have I been taking notes, as it were with reguards Health & Safety. (as I've just embarked on NEBOSH training) It seems to me there is tendancy to have an off the self approach to managing risks and hazards. Thanks
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#3 Posted : 15 July 2001 21:20:00(UTC)
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Posted By Nick Higginson Graham, Thanks for the comments,I maybe able to help with NEBOSH Cert, send me your address and I'll send what I can (unfortunately it's only hard copy) although I may have some electronic stuff. Regards, Nick
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#4 Posted : 16 July 2001 07:59:00(UTC)
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Posted By Tony Overbury Nick I think that you've raised an extremely important issue. A question that is frequently asked is "have you performed a risk assessment?", whereas a more relevant question is "have you controlled the risks?". Clearly assessment of risk is necessary to enable to the implementation of suitable controls, but it seems to me that there is a possibility of risk assessment becoming an end in itself, rather than a means to an end. It would be very interesting to hear some other opinions... Tony Overbury
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#5 Posted : 16 July 2001 09:53:00(UTC)
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Posted By Richard Nick I think you're being a bit hard on the majority of the users of the forum. If someone has already spent a couple of days studying the risks associated with working with flim flam valves why not get the benefit of their knowledge and experience? Even if your flim flam valve operates in a different environment, you may gain some basic knowledge, and save yourself a bit of time. Having said that, I must admit that some of the requests are a bit over the top! Richards
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#6 Posted : 16 July 2001 12:32:00(UTC)
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Posted By Andrew Powell Nick, I also think you are being just a little too hard on new users of the forum Surely, this forum is open to all from new advisors through to Fellows of the Institute The former might request a Risk Assessment Template, what is the harm in that? Sometimes a "bank" of generic risk assessments for tasks such as maintenance might save a lot of time. I understand that there is an inherent danger in passing on "GENERIC" RA, but as long as the receiver A) Uses the information appropriately as a guide and not a replacement and, B) Has/gets the appropriate training/support etc to update, what is the harm in that? Is it not the purpose of this forum to discuss and advise where possible. Once criticised, a newcomer to the forum might feel reluctant to ask for advice a second time.
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#7 Posted : 16 July 2001 16:27:00(UTC)
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Posted By Nick Higginson Guys, I think you are being a bit reactonary here. The comments I am making are to encourage newcomers, not put them off - "If you give a man a fish he will be fed today, whereas if you teach a man to fish he will feed himself for the rest of his life". Can you see any relevance here? Simply handing over a bank of generic maintenance assessments is not going to help people carry out RA's in future - they will simply come onto the forum and ask again. If they have a go (and by all means come onto the forum and ask advice on HOW to carry out an RA) and make a good job, they will no doubt be bitten by the bug and keep going themselves. Although I profess i am no expert, if any newcomers want any advice on carrying out RA's, feel free to contact me on nickhigginson@hotmail.com and I'll do whatever I can, or at least point you in the right direction. Please don't feel that I was criticizing anyone, it wasn't my intention. And at 24, I am hardly a seasoned health and safety proffessional myself, so please don't be put off or offended by my comments. Sometimes it is nice to get a fresh perspective.
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#8 Posted : 16 July 2001 17:42:00(UTC)
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Posted By Andrew Powell Dear Nick, Yes, I would indeed be interested in learning how to fish. And I do mean fish, not RA. You are right, once bitten by the safety bug you thrive for more, (if thrive is the right word). Unfortuneatly, the increase in traiing and competency usually means an increase in workload, hence the need for fishing...etc If anyone knows any hot spots in North Wales...
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#9 Posted : 18 July 2001 20:42:00(UTC)
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Posted By Peter J Harvey Nick, May I also say that your views came across as very refreshing and underpinned a point that I tend to spend all of my time trying to get through to people. The basic risk assessment is basic, simple easy to use and I mean use, it should form part of every day business activity and the more basic and simple it is the more likely it is to be understood and used by a workforce. Crib the hard stuff by all means, but use a simple and easy to follow method otherwise, the more complicated you get the more dust the risk assessment will gather. Peter Harvey
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