Posted By John James Can anyone help? I have been asked to provide a format for a risk assessment for employees over the age of 65. We currently employ a number of people over 65 in our catering outlets doing a variety of catering / food service tasks. Our insurers have asked use to ensure that specific risk assessments are carried out for each such employee on the basis of their age. I'd be grateful for any suggestions etc. Many thanks John James

Posted By Ashley Williams It is possible that this proccess may end up with you in hot water. What if one of these staff object to the risk assessment becasuse of their age? There is a requirement to assess the risks to young workers and pregnant women, but no mention of people over 65. There is little case law covering Ageism, but there is some. Just an observation on this topic! Ashley

Posted By Ken Taylor I see that they even want a risk assessment for each employee over 65 years and not just a generic one for an age category! The nearest I have come across to this is that residents in nursing care are individually assessed in order to establish their care needs. Hopefully you are not entering that scenario. To be serious, they are presumably looking at fitness for particular work. This is a consideration for Management with employees of any age - particularly when reporting or displaying disability or illness. This is a matter for careful consideration and consultation with Personnel/HR/Welfare Officers, etc taking into account job descriptions, person specifications, etc and also considering any associated risks to the individual or others. I would not like to see an approach based upon risk assessment alone and am aware of no precedent or legal requirement (as confirmed by the other replies). Whilst faculty deterioration and loss can be age-proportional, there is no one point at which the process can be said to generally commence and if a job needs someone with good corrected eyesight, it applies equally at 16 and 66 years. I think it would be better to make sure that the requirements for the work are clearly defined and then consider the individual staff in the light of these - always seeking to fit the job to the person when possible.

Posted By Diane Warne Just a thought - can the insurers actually insist that this is done, i.e. say that cover is void if it is not done? If you told them that in your opinion a specific RA for each over-65 worker is not needed, and gave your reasons as discussed in this thread, would they be able to disagree with you and say that cover is void? I'm only asking out of curiosity, as I am interested to know how far insurers can go in insisting that you do what they say, especially if what they are asking goes beyond H&S legal requirements and normal safety management measures. Diane Warne