Posted By garyh A lot of organisations are doing this, and it is probably, in my view, compliant with the DSE regs. However..fast forward a few years when someone puts in a claim for some sort of musculoskeletal disorder, RSI etc etc. The employer will claim that an assessment was done. The other side will say that it was done by someone who was not sufficiently competent............and they will probably win because of that. get the cheque book out! All in my opinion of course. It saves money to get individuals to self assess now, but in the long term will cost more, in my view.

Posted By safetyamateur Keith, I think the phrase 'self-assessment' is misleading. The users will complete a questionnaire which should then be looked at by someone who can make decisions on whether more information is required from the user, work routines/workloads need to be changed etc. In effect, someone else does the assessment. If the questionnaire's based on the DSE Regs version (Appx 5), then there's some good guidance in there but it doesn't cover everything, for example it doesn't cover work routine. You could do worse that issuing the 'Working with VDUs' leaflet alongside the questionnaire.

Posted By Phil Rose A sort of 'Self assessment' approach, after suitable training is something that the HSE suggest in HSG90. The HSE approach is to train the user, the user completes checklist and then an assessor reviews checklist to identify any potential problems.

Posted By clairel PS I don't have a bad back nor a stiff neck, nor RSI, nor eye strain...so I guess listening to my own body actually works for me! (and I'm getting a bit on in years now ;-))

Posted By Kieran J Duignan Keith One of the critical issues is the standard of musculoskeletal health of the individual DSE user involved. To ensure that a suitable and sufficient assessment is carried out, it's a good idea to regularly issue a single A4 page monitoring form to each DSE user, whether they're resident on a client site or under your own roof. Two snares arise in relation to musculoskeletal problems. One is their insidious nature, with the result that they result in cumulative traums built up after years. The other is that an employee may not at first recognise the symptoms, unless they're received unusually good educaiton about them To reach a good decision, you may find it useful to imagine that a safety ergonomist is commissioned to write a court report on a claim by the employee and has access to all your records.

Posted By Elfy At my partners place of work they don't involve employees at all with the DSE risk assessment process and carry them out without any employee input! How can that work effectively.

Posted By Sharon We have a selection of trained DSE Assessors who will help the "user" assess their workstation. Once this has been done the "user" then assesses their own workstation the next time. If the "user" has a problem with anything they then contact one of the trained DSE assessors for guidance.

Posted By Bob Shillabeer Hilary is quite right, there is a strong case for self assessment provided it is monitored by a competent person who can recognise when action is needed and has the time to do it. The self assessment process is not a simple way out but a meaningful means of gertting people on board with the process.

Posted By sylvia Tried the "having trained assessors" method, prevalent in many big, scattered LAs etc. The training is limited, and gives them only a "checklist" approach, following the - imho - simplistic HSE guidance on "correct" posture. Prefer the following approach. Expert (H&S) gives 30 minute briefing to large group from one office / section / group, demonstrating with real kit the KEY points, how to's (adjust chair, raise or lower monitors etc.) emphasising what the HSE stuff doesn't really - frequent micro and mini breaks, sit/stand, posture variations, use & position of mouse v keyboard, left v right handers. Give out support material, including talk-through of our particular choice of user analysis of workstation via interactive checklist online. Plenty of help whilst doing this too. Managers (or where they still exist, assessors) then collate and review results, and to refer to "expert" only if there is a more significant problem. Expert can then also cast an eye over the results AND take a walk through of the office. Casting a practised eye over a group of people actually at work can be a quick and effective method of monitoring standards. In fact, am thinking of training new-style DSE assessors in doing just that, with instruction on what they are looking for what it means, and how to fix it, plus (ESSENTIAL!) an understanding of office psychology / human behaviour, will provide better functioning assessors than checklist training. Involving users is essential in my view as it combines the right degree of information / training with cost-effective individual analyses of hundreds of workstations. However, the organisation and management of the process does require some thought and work to make it run smoothly. It also requires that the H&S expert is truly an expert, and develops a broader understanding of the basic realistic ergonomic principles against the HSE guidance. I recommend far more research, reading and training that just the HSE material provides. Whether or not "trained" DSE assessors are a cost-effective and useful additional step depends on the organisation size, etc. "Policing" how people continue to sit and work is down to managers, who need to be involved at that overview level or the whole thing becomes "special" and belongs only to the H&S expert. One thing I have learnt - there is no way you can force-fit people into standard postures. Nor is it usually necessary, with better understanding of how the body and kit can work together to minimise real risk. The 'sit-up-straight' message is over-simplistic, out-dated and somewhat discredited by more recent research.