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MC Safety  
#1 Posted : 30 March 2010 09:05:28(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
MC Safety

Hello.

I've been charged with writing a 'health and safety strategy' to explain how our health and safety team will support staff to achieve the new corporate objectives (we have a new Chief Executive).

If I'm honest, I'm not completely confident about doing this task. I'm struggling to understand the relationship between our existing policy documentation and the strategy.

Does anyone have a framework for creating a health and safety strategy?

• Executive Summary
• Introduction
• What Has Changed
• New Ambitions
• Why We Want This
• How We Are Going To Achieve It
• Who Will Do What
• How We Will Know When We Are There
• What Will We Measure Along The Way
• Resources Available
• Ect.

Also, if anyone is proud of their health and safety strategy, and would be happy to share it, in confidence, then I would be extremely grateful.

Thanks.
jwk  
#2 Posted : 30 March 2010 10:57:56(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
jwk

The section headings look OK, but that's now how I'd start. Please bear with me, because bits of this are going to sound distinctly naff; here goes. Strategy of any sort has to start with a vision; where do we want to be? Then you need to evaluate where you are; given that H&S is a risk-based discipline, I would draw up a risk register. This needs to look at the operational risks your organisation is facing, but perhaps more importantly you need to consider some of the obstacles to tackling these operational issues. So you register should include some basic analysis of organisational culture and commitment, look at the resources available to you and consider things like resistance to change and so on.

Your strategy will fall out of this to an extent. Your vision, plus an evaluation of where you are (the risk register) will allow you to set objectives; your strategy is then an evaluation of the practcal steps you need to take to get from where you are to where you need to be.

Strategy should be capable of being expressed pretty briefly; a military strategy for example might be 'invade france through the Ardennes thus outflanking the northern armies'; the detail concerns the logistics, in H&S terms how we might go about overcoming resistance to change, or developing an effective H&S culture for example.

There's loads of stuff on the web about writing strategy, start with business balls for example,

John
stephendclarke  
#3 Posted : 30 March 2010 19:34:31(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
stephendclarke

Hi,
Depending upon the size of the organisation you might find the CHASPI H&S index useful to get a baseline of where the organisation is wrt H&S at the moment - from the results of your CHASPI analysis you can develop a meaningful H&S strategy that is where you want to be. Its not perfect but it might assist give you some ideas and its available on the HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/co...ity/performanceindex.htm
Regards
Steve
David Bannister  
#4 Posted : 31 March 2010 09:14:48(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
David Bannister

It is essential to fully understand the elements of the corporate objectives prior to putting "pen to paper" on a H&S strategy. Once you have those fixed in your mind, work out how your team can achieve these or assist others to do so. e.g if there is something about productivity, the H&S strategy can reflect this by aiming for less lost time through work related illness or injury.

Writing your strategy first and then trying to fit it in with your employers objectives will be a tougher proposition.
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