Hi all, please bear with me as I'm new to this and in a new role. I am currently drafting a H&S policy for a company and need some pointers on Part 3: Arrangements for H&S. 

I am finding (by reviewing other H&S policies) that some companies have pages and pages of arrangements and other have kept it brief to certain areas. There are also no set format to how the arrangements are outlined i.e some have a few sentences on an area like training, others have a couple of paragraphs. 

I have been tasked with keeping the policy brief as we have loads of other policies and procedures which address all the areas (such as DSE or Lone working). 

I wanted to know what the legal requirement is for the minimum and what best practise is. I would also like some tips and hints from your extensive experience as SHE professionals,

thanks in advance!

It depends on the complexity of your arrangements. A small low-risk company would probably get away with including all of the arrangements in the policy document, but others would probably be bettter restricting mention of these to referencing separate procedures. No-one is going to read a vast policy document, so the smaller the better generally, and people will have access to the additional procedures they need to know about.

Hardworkingdude

To echo Hsquared and to answer your question as to the experience of Forum users.

My experience is that most organisations other than the very small, keep their main Policy document VERY short - one or two pages.

Then deal with the "organisation and arrangements" mandated by HSWA Section 2(3) elsewhere, usually with a mix of general statement(s) of organisation - who does what all the time, but with elements of the organisation also written into the arrangements, e.g. to define who is responsible for different aspects of e.g. drafting, reviewing, approving risk assessments, then checking they are appropriate at the point of implementation, and are implemented.

This way people only need to read and assimilate the parts that are relevant to their job function.

When I worked for the HSE it had lots and lots of policy supplements. One dealt with working in pressurised environments - only relevant to the very few who would go diving or enter compressed air e.g. tunnelling works - very specialised and only a few needed to know the details. It said that before I entered a compressed tunnelling operation, I needed to be accompanied by someone else in HSE who was familiar with the risks, i.e. I was not solely reliant on the competence of the contractor doing the work [which in practical terms meant getting someone from 400 miles away].