Posted By Ian J. Bruce Dear All, I have been fortunate to secure a position as a Safety Officer on a brand new site in England after many months of trying to break into this field as a full time practitioner. The facility has a multitude of activities including engineering workshops, kitchens, laundry, offices, vehicle presence etc. As the establishment is totally new, I will be responsible for implementing all safety management systems. My initial thoughts are that I need to be reviewing company safety policy, emergency plans, first aid protection etc. etc. I would however, be grateful if anyone out there in IOSH land can give me some pointers/advice on how they would handle this situation and where they might focus their attentions in the first few weeks. I guess it's a process of begining risk assessments; should these in the first instance be very broad, site based, or should I focus very clearly on specific work areas and slowly work my way around the site? I'd be grateful of any feedback. Cheers, Ian.

Posted By peter gotch I'd start with the central strategy is policy and procedures, ie HS(G)65 considerations, then work from the centre, moving from the generic to the specific, and working with line managers getting them to take ownership and do their own risk assessments, inspections etc with input from you as appropriate. Good luck, Peter

Posted By Stuart Nagle Ian. You may well think that the quotes of BS numbers and HSG65 etc etc are not a great deal of help. They will be, but first you need to priortise. I suggest, as you have already mentioned yourself, that risk assessment initially will give the best results in assisting in this process. Make a list, starting with the most serious or likely cause of an incident, going down to the least likely. This list is likely to change over a few days once you see, hear and talk to the staff and line managers etc. However, at the end of this (short) process, you should have a firm idea of where your initial actions should be focused and how to proceed. From this you can then consider the requirements, needs of company, legislation, QA, best practice, practicable achievements etc etc... Once established, you have in essence your 'action plan' enabling you to move forward. As mentioned above, this will be an on-going and continual process aimed at achieving continual betterment. Policy, in essence, is not written, it is made. Once it has been made, it can be written and improved upon. Hope this gives you some practical thoughts to be going on with. Good luck in the new post... Stuart Nagle

Posted By Ian J. Bruce Gentlemen, Many thanks for your advice within your responses to my request. It's nice to know that my line of thought was more or less correct. Your assistance is greatly appreciated. Regards, Ian.