How health and safety
management systems work
and what they look like
(2 hrs)
ELEMENT 2
Contents
2.1 What they are and the benefits they bring
2.2 What good health and safety management systems look like
Learning Outcomes
Work within a health and safety management system, recognising
what effective policy, organisational responsibilities and
arrangements should look like
2.1 What they are and the benefits they bring
Syllabus Content
The basics of a health and safety management system: the ‘Plan, Do,
Check, Act’ model (see ISO 45001:2018 and ILO-OSH2001)
The benefits of having a formal/certified health and safety
management system.
2.1 What they are and the benefits they bring
What is a health and safety management system
It is a coordinated and systematic approach to managing health and safety
risk within an organisation. It comprises of a set of interrelated elements.
There is no set health and safety management system that an employer has to
follow, however in some countries like Abu Dhabi, Malaysia and Egypt there
are mandatory structure that are employers are legal bond to adhere to.
The most recognized Occupational Health and Safety Management System is
ISO45001:2018 standard.
ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and
Safety Management System Standard
What is ISO 45001:2018?
It is the first internationally agreed upon occupational safety and health management
system (OHSMS) standard
The main requirement of ISO45001 is for managers to take an active and personal
involvement in the management of OH&S in their organisation.
The focus of the standard is about prevention. This means taking a proactive approach
by recognising the health and safety issues in the workplace long before they can cause
harm and the organisation is forced to deal with them after the fact.
ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and
Safety Management System Standard
ISO 45001 use the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle. This principal is applied
to all processes within the management system in order to achieve continual
improvement.
Plan- determine and assess risk and opportunities taking into account issues
identified in clause 4 (context of the organisation); establish OH&S policy,
objectives and objectives necessary to deliver results in accordance with
OH&S policy
Do – implement the processes as planned
ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and
Safety Management System Standard
Check- monitor and measure
activities and processes with
regards to OH&S policy and
objectives; report on results
Act – take action for
continually improvement of
OH&S performance
Source: RMS
Structure of ISO 45001:2018
Clause 4: Context of the Organisation
Clause 5: Leadership and worker participation
Clause 6: Planning
Clause 7: Support
Clause 8: Operation
Clause 9: Performance Evaluation
Clause 10: Improvement ..\..\ISO450012018AuditChecklist
[Link]
ILO Guidelines on occupational safety and
health management systems
The ILO developed ILO-OSH 2001: Guidelines on occupational Safety and Health
Management Systems 2001’ as a voluntary guidance for OH&S management system. The
structure comprises of the following five elements:
Policy (Plan)
Organising (Plan)
Planning and implementing (Do)
Evaluation: monitoring, measuring, investigation; auditing; review (Check)
Action for improvement (Act)
ILO Guidelines on occupational safety and
health management systems
• Policy (Plan)
A clear statement has to be made to establish health and safety as a prime commitment at all
levels of organization particularly at the top.
• Organising (Plan)
A framework of clearly defined roles and responsibilities for health and safety must be created
within the organization for all levels of employees starting with top management
ILO Guidelines on occupational safety and
health management systems
• Evaluation (Check)
Procedures must be developed to assess the effectiveness and adherence of the arrangements put
into place to met the aim and objectives of the OH&S management system
o Monitoring, measuring and investigation
Performance is monitored actively/proactively and reactively. Active monitoring includes
inspections of premises, equipment, substances, people, procedures, systems, individual’s
behaviours. Reactive monitoring take place as a result of a failure to control a risk. This includes the
analysis of the quantity and type of failures, accident/incident, ill-health and near miss
investigations.
o Auditing
To ensure that all parts are working acceptably by systematic and critical examination of the
OH&S management system.
ILO Guidelines on occupational safety and
health management systems
o Review (Check)
The review process gives the organisation an opportunity to learn from all relevant
experiences and apply these lessons learned to helping improving the effectiveness of the
OH&S management system
• Action for improvement (Act)
Any identified issues by the review process must be corrected as soon as possible by implementing
the necessary actions.
Benefits of a formal/certified health and
safety management system
The following are the benefits of an organisation having a formal management system:
Demonstrate corporate responsibility
Ensure OH&S management aligns with organisation’s strategic direction.
Ensure hazards are identified and risks are managed thus protecting workers
Compliance with legal requirements
Increased employee and management consultation and participation
Reduce accidents and ill-health and the cost related to them
Increase employee satisfaction thus improving health and safety culture
Enable to opportunities for lessons learnt to avoid re-occurrence
Lowering your insurance premiums.
Benefits of a formal/certified health and
safety management system
The following are the benefits of an organisation undergoing a conformity assessment to obtain a
certified management system:
Provides proof that the organisation holds health and safety in high importance
Ensure roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and communicated
Ensure that there is structure and processes throughout the organisation
Confirm commitment to open to independent scrutiny
Add credibility to the organisation’s reputation
Meet customers’ expectation
Establish a level of performance to be maintained
Give a competitive edge i.e. generate positive public relation for the business.
2.2 What good health and safety
management systems look like
Syllabus content:
The occupational health and safety policy (see clause 5.2 ISO 45001:2018):
role
typical content
proportionate to the needs of the organisation
Responsibilities – all workers at all levels of an organisation have responsibility for health and safety
Practical arrangements for making it work:
the importance of stating the organisation’s arrangements for planning and organising,
controlling hazards, consultation, communication, monitoring compliance, assessing
effectiveness
Keeping it current: when you might need to review the health and safety management system,
including passage of time, technological, organisational or legal changes, and results of monitoring.
Role of the health and safety policy
To provide direction for an organisation, establishing a management commitment that
will both guide the organisation to satisfy its aims and maintain the standards that it sets
to meet the aims.
This will influence the decisions made by an organisation because the decisions will need
to meet the aims of the policy and the commitments made in it.
Without active and guided management involvement in health and safety any attempt
at organised accident/incident and ill-health prevention will be reactive.
The importance of a written health and safety policy is noted in Occupational Safety and
Health Recommendation R164, 1981
Role of the health and safety policy
In order for a health and safety policy to be effective, it should be:
Specific to the organisation and appropriate to its size and nature of its activities
Developed in consultation with workers and managers
Concise, clearly written, dated and signed by the most senior (top) manager of the
organisation.
Communicated to all persons working under the control of the organisation.
Monitored through audits
Reviewed and revised for continuing suitability.
Content of a health and safety policy
• Guidance on effective health and safety policies, including the ILO document
‘Guidelines on occupational safety and health management systems – ILO-OSH 2001’
suggests that the health and safety policy must be appropriate to the size and nature
of the organisation’s activities and the nature and scale of its health and safety risks.
• The health and safety policy should stated the organisation’s overall aims with regards
to health and safety performance and communicate its personal commitment.
Content of a health and safety policy
ILO-OSH 2001 suggest the following as should be include as aims in the health and safety
policy as a minimum:
Protecting the safety and health of all members of the organisation
Complying with relevant OSH national/international laws and regulations
Setting and reviewing OSH objectives
Documented, implemented and maintained
Ensuring that all workers and their representatives are consulted and encouraged to
actively participate in all elements of the OH&S management system.
Continually improving health and safety performance
Needs of different organisations
Policies must be tailor made for organisations since the latter vary in
aims, structure, risks and items of commitment.
Policy of an organisation must be fitting with regard to the nature and
size of the organisation and its activities as well as the scale and nature
of the safety and health risks.
Health and safety objectives
Aims can be defined as the basic ideal to be achieved - a purpose or intention.
Objectives are specific measurable steps to achieve the intended aim.
In ILO-OSH 2001, the ILO gives the following guidance for establishing health and safety
objectives:
Specific to the organisation and appropriate to its size and nature of its activities
Consistent with legal requirements, and the technical and business obligations of the
organisation with regards to health and safety
Focus towards continually improvement to health and safety performance
Health and safety objectives
They need to be realistic and achievable
Documented, communicated to all relevant functions and levels of the organisation
Periodically evaluated and updated where necessary.
Objectives must have quantifiable performance targets. To assist with this the following
acronym is used:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Reasonable
Time bound
Example of health and safety targets
The range of health and safety targets that may be set could relate to:
Reduction in the number of work-related accidents/incidents and ill-health cases
Maintenance of health exposure levels below defined limits
Maintenance of conformity scores of audits
Improvement in the number of workplace inspections
Improvement in the number of health and safety training conducted
Improvement in the number of contractor inductions
Improvement in number workers wearing the required PPE
Improvement in the number of health and safety management meetings
Improvement in the number of consultation meetings with workers.
Responsibilities of workers at all levels to
take responsibility
The employer should clearly allocate responsibility, accountability and authority for the development,
implementation and performance of the safety management system.
The following are health and safety responsibilities that are common to workers at all levels throughout
the organisation:
• Take reasonable care for his/herself along with others that may be affected by his/her act or omission
• Comply health and safety procedures and instructions
• Use health and safety equipment, tools and PPE correctly
• Report all hazards/ unacceptable risks to their immediate supervisor
• Report all work-related accidents/incidents and ill-health
Health and safety arrangements
The health and safety policy should specify the supporting arrangements for
achieving the general and specific aims and objectives of the policy
o The policy should summarise the arrangements for planning, organising,
controlling hazards, consultation, communication, monitoring compliance with
arrangements and assessing the effectiveness of the arrangements to
implement the policy.
o The level of detail in the arrangements is dependent on the needs and nature
of the organisation.
General health and safety arrangements
General arrangements includes:
• Planning • Medical/health surveillance arrangements
• Organising • Inspections
• Training and competence • Welfare facilities
• Consultation • Hazard control and management including
• Accident and hazard reporting corrective actions
• Communication • Allocation of resources
• Monitoring compliance
Specific arrangements for hazards
Specific arrangements include to:
Chemical and Biological substances Drugs and alcohol
Fire Maintenance
Electricity Stress and violence
Manual handling Working alone
Work at a height Transport
Contractors Work equipment
Noise, vibration and radiation Visitors
Keeping the health and safety management
system current
The OH&S management system needs to be reviewed regularly to ensure that it remains
relevant and effective. In general it should be reviewed annually. However, the following
circumstance may require it should be reviewed sooner:
Changes through time
Technological advances
Changes in the organisation. This includes external issues that affect the organisation
Legislation updates
Monitoring - gap analysis
