Health & Safety

Health and Safety Officer

…it is sadly the case that every week one person is killed on a construction site and many more are injured or suffer health problems. Twice as many workers are made ill by work than are injured. Each death is one too many and simple measures can prevent them
An extract from hse.gov.uk

 

The Astound mission is to promote a sensible approach to health and safety. Managing or avoiding hazards in the workplace and demonstrating our support for the principles by putting them into action, ensuring the health and safety of employees, clients, and others such as the public, in order to avoid situations that can damage lives and businesses.

As Astounds appointed Health and Safety Officer, my role is to assist in the planning and promotion of health and safety within our organisation, establishing suitable processes and procedures to put effective health and safety solutions into effect.

 

Health and safety law states that organisations must:

• provide a written health and safety policy (if they employ five or more people);
• assess risks to employees, customers, partners and any other people who could be affected by our activities;
• arrange for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of preventive and protective measures;
• ensure they have access to competent health and safety advice;
• consult employees about their risks at work and current preventive and protective measures.

 

So, when we employ or control people working for us, we make sure that:

• they are trained, competent and fit to do the job safely and without putting their own or othe health and safety at risk;
• they are properly supervised and given clear instructions;
• they have access to washing and toilet facilities;
• they have the right tools, equipment, plant and protective clothing;
• we talk about health and safety issues with them;
• we make arrangements for employees health surveillance where required;
• we give them the health and safety information they need for the work;
• we talk about the work with them before they start;
• we make sure that we have provided everything we agreed (eg safe scaffolds, the right plant, access to welfare, etc);
• We check their performance and remedy shortcomings.

 

Risk Assessments:

Astound has a comprehensive set of generic risk assessments in place covering generics hazards / risks and situations. From time to time it may be necessary for us to carry out site specific risk assessments. Site specific risk assessments are conducted by either myself, or one of my health and safety colleagues. During the risk assessment we will:

• identify potential hazards and associated risks;
• evaluate the risks and identify suitable precautions in order to remove or lower the risks;
• produce a risk rating using the Astound risk rating matrix;
• record and implement the findings.

 

Accident Reporting:

All of our employees are required to document the details of accidents that take place during, or as a result of their work, into our Accident Report Log. The same applies to near miss accidents, which must be documented in the Near Miss Accident Report Log. By ensuring that employees adhere to this procedure, we are able to report accidents (where appropriate) to the HSE and by monitoring accidents and near misses we are able to introduce control measures to remove or reduce the risk of re-occurrence.

 

I hope that this short introduction has given you some insight into our commitment towards health and safety. Should you require further information please do not hesitate to contact me at:

Claire.h@astoundcleaning.com

 

Kindest regards,

Claire Howard
Health and Safety Officer for Astound.