Simply Put: Management Systems

In this Simply Put Article, we are taking a look at principles of health and safety management systems.

A health and safety management system forms an important aspect of the health and safety culture of a business. Rarely is it possible to achieve a successful health and safety management system by a one-off intervention, and so system of managing health and safety need to be implemented.

Whilst there is no legal necessity for this to be a formal health and safety management system – there are four steps that most approaches will contain:

• Plan
• Do
• Check
• Act

The HSE breaks the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) model down into the following stages:

• PLAN
  Determine your policy
  Plan for implementation
• DO
  Profile your organisation’s health and safety risks
  Organise for health and safety
  Implement your plan
• CHECK
  Measure performance
  Investigate incidents
• ACT
  Review performance
  Learn lessons

As a health and safety management system, PDCA isn’t always a ‘once-and-for-all’ action. Often, it will be necessary to go round the cycle more than once. This will be particularly true when the system is first being implemented, when new processes and procedures are being introduced, or your current procedures undergo any major changes.

The benefits of good health and safety management are far-reaching, with financial benefits, society gains, environmental benefits and benefits to the individual. Our article on the benefits of health and safety can be found here.

Further information on health and safety management systems can be found in the HSE’s guidance leaflet here.