An Overview of Risks & Safety Plans
What Are Risks And Safety Plans?
Risks are things that have the potential to harm people. Risks can be physical things, chemicals or substances, mental stress, fatigue, the work environment or pathogens (bacteria, virus and fungi).
A Safety Plan is the plan in place to keep people safe from the risk. The goal of the safety plan is to minimise and/or isolate the serious risks (the risks that could cause harm) as well as plan for when things do go wrong. The level of risk will depend on factors such as how often the job is done, the number of workers involved and how serious any injuries that result could be.
For example:
A risk could be a leaky car battery and the Safety Plan would cover managing dangerous chemicals
Risks and Safety Plans in PeopleSafe
PeopleSafe is the perfect place to put your risks and safety plans; everyone has access to them and all staff can report risks directing into PeopleSafe. There will always be risks wherever you work, that's why it's so important that everyone remembers to report them. It's only when we know about the risks that something can be done to minimise, isolate or get rid of them altogether. That way everyone will be safer at work!
The way Risks and Safety Plans are managed in PeopleSafe work like this:
Because you are required to identify the risks you work with, have safety plans in place for the serious risks (the ones that potentially result in a serious event) and keep a record of all risks even if they're eliminated, PeopleSafe has created Risks for you to identify the risky things your people work with and Safety plans to manage those risks. You should include in the Safety Plans how you're keeping people safe (the how you've acted on it, which is essentially the 'isolate and minimise' and also the plan in case something goes wrong).
Some Tips About Risks
As soon as you find something risky make sure you report it in Tell Your Story. Often risks will be found/created when accidents happen. Make sure the risk is reviewed quickly and decide if it needs a safety plan or not. If it already has a safety plan remember to review it regularly to make sure it still works.
Some Tips About Safety Plans
You need a Safety Plan when your risks are the really serious type that could badly hurt people (A.K.A - Serious Harm!). You must have a plan in place so that people don't get hurt. If you've identified that a risk is significant or extremely common, then it's worth getting out there and seeing what you can do on the front-line. It's up to you to create a safety plan so your people know what to do should they come face-to-face with the risk.