Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974

General law covering health and safety at work.

Manual Handling Regulations 1992 (amended 2002)

Rules about lifting and handling and the equipment to use.

Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences (RIDDOR)

Legal requirement to report accidents and ill health at work.

Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (2002) COSHH

Law about the control of substances that may be hazardous to health such as
medication, illegal drugs, cleaning substances and alcohol.

Health and Safety First Aid Regulations (1981)

Legal duty on employers to provide first aid equipment, facilities and employees
trained in first aid on staff.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999)

Regulations about carrying out risk assessments and putting controls in place to
manage risks.

Your responsabilities:
You are responsible for following health and safety policies and procedures.

You must attend any necessary health and safety training.

Also, you must be aware of potential hazards at work and report them to your
employer.

Employer responsibilities:
Your employer must provide a safe place to work.

This includes providing the right equipment, training and policies to ensure a
healthy and safe work environment.

Responsibilities of people you support:

People you support are responsible for managing their own risk in relation to
choices they make.

Basic first aid

You cannot administer emergency first aid without training.

In an emergency situation, you should make the area safe and get help.

Assisting with medication

Until you attend training, you cannot help someone take their medication.

You can prompt or remind a person that they have to take their medication but cannot help them dispense
or take it

Moving and handling

You should not move or handle people or objects until you have received further training.

What is a risk assessment?

A risk assessment is a careful examination of what could cause harm to you or to others in your work. It
helps you to determine whether you have taken enough precautions or should do more to prevent harm.

Everyone in your place of work - staff, customers, visitors - have a right to expect that all reasonable
measures have been taken to protect them from harm that they might sustain while on the premises.

The three elements shown below are displayed in the order in which they arise.
A hazard is something that contains the potential to cause harm.
A risk is a measurement of how likely the hazard is to cause harm, and the severity of that harm.
For example, a hazard may pose a low risk of causing serious harm, or a high risk of causing minor harm.
A control measure is something that is put in place as a result of a risk assessment that eliminates or
minimises the hazard, and/or the risk of suffering harm from that hazard.

Risk assessment - five steps

Step 1: Identify the hazards

It's easy to overlook hazards when you work in the same place every day.

Look at your workplace as though you're a visitor. What do you see?

Check your accident records - is there anything that you can learn from?

Step 2: Decide who might be harmed and how

Remember it's not just the usual staff who could be harmed.

Who visits your workplace? Consider cleaners, customers, contractors etc.

Is the potential to cause harm the same for everybody? Think about pregnant women, younger
workers, and those with disabilities.
Can you think of anyone you might have missed?

Step 3: Evaluate the risks and decide on precaution

Decide what to do about any hazards you've spotted.

Can you eliminate or minimise the hazard?

Can you eliminate or minimise the risk of harm from the hazard?
What can you do to protect people in the workplace from potential harm?
If in doubt about what to do, contact the HSE for advice.

Step 4: Record your findings and implement them

Share your findings with your staff. Your notes don't have to be perfect; they must simply be suitable and
sufficient as a readily understood record of what you have discovered and what you are doing about it.

You must show that:

A proper check was made

You asked who might be affected
You dealt with all the obvious significant hazards, taking into account the number of people who
could be involved
The precautions are reasonable, and the remaining risk is low
You involved your staff or their representatives in the process.

Step 5: Review your assessment and update if necessary

Your workplace will change from time to time. New people, equipment, furniture, procedures - all are likely
to mean that you need to revisit your risk assessment for your office.

The correct hierarchy of control is:

1. Try a less risky option (e.g. use a less hazardous cleaning substance)
2. Prevent access to the hazard (e.g. guard it and warn others)
3. Organise work to reduce exposure to the hazard (e.g. erect barriers between the hazard and people
who may come near)
4. Issue personal protective equipment (e.g. rubber gloves)
5. Provide welfare facilities (e.g. first aid)

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (amended 2002)

Where possible, employers should put measures in place to minimise the need for manual handling
(positioning).
This will help to minimise risk and prevent injury.

The Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations (LOLER) 1998

These regulations cover the use and maintenance of lifting equipment such as hoists and slings.
Under these regulations, equipment used to lift people must be tested every six months.

Medication

Your organisation's medication policy will set out who can administer what medications. It will also outline
which health care tasks are appropriate within specific job roles.

You must have access to this policy and become familiar with the policies and procedures around
medication. If there's anything you're unsure of in the policy, you must discuss it with your manager.

Depending on your role and the medication policy, you may have to:

Order and collect prescriptions

Prompt or assist people to take medication
Give medication.

Measures to protect your security

Use a mobile phone, alarm or logging device when working alone outside of normal working
hours.

Travel by car or with a colleague when going to isolated or dangerous areas.

Deal with aggression by walking away from an irate individual and reporting the incident.

Take precautions when storing valuable equipment in your car.

Carry as little cash as possible when supporting a person to pay a bill or get groceries.

Use pharmacy delivery services rather than collecting prescriptions in person if possible.

Measures to protect the security of individuals you support

Store all confidential information appropriately.

Never tell anyone personal information about an individual you support.

Do not leave doors or windows wide open.

Do not leave valuables in sight.

Vary your route or routine when shopping, paying bills or collecting prescriptions for an individual.

Check for proof of identity if someone wants to enter a care home or house.

Contact emergency cover if you fall ill, have an accident or are delayed to an extent that it may
impact badly on an individual.

Report it immediately if an individual is missing.

Storing
Hazardous substances must be:

Clearly labelled
Securely stored
Only accessible to authorised people
Stored in their original containers
Listed in the COSHH file (with possible side effects, safe exposure times and emergency
procedures for dealing with spillage or personal contact)
Returned to safe storage when not in use, even if for a short time.

Using
When using hazardous substances, you must:

Check the hazard symbol on the label

Read the COSHH file to find out about the substance

Follow the COSHH procedures for using the substance

Use protective equipment such as goggles or gloves where required.

Disposing
Hazardous substances should be disposed of as follows:

Needles and syringes (sharps) must be disposed of in a yellow sharps box.

Bodily fluids such as urine and vomit must be disposed of using a sluice drain or by being flushed
down the toilet.
Clinical waste must be bagged in a yellow clinical waste bag.
Soiled linen must be bagged in a red laundry bag.
Recyclable medical instruments must be bagged in a blue bag for sterilisation.

Sudden illness includes:

Heart attacks
Strokes
Infections
Severe allergic reaction.

Impact accidents include:

Trips, slips and falls
Bumping into objects
Being hit by a falling object.

Heat accidents include:

Burns
Scalds
Electric shocks.

Mouth and foreign body accidents include:

Choking
Poisoning
Suffocating
Getting something stuck in ear or eye.

The first aid box

There will be at least one first aid box in your workplace that will usually be located near washing facilities.
There is no standard list of items to put in a first aid box; it will depend on the needs of your workplace.
However, in an office environment where there are no unusual risks, a first aid box could include:

A leaflet giving general guidance on first aid

Sterile adhesive dressings in assorted sizes
Sterile eye pads
Individually wrapped bandages
Safety pins
Sterile wound dressings
Disposable gloves

First aiders
A first aider is a person who has undergone a training course in administering first aid at work and who
holds a current first aid at work certificate.
The training has to have been approved by the Health and Safety Executive. A first aid assessment will
determine the number of first aiders in your workplace.
You may have additional first aiders to cover non-employees such as visitors to the premises, pupils or
trainees.
The names and contact details of the first aiders should be located next to the first aid box.
An appointed person
Every workplace must have an appointed person.
This is someone chosen to:

Take charge when someone is injured or falls ill (including calling an ambulance if required)
Look after the first aid equipment - for example restocking the first aid box
An appointed person should be available whenever people are at work - this may mean you have more
than one.

First aid information

There must be notices prominently displayed, giving the names of the appointed person(s) and the
location of the first aid box.