The purpose of Safety Statements is to enable Faculty Operating Officers (FOOs) and Directors of Professional Services (DPSs) to record and review their arrangements, activities and plans for managing health and safety. Statements also assist the University Health & Safety Committee to monitor compliance with legal requirements and internal health and safety policies and codes of practice throughout the University.
All FOOs/DPSs must draw up a Safety Statement for their Faculty/Directorate, in consultation with their staff, and students where appropriate. If a separate Safety Statement is submitted for different groups or campuses, each Statement must clearly indicate the group/campus to which it refers. Safety Statements must be kept up to date and submitted to the University Secretary via the H&S Unit before the end of April each year. One meeting of the Faculty/Directorate health and safety consultative group should be timetabled to review the Safety Statement before submission to the H&S Unit.
To assist with the completion of Safety Statements, both Health and Safety Criteria and a Statement template have been produced.
The Health and Safety Criteria give details of the organisation, activities and plans required of Faculties/Directorates in order to demonstrate adequate management of health and safety. They should be read before drawing up the Safety Statement.
The Safety Statement Proforma has four parts, each with a number of headings under which information must be provided:
Part A - Plan
A.1 Health and Safety Policy
A.2 Management Commitment and engagement
A.3 Consultation
A.4 Planning for emergencies
Part B - Do
B.1 Hazard and Risk Register
B.2 Audits
B.3 Risk Assessment/ DSE Risk assessments carried out or reviewed
B.4 Local codes of practice produced or reviewed
B.5 Inspections
B.6 Accident/Incident investigations
B.8 Competence
Part C - Action Plan for the Next 12 Months
C.1 Action for audit
C.2 Risk assessments/Register/DSE assessments to be carried out or reviewed
C.3 Local codes of practice to be produced or reviewed
C.4 Workplace inspections to be carried out
C.5 Statutory inspections to be carried out
C.6 Accidents
C.7 Information and training to be provided to staff and students
Part D - Endorsement of the Safety Statement
D.1 Statement reviewed by health and safety consultative group
D.2 Statement endorsed and submitted by FOO/DPS
All Safety Statements are analysed by the Health & Safety Unit. Each FOO/DPS is given their own Safety Statement analysis for review with the Health & Safety Unit on request. An analysis of Faculty and Directorate Safety Statements is included with the Annual H&S Report which is presented The Court each year.
To verify that Faculties/Directorates have robust safety management procedures and systems, the Health & Safety Unit will carry out a rolling programme of audits based on the HE sector Health And Safety Management Profile 'HASMAP' auditing tool. The Safety Statement will become a self-audit document for inclusion in the auditing programme, which will be carried out by sampling evidence described in the Statement and comparing this against the Health and Safety Criteria and the Health and Safety Policy. This auditing programme will be based on the risk levels of Faculties and Directorates and will be undertaken over a number of years, covering all Faculties and Directorates in the process. An audit report will be presented to the relevant Faculty Operating Officer/Director of Professional Service for review with the Health & Safety Unit, and an analysis will be presented to the University Health and Safety Committee and University Court.
Approved by UHS 25 May 2016