The United Kingdom Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have announced the completion of new online guidance to replace the current ‘Successful Health and Safety Management’ (HSG65).
The new guidance ‘microsite’ aims to provide a simpler process for organisations to understand and comply with health and safety regulation, and explains the new model of: “Plan, Do, Check, Act” (PDCA), replacing the previous mantra of: “Policy, Organisation, Planning, Audit and Review”.
This guidance follows the same PDCA used in management systems standards, such as OHSAS 18001, ISO 14001 and ISO 9001. It will be interesting to speculate how this guidance will move further towards OHSAS 18001 as there are moves by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to convert the OHSAS into an ISO International Standard.
According to the HSE, the move towards Plan, Do, Check, Act achieves a better balance between the systems and behavioural aspects of management. It also treats health and safety management as an integral part of good management generally, rather than as a stand-alone system.
The HSE microsite is divided into four distinct sections, which explains the Plan, Do, Check, Act approach and includes:
- the core elements of managing for health and safety
- deciding if you are doing what you need to do
- delivering effective arrangements
- the core elements of managing for health and safety
- deciding if you are doing what you need to do
- delivering effective arrangements
- useful resources
Each section of the guidance aims to target a different type of reader from business leaders, owners and line managers, to workers and their representatives.
Later this year will see the publication of a hard-copy resource in addition to the introduction of microsite.
You can view the HSE microsite at: http://bit.ly/XrEoLq & sign up for early notification of the hard-copy version at the HSE Publications eBulletin at: http://bit.ly/N3aYQl