Explain how health and safety risk assessments are monitoredand reviewed.There is little point in completing a risk assessment incorrectly. You may as well not
have taken the time to do it at all. The document is supposed to be a helpful thing
that assists the people running the situation (event, excursion or class), and if it does
not contain useful information, it will not be helpful.
In the same way of thinking, a risk assessment must be monitored and reviewed.
This acts to double-check that the information in it is useful and that nothing has
been missed.
Example risk assessment process.
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Monitoring risk assessments
Usually there is a single person in the school who is designated as the person
responsible for monitoring risk assessments. This ensures that the job is carried out
by someone who is knowledgeable about risk assessments and who is reasonably
experienced in understanding health and safety considerations. This person may be
the health and safety officer in most cases, although sometimes it may be the head
teacher.
The correct person to check risk assessments will be named on the health and
safety policy for the school.
If there are errors or obvious omissions in the risk assessment that are noticed
by the person who monitors it, or if they feel you have not understood the
document (and thus filled it out incorrectly), you should ask them to take a few
minutes to explain a few things to enable you to do it correctly in the future.
Once the assessment has been checked by others, it should be signed off by the
health and safety officer and also by the head teacher.
Reviewing risk assessments
Risk assessments should be completed in plenty of time ahead of the event that is
due to take place. The reason for this is two-fold: closer to the time, certain details
about the event may change; and sometimes it may be easy to leave out details by
accident. Giving it plenty of time between completing the assessment and being
involved in the event means that you may then have time to remember aspects you
had previously forgotten.
Prior to the event you should check through the risk assessment, to make sure that
everything in it is still relevant and true; that anything new around the event that may
constitute a hazard has been included in the form; and to double-check if you have
forgotten to include something.
This is called reviewing.If you find that changes need to be made, you should do so.
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Did you know?
The existence of health and safety law does not mean that there will be no accidents or
incidents. Sometimes the source of the incident, for example, a disease such as E. Coli, may
be an external supplier. However, in establishing clear guidelines in terms of responsibility
and accountability, the law makes it less likely that serious errors will lead to unfortunate
consequences. If everyone adheres to the law in terms of reporting and recording, it also
means that any major situation (take food poisoning for example), can be dealt with more
effectively.
Responsibility around risk assessing
Ultimately, although you may be made responsible for completing risk assessments
for activities that your class is involved with, the safeguards that have been put in
place - namely, the monitoring and reviewing processes - are there to lift the
accountability from your shoulders. Those who sign off the risk assessment will be
held responsible for the content of it, and if they find that it has been incorrectly
filled out, may ask you to re-write it.
If a risk assessment has been filled out correctly and has been signed off by all the
relevant people, its incorrectness cannot be considered to be your responsibility.
This is why you must ensure that any risk assessment you do complete on behalf
of the school is monitored and signed off.
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