What are the Health and Safety Policies, Procedures and Guidance?

Health and Safety policies, procedures and guidance articulate the University's expectations and standards for the delivery of a safe and healthy working environment to staff and others. Some policies, such as the University's Health and Safety Management Policy are driven by statutory requirements, whilst other Health and Safety policies will be determined by the University's operational activities and experiences.

Procedures and Guidance

Policies, procedures and guidance form a hierarchy of requirements with the most important being policy status documents, followed by procedures and guidance in turn. Policy status documents are formally consulted on and approved through the Health and Safety committees structure and the Trades Unions Liaison (TUL). Policies present the University's position on a given subject usually with a framework for managing the risk.

Procedures are appropriate where there is a logical start and finish to an activity, and will usually comprise a set of recommended steps or sequence of events. Procedures can also be used to support a policy providing practical descriptions on how to achieve a policy objective. It is practice to consult on procedures in the same way as policies, however procedures can be adapted following consultation without having to wait for Committee approval.

Guidance will be prepared to support the explanation of requirements or procedures, and is based on best practice and experience with the objective of supporting and clarifying issues. For example the completion of Incident Report Forms will be supported by guidance prepared by the Health and Safety team. It is good practice to consult with those affected by the guidance to gain their insights and experience.

Ownership

Health and Safety policies approved through the Committees and TUL will have senior leadership ownership with the Health and Safety team monitoring implementation. Faculties and Professional Services functions can issue their own procedures and guidance within the frameworks specified by University policy, with the recommendation these are consulted on through the relevant Health, Safety and Security Committee and the Trades Unions.

Consultation and draft procedures and guidance for comments

Consultation is an important requirement in Health and Safety statute law. Draft policies and procedures either as new standards or updates of older policies and procedures are continually underway. If you wish to view and / or comment on any draft documents you can find them on the contributions page. Your contributions will be welcome.

Consultations close following the departmental and faculty Health, Safety and Security Committee (HSSC) meetings, and a week before the University HSSC and TUL.