About Health & Safety Policy Development
As an employer you have a legal responsibility to protect the health and safety of your staff and other people – such as contractors, customers and members of the public – who may be affected by your work operations.
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HSWA) section 2(3) requires that anyone employing five or more persons must:
- Prepare a written statement of policy
- Set out organisation and arrangement for implementing policy
- Revise and update as necessary
- Bring the policy and arrangements to the notice of all employees
A health and safety policy sets out your general approach and objectives (your vision) and the arrangements you have put in place for managing health and safety in your business. It is a unique document that says who does what, when and how.
If you have five or more employees, you must write your policy down. A written policy statement shows your staff, and anyone else, your commitment to health and safety. It should describe how you will implement and monitor your health and safety controls. You should review it regularly.
A policy is different from a risk assessment.
Good practice in health and safety makes sound business sense. Through the development of an effective health and safety policy your business should be able to:
- Reduce absences and sick leave
- Improve staff retention
- Maintain your organisation's reputation
- Boost productivity and profits
- Reduce your insurance premiums and legal costs
Good health, safety, and environmental practices pay for themselves. They also improve your reputation with customers, suppliers, contractors and your own employees.
Results you should expect
Organisations that MESH Consultants have worked with previously have had health and safety policies that ranged from the far too complicated to the non-existent, and in the middle ground there were policies that weren’t representative of the organisation and so weren’t used effectively.
MESH Consultants take on the role of policy development for a number of clients, which enables those clients to concentrate on their core business while we take care of health and safety policy issues.
We produce policies and procedures to meet your own individual needs, from top-level documents down to operational procedures, we help to unravel the legal requirements placed upon your business and produce documents that you and your staff can understand.
Good health, safety, and environmental practices pay for themselves. They also improve your reputation with customers, suppliers, contractors and your own employees. MESH Consultants have used our extensive experience in health and safety policy development to ensure peace of mind for clients in a wide range of industries throughout the UK.
Featured Case Study
Client: Woollens
Sector: Estate Agents
Your quick response to our requirements was most appreciated.
J Woolllen
MESH was asked by Woollens estate agents to update its health and safety policy; this was part of a tender the company was asked to submit to a local authority. To develop a suitable health and safety policy MESH undertook a review of how the company addresses health and safety issues.
The policy was then focussed on what health and safety legislative requirements the company needed to comply with and set out how this could be achieved with the existing resources. MESH provided additional advice and support on areas the management needed to focus on to manage its health and safety effectively.
Your Options
MESH can offer a range of health and safety policy options to organisations throughout the UK, we do however insist that we need to understand your business and your business needs in relation to health and safety management:
1. We can develop a policy that covers your organisations health and safety statement, organisation of responsibilities and arrangements for achieving health and safety compliance.
2. We can assist your organisation to develop key supporting health and safety procedures (e.g. such as travel, lone working, stress management etc).
3. We can provide a service where we maintain your organisations health and safety policies and procedures on an annual basis and will provide updates as and when any legislative changes come into force that apply to you.
What we provide is a service that can be tailored to you to enable you to meet legislative health and safety compliance, and keep the HSE inspector satisfied that you have effective working policies in place.
Costs
Costs of our health and safety policy service can vary depending on the type and size of organisations and the range of activities we need to include on the health and safety arrangements section of the policy.
As a guideline, fees for work recently undertaken have ranged from as little as £375 to £1750 to develop health and safety policies and procedures that are both legislatively compliant and fit the individual organisations needs.
We believe our pricing is very competitive but we don't compromise on quality and you can be assured that our consultants will add valve to your business. We would expect you to shop around for quotations but would encourage you to check what level of service is being provided. Ask yourself whether you getting health and safety support that will make a long-term difference to the health and safety of your staff and your business. If in any doubt, please do contact us without obligation.
Where we work
MESH provides health and safety policy services for companies in a diverse range of industries throughout the UK and Europe.
Our Head Office is in Kent, with regional offices located in London, The Home Counties, The Midlands, and The North East.
