If you are still working during this period you must still follow government guidelines around social distancing.
For some transport, construction, manufacturing, and trades activities, this may lead to an increase in lone working as you are adapting to the current requirements.
Lone working is not prohibited but it must be assessed to ensure that employees are not put at risk.
Lone working does not just mean a single person working on a premises, it may also include large premises with singular employees working on different floors, departments, and areas away from others.
Employers are required to carry out a risk assessment of work activities and take reasonable measure to protect lone workers.
Risk assessment should include measures for employee training, supervision and monitoring (keeping in touch).
Employee training should include the risks involved with the task and the necessary procedures for managing those risks.
This training should include the procedure for dealing with emergencies and understanding the arrangements for keeping in touch.
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In addition to training employers should provide systems for employees to keep in touch this may include things like; pre-arranged checks at designated times using a phone or radio, arrangements for knowing where workers are and what their anticipated movements might be (such as checking diaries), manual or automatic device for raising an alarm in an emergency, systems for reporting when they have reached and returned from the destination safely.
Employees or their representatives should be consulted on changes in working conditions that may impact their health and safety at work, involving them in your lone working risk assessment may lead to joint problem solving and enhanced cooperation with company procedures.
For further advice on lone working you should speak with your competent H&S adviser or alternatively give us a call and we’ll be more than happy to help.
As an employer, you are legally required to protect the health, safety, and wellbeing of your employees – and anyone else affected by your work activities
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If you wear tight-fitting respiratory protective equipment (RPE) at work, it is a legal requirement to undergo a face fit test carried out by a competent person.
As part of their business expansion, a food supplement manufacturer needed to review and strengthen their Health & Safety and Fire Safety compliance, including updating their risk assessments, and reviewing and refreshing existing Health & Safety policies.
We have worked with Safewell for many years and are retained clients, so we have developed an excellent working relationship with the team. However, this really came into its own when Covid 19 appeared.
As a Plumbing and Heating business, we were able to carry on working during the lockdown but only for responding to emergencies. We were obviously very concerned about the health and safety of our employees and before we even had chance to get in touch with Safewell, they had emailed us offering their assistance. It is hard to put down on paper how that made us feel - we like everyone else felt totally at sea, which way to turn, what to do? But Safewell were there guiding, supporting and being totally brilliant. Their attention to detail is very impressive and reassuring and we feel able to ask lots of questions without feeling silly.
During the pandemic Safewell helped us to write risk assessments, safety procedures and protocols. They kept in touch regularly, issuing new guidance as soon as it appeared and checking in with us. They held group Q&A sessions over Zoom which were helpful, and knowing other businesses were facing the same challenges and having the opportunity to discuss issues was invaluable. Their help during the preparation for a full return to work was brilliant, they enabled us to be fully prepared and feel in control, and when we had our first case of Covid within the team, because we had planned our response it felt ok.
I think our team felt very reassured by our robust approach and that our office was Covid secure. We are extremely grateful to all the team at Safewell
