A Risk Assessment is a structured process to help you identify and manage health and safety risks in your workplace. This enables you to look at the hazards in your workplace that could lead to injury or ill health through normal and foreseeable work practices. This could be to employees or non-employees, both at their workplace or when they are out and about.
How is a Risk Assessment Carried Out?
Identify hazards – look for anything that could cause harm, such as equipment, substances, or work activities.
Decide who might be harmed and how – consider employees, contractors, visitors, and anyone else affected
Evaluate existing controls – check what measures are already in place to reduce risk
Focus on significant risks – prioritise the hazards most likely to cause serious harm
Decide on further action – determine what additional steps are needed to make the workplace safer
Record and review – risk assessment is a legal requirement; if you employ more than 5 people, risk assessments should be documented. Make sure you update it regularly, especially if work processes change
A good risk assessment doesn’t have to be complicated – it’s about being thorough and practical, By focusing on the most significant risks and ensuring controls are effective, you can meet your legal duties and protect your people.
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
