NEBOSH Certificate Unit IGC1

Element 2: Policy
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 Element 2: Policy

Contents
The Purpose and Importance of a Health and Safety Policy 2-1
The Role of the Health and Safety Policy in Decision-Making 2-1
The Aims, Objectives and Key Elements of a Policy 2-1
Revision Questions 2-1

The Key Features and Content of a Health and Safety Policy 2-2
General Statement of Intent 2-2
Organisation 2-3
Arrangements 2-4
Reviewing Policy 2-5
Standards and Guidance 2-5
Revision Questions 2-5

Summary 2-6

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 Element 2: Policy

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this element, you should be able to demonstrate understanding of the content through the application
of knowledge to familiar and unfamiliar situations. In particular you should be able to:

‹‹ Explain the purpose and importance of setting policy for health and safety.
‹‹ Describe the key features and appropriate content of an effective health and safety policy.

Hints and Tips

Before starting work on each element, take a

look at the Contents page – this will help you see
how the different topics relate to one another.

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The Purpose and Importance of a Health and Safety Policy
Key Information
• The health and safety policy of an organisation is an important document that sets out the organisation’s aims
with regards to health and safety, who is responsible for achieving these aims, and how the aims are to be
achieved.
• The policy is usually presented in three parts: the General Statement of Intent, the Organisation section, and
the Arrangements section.
The Role of the Health and Safety Policy
in Decision-Making
One foundation stone of good health and safety
management in any organisation is the health and
safety policy. A good health and safety policy sets out
the organisation’s general approach and commitment
to achieving particular aims and objectives. It provides
a framework of general and specific health and
safety responsibilities for staff, and guidance on the
detailed operational arrangements to be taken to
protect employees and others from harm as a result of
workplace activities.
The Aims, Objectives and Key Elements
of a Policy
A health and safety policy is usually written to achieve a
number of objectives, such as:
• Legal compliance – many countries have a legal
requirement for an organisation to prepare a written
health and safety policy.
• Meeting the requirements of a management system
standard – ILO-OSH 2001, OHSAS 18001 and every
other management system or standard requires a
written health and safety policy.
• Clear communication - of the importance that the
organisation attaches to health and safety, the lines
of responsibility and the arrangements for managing
health and safety.
• Continuous improvement - of health and safety
performance by setting specific objectives and targets
for the organisation to achieve.
A policy is normally presented in three sections or
elements:
• The General Statement of Intent, which states
the organisation’s philosophy in relation to the
© RRC Training Unit IGC1 – Element 2 | 2-1
Element 2: Policy
management of health and safety.
• The Organisation section, which indicates the chain
of command for health and safety management and
identifies roles and responsibilities.
• The Arrangements section, which outlines
the arrangements that exist for the effective
management of health and safety in
general terms (e.g. how risk assessments
are to be carried out) and also deals with
the management of specific issues (e.g.
arrangements for ensuring the safety of visitors).
Note that there is no one correct format or set of
contents for a health and safety policy. The policy must
reflect the particular circumstances of the individual
organisation: the hazards and risks, the size and the
complexity of the organisation. The policy must
therefore be developed and tailored to fit the particular
organisation that it exists to serve. For example, the
safety policy of a small, low risk manufacturing company
will be very different from that of a large, high risk oil
and gas multinational.
Revision Questions
1. Why might the health and safety policy of
two organisations, both undertaking similar
work, be different?
2. What are the three key elements of a health
and safety policy?
(Suggested Answers are at the end of Unit IGC1.)
 Element 2: Policy

The Key Features and Content of a Health and Safety Policy

Key Information

• The General Statement of Intent outlines the importance that the organisation places on health and safety and
the commitment that can be expected. It sets aims and objectives for the organisation to achieve. It is signed by
the person in overall control of the organisation.

• The Organisation section highlights the roles and responsibilities that exist at all levels within the organisation. It
shows the lines of responsibility and accountability.

• The Arrangements section provides the detail on how the organisation manages health and safety. It outlines
the general arrangements that relate to health and safety management and the specific arrangements that relate
to individual health and safety topics and issues.

• Health and safety policies have to be reviewed in order to stay current and relevant.

General Statement of Intent

Topic Focus
This spells out the organisation’s overall approach to
health and safety management, and its aims in terms
of performance. It must commit the organisation Objectives
to achieving legal compliance, and in many cases the
commitment will be to achieving a higher standard than The Statement of Intent may recognise some
that set by the law, either as a matter of overarching general objectives that have to be achieved by
corporate policy or because of the nature of the the organisation, such as:
organisation.
• Meeting legal obligations.
The Statement of Intent will usually recognise
• Provision of a safe workplace, safe equipment
that managers and workers at all levels within the
and safe systems of work, information,
organisation have a part to play in implementing policy
instruction, training and supervision.
and will therefore state very clearly that every person
must comply with the policy and that serious breaches of • Risk assessment of all relevant workplace
policy may be treated as disciplinary offences. activities.
The General Statement of Intent should be signed by the • Performance monitoring.
person at the top of the organisation (Chief Executive
Officer (CEO), Managing Director (MD), etc.) to both • Provision of adequate resources such as
authorise the policy and to indicate that the policy expert health and safety advice.
commitment comes from the very highest level.
• Effective communication and consultation
The statement should also be dated. This indicates when with workers.
the current statement was prepared and provides a
reference point for periodic review.

Unit IGC1 – Element 2 | 2-2 © RRC Training


Topic Focus
Targets
The Statement of Intent may also set targets for
the organisation to achieve. Targets are useful
as they allow performance to be measured and
provide a tangible goal for staff to aim for. They
also help to drive continual improvement.
Possible targets might relate to:
• Accident rates: to achieve a reduction in
the accident or ill-health rate.
Targets may be set in relation to past
performance or the performance of other
similar organisations, or the industry
as a whole. The process of comparing
performance in this way is known as
“benchmarking”. So, if fatal accident rates in
an industry as a whole are, for example, one
for every 100,000 miles driven, the target for
a particular organisation may be to achieve
that standard or have a lower rate.
• Active monitoring: to complete successfully
a number of active monitoring activities,
e.g. successful completion of 90% of all
supervisor safety inspections over a year.
Health and Safety Organisation Chart
© RRC Training Unit IGC1 – Element 2 | 2-3
Element 2: Policy
Organisation
This section of the health and safety policy deals with
people and their operational duties in relation to health
and safety. It outlines the chain of command for health
and safety management and identifies the roles and
responsibilities of staff. It is standard practice for this
section to include an organisation chart showing the
lines of responsibility and accountability (in terms of
health and safety management). This chart also shows
the lines of communication and the feedback routes that
exist within the organisation.
The figure below shows a typical organisation chart for
a company. The green lines show “line management
responsibility” flowing down through the structure. The
blue lines show the “functional responsibility” that the
health and safety manager has for providing advice at all
levels of the organisation.
The orange lines show the lines of communication and
feedback up through the structure.
 Element 2: Policy
The Organisation section will usually reflect the
management hierarchy within the organisation and
allocate responsibilities accordingly:
• The CEO or MD – is ultimately responsible and
accountable for the entire organisation.
• Management at all levels – is responsible for
ensuring that all appropriate safety measures are
in place and being carried out effectively within
their sphere of management control. This might be
done by breaking the management hierarchy down
into discrete layers and allocating responsibilities
to each layer, e.g. senior managers’ responsibilities,
middle managers’ responsibilities, supervisors’
responsibilities.
• All employees – are responsible for acting safely at all
times in the course of their duties at work.
• Competent persons – who have operational duties
but are also considered competent to carry out one
or more specialist health and safety duties, e.g. as first
aiders, fire marshals, etc.
• Specialist health and safety practitioners –
responsible for providing advice to support
management and employees in achieving safety.
Hints and Tips
Highlight sections of the text to make key ideas
stand out. This will be very useful when you start
your revision.
More...
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/
safework/managmnt/guide.htm
http://www.hse.gov.uk
Unit IGC1 – Element 2 | 2-4 © RRC Training
Arrangements
The Arrangements section is often the largest section
of the policy. It deals with the general arrangements
that exist to manage health and safety and the specific
arrangements that are necessary to deal with particular
risks relevant to the organisation and its activities.
Topic Focus
General health and safety management
arrangements:
• Carrying out risk assessments.
• Identifying and supplying health and safety
information, instruction and training.
• Compliance monitoring, including auditing.
• Accident and near miss reporting, recording
and investigation.
• Consultation with workers on health and
safety matters.
• Developing safe systems of work and permit-
to-work systems.
• Carrying out specialist risk assessments such
as those on hazardous substances.
• Emergency procedures and first aid provision.
All of the general health and safety management issues
will be relevant to all workplaces; they are generic issues.
However, the practical arrangements made for the
management of these issues will have to be tailored to
suit the organisation.
Depending on the workplace, specific health and safety
arrangements will also have to be developed to deal with
particular risks.
The list of possible arrangements that might be required
can be long and is dependent on the problems and
issues faced by the organisation in question. For example,
a lorry haulage company will have a set of arrangements
to manage transport risk, but an office based company
will not.
 Element 2: Policy

Examples of specific risks and problems that may need Standards and Guidance
detailed arrangements include:
Article 14 of the International Labour Organisation’s
• Lone working. Occupational Safety and Health Recommendation 1981
(R164) states:
• Housekeeping.
“Employers should, where the nature of the operations
• Noise exposure control. in their undertakings warrants it, be required to set
out in writing their policy and arrangements in the
• Vibration exposure control. field of occupational safety and health, and the various
responsibilities exercised under these arrangements, and
• Control of exposure to toxic materials.
to bring this information to the notice of every worker, in
• Fire safety and prevention. a language or medium the worker readily understands.“

• Control of contractors. Source: R164 Occupational Safety and Health

• Control of transport risks.
Reviewing Policy
A health and safety policy should not be considered as
rigid and unchanging. Instead, it should be subject to
regular review so that it remains current and relevant. In
this way it can be kept a “live” document.
It is good practice to review policy on a regular basis, e.g.
annually. However, there are other circumstances which
could give rise to reviews.
Recommendation, 1981
Copyright© International Labour Organisation 1981
The ILO’s Occupational Safety and Health Management
System, ILO-OSH 2001 has additional guidance on
safety policy. National governments usually have specific
guidance on what this actually means in practice in a
given region. For example, in the UK the HSE publish
several guidance documents on the topic.

Topic Focus

Circumstances which might require a

review of policy:

• Changes to key personnel, e.g a new CEO or

MD.

• Changes to the management structure of the

organisation.

• A management take-over.

• Changes to the type of work that the

organisation does.
Revision Questions
• Recommended by a safety audit.

• Requested by a third party such as an

insurance company or client. 3. Who should sign the policy statement?

4. What health and safety responsibilities do all

The aim of the review is to make sure that the policy is
up-to-date and accurate. The date of the previous review
should be recorded on policy documents to indicate how
current they are.
workers have?
5. What does a safety organisation chart show?
6. What circumstances might require a review
of policy?
(Suggested Answers are at the end of Unit IGC1.)

© RRC Training Unit IGC1 – Element 2 | 2-5

 Element 2: Policy

Summary
This element has dealt with health and safety policies.

In particular this element has:

• Identified the health and safety policy of an organisation as an important document that sets out what the
organisation’s aims are with regard to health and safety, who is responsible for achieving those aims, and how the aims
are to be achieved.

• Explained that the policy is usually presented in three parts: the General Statement of Intent, the Organisation section
and the Arrangements section:

–– The General Statement of Intent communicates the importance that the organisation places on health and safety,
the commitment that can be expected and the aims and objectives for the organisation to achieve. It is signed by
the person in overall control of the organisation.

–– The Organisation section deals with the roles and responsibilities that exist at all levels within the organisation and
indicates the lines of responsibility and accountability.

–– The Arrangements section provides the detail on how the organisation manages health and safety. It outlines the
general arrangements that relate to health and safety management and the specific arrangements that relate to
individual health and safety topics and issues.

• Noted that health and safety policies have to be reviewed in order to stay current and relevant and that reviews might
be carried out periodically or in response to changes, such as those to key personnel or management structure.

Unit IGC1 – Element 2 | 2-6 © RRC Training