Episode 56:

Hello and Welcome to the Part3 with me podcast, 

The show that helps part 3 students jump start into their careers as qualified architects and also to provide refresher episodes for practicing architects. I am your host Maria Skoutari and this week we will be talking about Risk Assessments. Todays episode meets PC3 of the Part 3 Criteria.

Managing health and safety is essential in managing a business and risk assessments are required to identify the risks in the workplace, the measures required to be adopted to control them and maintaining their control.

Typically there are two types of risk assessments, General and Specific. 

General Assessments: Are required by employers to make an assessment of the health and safety risks to which employers and others are exposed to on construction sites. Significant findings must be recorded where five or more people are employed. 

Specific Assessments: Is where regulations require risk assessments to be carried out for specific hazards and state more thoroughly what is required. For examples these can include work at height, hazardous substances, manual handling, noise, vibration and lead. 

Before considering and assessing the risks, the HSE recommends following a Plan, Do, Check and Act approach, which is:

• Describing how health and safety is managed in the workplace and what the plan is in applying it
• Then the identified risks should be prioritised and controlled
• Once the controls have been put in place measure how the process is doing 
• And learn from the experience and adjust accordingly. 

Now reverting back to the assessments themselves, focusing on the general assessment, employers are required by law to protect their employees from harm and under the Management of Health and Safety at work Regulations 1999, employers as a minimum are expected to:

• Identify what could cause injury or illness - known as hazards
• Decide how likely it is that someone could be harmed and how seriously - known as the risk
• Take action to eliminate the hazard, or if not possible, control the risk as reasonably practicable

So how would hazards be identified:

You would start by assessing the area and workplace or site and think what may cause harm - these are the known hazards and they are the most important aspect of the risk assessment I accurately identifying the potential hazards. So you would start by looking at:

• How people work and how plant and equipment are used 
• What chemicals and substances are used
• What safe or unsafe work practices exist
• The general state of the space/site
• Any potential long term hazards to health such as high levels of noise

Now when we refer to a space as a workplace, this is defined as any premises or part of a premises which are made available to any person as a place of work, and items like lighting, ventilation, temperature, toilets and washing facilities need to be considered.

So for each of the hazards identified, as per the items just mentioned, the employer must assess how employees, contractors, visitors or members of the public might be harmed. Special attention needs to considered also for vulnerable workers, such as people with disabilities, young workers and so on. Therefore, employers are legally obligated to inform their employees how to work safely and without risks to health and making sure they are aware of the hazards and risks they face, this includes providing them with the right information for example on how to follow energy procedures, clear instructions making sure everyone knows what they are expected to do, training and necessary competence.

So once hazards have been identified, employers will need to assess the likeliness of someone being harmed and how serious it could be - this is typically known as assessing the level of risk. This would be recorded in the risk assessment document and should include:

• Who might be harmed and how
• What steps are already been taken to control the risks
• What further actions are needed to control the risks
• Who needs to carry out the action
• When the action is needed by

I’ve included a link to risk assessment example templates in the episode notes if you want to have a better look. Remember, the risk assessment should only include what the employer could reasonably be expected to know, they are not expected to anticipate unforeseeable risks. 

Then the employer should also check with their employees what they think the hazards are which can help the employer identify the best way to control the risk. They should also consider potential hazards toward people that might not be in the workplace all the time, such as visitors and how they may be harmed by certain activities. 

Then, the employer should take the necessary steps to control the risks:

• Can the hazard be removed altogether
• If not, how can the risk be controlled to reduce harm 

If you stumble across obstacles in eliminating the risk, it may be worth reconsidering some elements, such as:

• The design
• The materials
• Organising the work to reduce exposure to the materials, machinery or process
• Identifying and implementing practical measures needed to work safely
• Provide personal protective equipment and making sure workers use them

Although you are not expected to eliminate all risks, as long as you demonstrate that all necessary measures that are reasonably practicable have been taken to protect people from harm. So once controls have been identified, they should be applied and maintained. Employers must always remember to keep a record of their significant findings which includes the hazards, how people might be harmed by them and what the employer has put in place to control the risks.

If the employer employs less than five people they don’t have to write anything down, although it is recommended fro them to do so. But if the employer employs five or more people, they are expected to record their significant findings, including, hazards, who might be harmed and how, and what is being done to control the risks. The controls must then be reviewed to determine they are effective in case some may need to be reassessed, for example if there are changes to the workplace that could lead to new risks, such as staff, a process or substances. And the risks assessment will need to be updated accordingly and reviewed regularly and up to date. 

Now let's look more closely at Specific Assessments, which as mentioned in the beginning of the episode, covers risk assessments to be carried out for specific hazards. 

For example let's look at working at height, which means work in any place where a person could fall a distance that can cause personal injury, which is the biggest cause of fatalities and major injuries. In such instances, employers should carry out assessments to ensure work is planned properly, supervised and carried out by a competent person with the skills, knowledge and experience to do the job. 

So when it comes to assessing the risks with working at height, the height of the task needs to be considered, along with the duration, frequency and condition of the surface being worked on and try and minimise the risks by avoiding working at height where reasonably practicable, prevent falls using either an existing place of work what is already safe or the right type of equipment and try and minimise the distance and potential of falling by using the right type of equipment where risk can’t be eliminated.

Another example of specific work that requires a specific assessment is Manual Handling. Manual handling causes over a third of all workplace injuries, these include work-related musculoskeletal disorders such as pain and injuries to arms, legs, joints and repetitive strain injuries of various sorts that can be obtained through a variety of activities including lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling and carrying. 

In such instances, employers need to put together risk assessments in good handling techniques, whether lifting aids or equipment can be used to ease the task and if distances can be reduced. 

So to sum up what I discussed today:

• Risk assessments are required to identify the risks in the workplace, the measures required to be adopted to control them and maintaining their control
• There are two types of risk assessments, General and Specific. General are for assessments of the health and safety risks to which employers and others are exposed to on construction sites. 
• Specific Assessments: Is where regulations require risk assessments to be carried out for specific hazards and state more thoroughly what is required.
• Risk Assessments should be written down, kept simple and to the point
• A risk assessment must be 'suitable and sufficient', and it should show that:
• a proper check was made
• The employer asked who might be affected
• They dealt with all the obvious significant hazards, taking into account the number of people who could be involved
• The precautions are reasonable, and the remaining risk is low
• The employees were involved in the process 
• Remember, the greater the hazard the more robust and reliable the measures to control the risk of an injury occurring need to be.