Your Responsibilities
Initial Assessment / Overview Risk Assessment (College/Service Level)
Before you can really be sure how best to manage health and safety within your College or Professional Service you must know what your risks are and how these are currently controlled. You will already have an overview risk assessment, which will have initially been produced with the central Health and Safety Staff. Please familiarise yourself with this Risk Assessment, it is crucial to a successful health and safety management system.
How can you manage what you don't know you have?
Periodic re-assessments of health and safety risks will consider elements and sometimes the whole of you College / Service and will identify your key hazards (dangers), identifying whether the risks are being controlled. Each College / Service is very different but below are some pointers as to what 'subjects' should be assessed by an initial review.
- Electrical Safety
- Biological Agents safety
- Computer workstations
- Genetic Manipulation (GM)
- Violence and intimidation at work & personal safety
- Radiations; Ionising, X-Rays, UV, Microwaves
- Vehicles and drivers
- Laser Safety and Laser by-products
- Storage, slips, trips and falls
- Chemicals and Chemical by-products
- Overseas travel
- Glassware safety
- Student Workplacement
- Teratogenic and Mutagenic Agents
- Staff working on other employer premises
- Carcinogens
- Visiting academics and similar staff
- Emergency Procedures
- Control of contractors
- Provision of Information and Specialist Training
- Research work, project work and teaching activities
- Working at Heights
- Visitors and Children
- Handling of specialist gases and cylinders
- Field Trips
- Security of critical products and areas (radiation sources, biological hazards, etc.)
- Staff and student health and safety training
- Hazardous Waste disposal
- Emergency First Aid provision
- Manual Handling tasks
- New and Expectant Mothers
- Protective Equipment; gloves, eye protection, laboratory coats etc.
- Stress and Ill-health absenteeism
- Accident and Incident Investigation