What might be too risky for some will be an adventure for others…although the passenger’s face might suggest otherwise!
A risk assessment is a careful examination of what, in your work, could cause harm to people, so that you can weigh up whether you have taken enough precautions or should do more to prevent harm.
– Health and Safety Executive
Risk assessments are really important for health and safety management.
They are carried out so that you can comply with your statutory duty under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and other associated regulations. Risk assessments work by reducing the level of incidents and accidents.
We have already looked at ways of identifying hazards and preventing slips, trips and falls in this course.
These will help you to produce a risk assessment and to consider the risks as you work. Risk assessments can cover the workplace and also individual risk assessments will cover the people you support. The principles of risk assessment are the same.
A hazard is ‘something with the potential to cause harm’ and a risk is ‘the likelihood of that potential harm being realised’.
Hazards can be identified by using a number of different techniques, such as walking round the workplace, or asking people. The hazard checklist we shared in section 4 will help with this.
When looking around your workplace think about what may cause harm (these are called hazards).
How people work and how equipment is used, for example, vacuum cleaners.
What safe or unsafe work practices exist, for example, leaving floors wet.
The general state of your workplace, for example, condition of floors, that cracked paving slab or moss covered decking in the garden.
For each hazard, think about how the people you support, employees, contractors, visitors or members of the public might be harmed.
Decide how likely it is that someone could be harmed and how serious it could be. This is called assessing the level of risk.
Decide:
Who might be harmed and how
What you are already doing to control the risks
What further action you need to take to control the risks
Who needs to carry out the action
When the action is needed by.
After ‘identifying the hazards’ and ‘deciding who might be harmed and how’, you then need to protect the people from harm.
The hazards can either be removed completely or the risks controlled so that the injury is unlikely.
Look at what you’re already doing and the controls you already have in place. Ask yourself:
Can I get rid of the hazard altogether?
If not, how can I control the risks so that harm is unlikely?
- Redesigning the task, for example, washing the kitchen floor at a time when it is not busy.
Replacing the materials, or process. For example, a new non-slip mat or flooring.
Organising the work to reduce exposure to the materials, or process. For example, vacuuming rooms when they are empty.
Identifying and implementing practical measures needed to work safely. For example, changing the cleaning routine.
You are not expected to eliminate all the risks but you need to do everything ‘reasonably practicable’ to protect people from harm.
This means balancing the level of risk against the measures needed to control the real risk in terms of money, time or trouble.
To help you, the HSE have a risk assessment template and examples. Your workplace may have similar templates.
It is important not to think everything is OK because you have written it down. The most important thing is making sure the risks are controlled in practice!
You must review the controls you have put in place to make sure they are working. You should also review them if:
They are no longer effective
There are changes in the workplace that could lead to new risks such as changes to:
People
A process
The substances or equipment used
Update your risk assessment record with any changes you make.
If you are a care worker thinking this is not your responsibility. Think again!
Whilst you might not be responsible for creating initial documented risk assessments, by knowing the process and what is required, you will understand what should happen and provide valuable input.
Risk assessment is something you do all the time in your role as you have to adapt to changing situations. You can use this process to check informally as you carry out tasks within your role.
Falls risk assessments for people you support
The same process of risk assessment should be followed for people who may be at risk from falls.
Some of the things that should be considered when assessing risks to individuals are:
Once you know what the risk factors are, you can work to minimise them.
A falls risk assessment tool (FRAT) is often used.
I’m definitely up for a bit of tandem sky diving, are you?
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