Health and safety guidance

What is health and safety in the workplace?  

Workplace health and safety is all about sensibly managing risks to protect your workers and your business. Good health and safety management is characterised by strong leadership involving your managers, workers, suppliers, contractors and customers. In a global context, health and safety is also an essential part of the movement towards sustainable development.  

Read our 10 reasons why health and safety is important to your organisation

Who is responsible for workplace health and safety?  

The responsibility of health and safety in a workplace ultimately belongs with employers, who have a duty of care for the health, safety and wellbeing of all workers under their control. Whilst employers will always look towards OSH professionals for guidance on all things health and safety, employers are responsible for deciding on direction, resource, systems and everything else that allows for successful application of their guidance.  

Read more about the responsibilities of health and safety

What is a health and safety policy?  

A health and safety policy is a document outlining an organisation's commitment and approach to managing health and safety in the workplace.  

The policy is ultimately signed off by the person at the head of the organisation. Usually there are three sections to a health and safety policy, these include:  

• Statement of Intent - sets out the organisations aims and objectives
• Roles and Responsibilities - outlines who has specific responsibility for managing health and safety and what they are responsible for 
• Arrangements - this section is likely to be the largest part of your health and safety policy. It details how risks are managed in the workplace. Example of the arrangements detailed in health and safety policies include: risk assessments; safety procedures; training of workers; consultations such as safety committees or on-site meetings; emergency and evacuation arrangements.  

Read more about who creates the policy and when it should be reviewed

If you'd like to learn more about health and safety in the workplace then we have a huge range of awareness courses on offer for you to book onto.

We also have a Covid-19 resource hub which provides all the guidance you need to keep yourself and colleagues safe.