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Community safety
Principals of sensible risk management
There comes a time when we are tired of hearing about petty health and
safety stopping people doing worthwhile and enjoyable things, when at the
same time others are suffering harm and even death due to poor management
and complacency. That is why Adur District Council is joining with the Health
and Safety Executive (HSE) to support a set of principles of sensible risk
management.
The principles set out what we believe risk management should, and should not, be about. They are simple; they are common sense. To some they will no doubt be a statement of the blindingly obvious. Unfortunately they are clearly not obvious to everyone; if they were we wouldn’t keep hearing stories about people concentrating effort on trivial risks and unnecessary bureaucracy. And there would be far fewer injuries, cases of ill health and deaths caused by work.
Some of the ’elfandsafety’ stories are just myths. There are also some instances where health and safety is used as a convenient and lazy excuse to justify unpopular decisions or cover up management failure. But research by the HSE shows that behind many of the stories, there is at least a grain of truth - someone really has made a stupid decision. Of course the untold story is that many organizations manage risks sensibly, responsibly and proportionately. We need more to join them.
Publication of these principles is the start, not the end. On their own the principles are just words on a piece of paper; we must put actions in place to make them come to life. Last year the HSE published new guidance on risk assessment, including a simple step-by-step guide and example risk assessments to show how much is expected, how much is enough. The new guidance makes the point that risk assessment is not rocket science - it’s really about good planning.
We must, and will, promote the sensible management of risks that protects people from real harm and suffering, but avoids bureaucratic back covering. The clear message is that if you are using health and safety to stop everyday activities - get a life and let others get on with theirs. But equally, if you think health and safety is a joke and that you can just ignore real risks, and then try telling that to the families of the 212 workers who never went home at all last year. Sensible risk management is emphatically about saving lives, not stopping them.
The comments above are an extract from an address given by Bill Callaghan, HSE.
Sensible
risk management IS about :
- Ensuring that workers and the public are properly protected
- Providing overall benefit to society by balancing benefits and risks, with a focus on reducing real risks - both those which arise more often and those with serious consequences
- Enabling innovation and learning not stifling them
- Ensuring that those who create risks manage them responsibly and understand that failure to manage real risks responsibly is likely to lead to robust action
- Enabling individuals to understand that as well as the right to protection, they also have to exercise responsibility
Sensible
risk management IS NOT about :
- Creating a totally risk free society
- Generating useless paperwork mountains
- Scaring people by exaggerating or publicising trivial risks
- Stopping important recreational and learning activities for individuals where the risks are managed
- Reducing protection of people from risks that cause real harm and suffering
Useful links on the HSE website :
- Risk management (www.hse.gov.uk/risk)
- Five steps to risk assessment (www.hse.gov.uk/risk/fivesteps.htm)
- Principles of sensible risk management (www.hse.gov.uk/risk/principles.htm)
- Example risk assessments for a range of jobs or activities (www.hse.gov.uk/risk/casestudies/index.htm)
- Good practice guidance for your particular industry (www.hse.gov.uk/risk/industry.htm)
- Risk management : Myth of the month (www.hse.gov.uk/myth/index.htm)
