IOSH Managing Safely cheat sheet

Managing safely is driven by three imperatives: moral (protecting people from harm), legal (statutory duties and potential prosecution) and financial (accident costs, fines, lost production).

Hazard = anything with the potential to cause harm; risk = the combination of the likelihood of harm occurring and the severity of that harm.

Accident costs behave like an iceberg: insured costs (claims, repairs, premiums) are the visible tip; uninsured costs (lost time, retraining, investigation, replacement labour, reputation) are far larger and usually unrecorded.

Bird's accident triangle: for every serious injury there are roughly 10 minor injuries, 30 property-damage incidents and 600 near misses.

Managers influence safety through three routes: setting direction (policy and objectives), implementing (organising, controlling, training, consulting) and monitoring (measuring and reviewing performance).

Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) is the continuous improvement cycle underpinning any safety management system: plan controls, implement them, check performance, act on the gap.

A reactive approach waits for harm and then responds; a proactive approach anticipates harm and puts controls in place before loss occurs.

Five steps: identify the hazards; decide who might be harmed and how; evaluate the risks and decide on precautions; record the significant findings; review and update.

Risk rating = likelihood score × severity score; on a standard 5×5 matrix scores run from 1 to 25.

Typical priority bands on a 5×5 matrix: 1-4 low (monitor), 5-9 medium (control), 10-15 high (urgent action), 16-25 unacceptable (stop the activity).

An assessment must be 'suitable and sufficient' - proportionate to the level of risk, covering significant hazards and everyone affected, including non-employees.

Significant findings must be recorded in writing where the employer has five or more employees.

Groups requiring specific consideration: young and inexperienced workers, new or expectant mothers, workers with disabilities, lone workers, contractors, visitors and the public.

Residual risk is the risk remaining once existing controls are taken into account; it is residual risk, not the raw hazard, that must be judged acceptable or not.

Review triggers: change of process, plant or personnel; an accident or near miss; new legislation or guidance; the passage of time.

Risk assessment is a continuous activity feeding decisions, not a document produced once for the file.

Hierarchy of control, most to least effective: eliminate the hazard → substitute with something less hazardous → engineering controls → administrative controls → personal protective equipment.

Elimination removes the hazard entirely; PPE only protects the individual wearer and depends on correct selection, fit and use.

'Reasonably practicable' means balancing the risk against the cost, time and effort of control; gross disproportion between cost and benefit is the only basis for not acting.

Collective measures (guards, extraction ventilation, exclusion zones, interlocks) protect everyone and rank above individual measures.

Administrative controls include safe systems of work, training, supervision, task rotation, permits to work and safety signage.

PPE is the last resort: it must be suitable for the hazard, correctly fitted, worn, maintained, stored and replaced when defective.

Emergency arrangements cover warning, escape routes, assembly points, roll call, drills, first-aid provision and firefighting equipment.

ALARP: risks must be reduced as low as reasonably practicable, not merely to the level of a legal minimum.

HSWA 1974 s.2: employers must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of all employees at work.

HSWA 1974 s.3: employers must conduct the undertaking so that non-employees (contractors, visitors, the public) are not exposed to risks to their health and safety.

HSWA 1974 s.7: employees must take reasonable care of themselves and others affected by their acts or omissions and cooperate with the employer; s.8 prohibits intentional interference with safety provisions.

A written health and safety policy is required where five or more employees are employed; it contains a statement of intent, organisation and arrangements.

Improvement notice: requires a legal contravention to be remedied within a stated period. Prohibition notice: stops an activity involving a risk of serious personal injury immediately.

RIDDOR reportable events: deaths, specified injuries, dangerous occurrences, certain work-related diseases and over-seven-day incapacitation.

UK employers' liability insurance is compulsory, with a statutory minimum cover of £5 million.

Consultation with employees or their safety representatives is a legal duty (Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977; HSCER 1996).

A competent person has sufficient training, experience and knowledge to assist the employer and may be appointed from inside or outside the organisation.

Work at height hierarchy: avoid work at height → prevent falls using collective measures → minimise the distance and consequences of any fall.

Noise: lower exposure action value 80 dB(A), upper exposure action value 85 dB(A) daily; hearing protection zones and hearing checks apply at the upper level.

Hand-arm vibration: exposure action value 2.5 m/s² A(8); exposure limit value 5 m/s² A(8), both measured over an eight-hour reference period.

COSHH: assess exposure to hazardous substances, prevent or adequately control it using the hierarchy, and provide information, training and health surveillance where required.

Manual handling: avoid the handling → assess it using TILE (Task, Individual, Load, Environment) → reduce the risk of injury.

Electricity: fixed installation inspection and testing, portable appliance testing, 30 mA RCD protection, and no live working unless demonstrably justified.

Asbestos is most hazardous when friable and disturbed, releasing respirable fibres; high-risk removal requires a licensed contractor.

Confined spaces present toxic gas, oxygen deficiency, engulfment and fire risks; entry is controlled by permit to work with rescue arrangements in place.

Slips and trips are the most common cause of workplace injury; controls include cleaning regimes, suitable flooring, drainage, lighting and housekeeping.

Purpose of investigation: establish what happened and why, identify root causes and prevent recurrence - not to apportion blame.

Immediate causes are unsafe acts or unsafe conditions at the time; underlying causes are management system failures such as poor planning, training, supervision or maintenance.

Evidence gathering: preserve and photograph the scene, take witness statements separately and promptly using open questions, and collect documents, permits and equipment.

Root cause techniques: 5 Whys, fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram, fault tree analysis, and events-and-causal-factors timelines.

An accident is an unplanned event that caused injury, damage or loss; a near miss is an unplanned event with the same potential that caused no actual harm.

RIDDOR deadlines: deaths and specified injuries reported without delay; over-seven-day injuries reported within 15 days of the incident.

A report contains what happened, who/when/where, consequences, immediate and root causes, and recommendations with named owners and timescales.

Total accident cost = direct costs (claims, fines, repairs, compensation) plus indirect costs (lost time, investigation, replacement staff, reputation damage).

Proactive (leading) indicators measure prevention before harm: inspections, audits, near-miss reporting rates, training completion, risk assessment reviews, safety committee attendance.

Reactive (lagging) indicators measure outcomes after events: accidents, lost-time injuries, sickness absence, compensation claims, enforcement action.

Accident incidence rate = (number of accidents ÷ number of employees) × 1000.

Accident frequency rate = (number of accidents × 100,000) ÷ total hours worked.

Severity rate = (days lost × 1000) ÷ total hours worked.

An audit examines the management system and its arrangements; an inspection examines physical conditions and observed behaviour on site.

A lost time injury (LTI) is a work-related injury that keeps a worker away from their next scheduled shift or day of work.

Performance indicators should be SMART and benchmarked against earlier performance, sister sites or published industry data.