Introducing Managing Safely: the case for managing risk
Managing risk, not eliminating it
Managing safely means controlling risk to a level that is tolerable, not removing every activity that carries risk. The starting point is the distinction that examiners love: a hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm (a wet floor, a chemical, a rotating shaft); a risk is the likelihood that harm occurs and how severe it would be. You cannot 'risk-assess a trailing cable' - that is a hazard.
The case for acting rests on three drivers. Moral - people should go home unharmed. Legal - duties under health and safety law and the consequences of breaching them. Financial - the full cost of incidents. The 'accident iceberg' shows that insured costs (claims, premiums) are only the visible tip; the larger uninsured costs lie below the waterline: lost time, replacement labour, investigation time, damaged product and equipment, legal fees, overtime, and damaged reputation with customers and staff.
Management is a cycle, often summarised as plan, do, check, act: set policy and arrangements, implement controls, measure performance, review and update. Near misses and minor incidents are free lessons - a company that only investigates injuries is learning from a small fraction of its failures.
Traps to watch. Confusing hazard with risk; assuming 'reasonably practicable' means cheapest; assuming 'accident' and 'incident' are interchangeable (an incident may cause damage or near miss with no injury); believing PPE or a written procedure is proof of a safe system.
Rule of thumb: for every serious injury there are many minor injuries, more property-damage events and hundreds of near misses - treat the bottom of that pyramid as your warning system.