Managing risk to reduce accidents, comply with legislation and improve performance
Taking a responsible approach to Health and Safety management not only reduces the risk of accidents and injury, but can bring significant business benefits to an organisation. Despite this, many organisations still fail to manage their health and safety effectively.
Statistics published by the UK Health and Safety Executive reveal that during 2009-2010:
- 28.5 million days were lost overall (1.2 days per worker), 23.4 million due to work-related ill health
- 152 workers were killed at work, a rate of 0.5 per 100,000 workers
- 121,430 other injuries to employees were reported, some of which could have had the potential to be fatal injuries
- 1.3 million people who worked during the last year were suffering from an illness they believed was caused or made worse by their current or past work.
In addition to the risk of breaches in legislation, prosecution, fines and lost productivity, organisations also face the risk of rising operating costs, insurance premiums and civil litigation.
An Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) promotes a safe and healthy working environment. It can help an organisation to manage the spectrum of staff related risks in the workplace, enabling greater control of insurance costs and increased performance from its existing operations.
What is BS OHSAS 18001?
BS OHSAS 18001 is the internationally recognised assessment specification for occupational health and safety management systems. It was developed by a selection of leading trade bodies, international standards and certification bodies to address a gap where no third-party certifiable international standard exists. The standard promotes a safe and healthy working environment by providing a framework that allows an organisation to consistently identify and control its health and safety risks, reduce the potential for accidents, aid legislative compliance and improve overall performance.
In following the Plan-Do-Check-Act approach of many management system standards, BS OHSAS 18001 has been designed to be compatible with ISO 9001 (Quality) and ISO 14001 (Environmental).
Key Elements of BS OHSAS 18001
The following key areas are addressed by BS OHSAS 18001:
- Planning for hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control
- OHSAS management programme
- Structure and responsibility
- Training, awareness and competence
- Consultation and communication
- Operational control
- Emergency preparedness and response
- Performance measuring, monitoring and improvement
"We wanted to link all our activities, products and services to the best principles and practices and saw OHSAS 18001 as an ideal route to help us do this.”
R Hughes, WH Smith (Tools) Ltd
Who can use BS OHSAS 18001?
BS OHSAS 18001 can be adopted by any organisation wishing to implement a formal procedure to reduce the risks associated with health and safety in the working environment for employees, customers and the general public.
"We implemented an OHSAS management system to ensure the common application of a system across a number of group divisions."
A Jupitas, Geoffrey Osborne Limited
Next Steps
Using BS OHSAS 18001:2007 as a framework to manage and reduce the risks associated with health and safety can lead to:
- Reduction in the number of accidents
- Less absenteeism
- Reduction in downtime and associated costs
- Lower insurance premiums
- Higher productivity
- Improved business performance
- Improved management of health and safety risks
- Improved reputation
- More engagement with top management
- Improved compliance with legislation
- Lower risk of prosecution and fines
- Integration with existing management systems
- More innovation
Next steps
We offer a comprehensive range of BS OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems training courses for those delegates who are new to the standard and management systems, as well as those who need to audit and improve an existing Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS). Furthermore, our courses will help you understand the benefits of becoming certified to BS OHSAS 18001.
You can choose whether you would like to attend one of our scheduled open courses or have it delivered on your premises as an in-company solution.
Next steps
Certification is the end goal of the independent assessment of an organisation’s implementation of a management system standard such as BS OHSAS 18001. The purpose of the assessment is to ensure that the organisation has effectively implemented the requirements of the standard and that the system is effective in managing the occupational health and safety risks of the business.
Benefits of Certification to BS OHSAS 18001
In a competitive marketplace, your customers are looking for more than just keen pricing from their suppliers. Companies need to demonstrate that their businesses are managed efficiently and responsibly and that they can provide a reliable service without excessive downtime caused by work-related accidents and incidents.
Certifying your BS OHSAS 18001 management system enables your organisation to prove that it conforms to the specification and provides the following benefits:
- Demonstrates legal and regulatory compliance
- Proves your commitment to health and safety to all stakeholders
- Illustrates an innovative and forward thinking approach
- Increased access to new customers and business partners
- Improved management of health and safety risks, now and in the future
- Enhanced reputation and brand image also providing competitive advantage
- Focus on continual improvement in occupational health and safety performance
- Deemed to satisfy the entry requirements for construction schemes in the Safety Schemes In Procurement (SSIP) forum for construction including CHAS, ConstructionLine, Exor and NHBC
The assessment is conducted in two stages:
Stage 1 - A review of the documented processes and procedures and assessing the system for compliance to the requirements of the standard. Your Client Manager will identify any omissions or weaknesses that need resolving before Stage 2 of the assessment.
Stage 2 - Assessing the implementation of your occupational health and safety management system. This will involve discussions with all levels of staff within your organisation. Assuming no major issues are raised, the assessor will make a recommendation for certification and a certificate of registration will be issued following an internal independent review and approval process.
Continuing Assessment Visits
The relationship does not stop there. We will carry out a programme of continuing assessment visits – typically two visits a year – to ensure that you continue to implement your occupational health and safety management system and that it continues to be effective and meet the requirements of the standard.
Optional Pre-Certification Audit
We also offer an optional Pre-Certification Audit - typically lasting one day - the objective of which is to ascertain the progress you are making in defining and implementing your occupational health and safety management system and to ensure that the basic requirements of the system are in place and that there are no glaring omissions before the initial assessment takes place.
Why Choose BSI?
- BSI is a world leader in Standards, Assessment, Certification and Verification
- We have a worldwide network of assessors with management systems assessment experience at your disposal
- Our ability to undertake complex, multi-national, multisite, process-based assessment work is second to none
- BSI has the capability, specific strengths and knowledge to assess the effectiveness of your occupational health and safety management system
- By choosing BSI, certified organisations will be able to use and benefit from BSI’s logo, which holds UK Superbrand status
Next steps
