Question

Create a flowchart to explain the risk assessment process.

Answer 1

determine area,task,scope of risk assessment(1,2,3)

Review tasks/activites(4)

identify any hazards(5)

Decide who (6) may be harmed and how(7)

evaluate the risk (8,9)

determine appropriate precautions/controls(10)

communicate/implement(11)

(1) An ‘Occupational Health & Safety Risk Assessment’, is simply a structured way of examining your workplace (operational area, specific tasks), to help identify anything that could potentially cause harm (to staff, contractors, visitors, etc). By rating such potential risks, we are able to weigh up whether enough precautions have been initiated to prevent harm (and whether additional controls are appropriate)

. (2) A Risk Assessment can be conducted to whatever depth, and in whichever defined ‘Operational Areas’, appropriate to your company. For example, one Production line within a Factory; or one Bay within a Goods Receiving area; or even a full office block (dependant on size/ complexity), may be the focus of a Risk Assessment process.

(3) Where ‘Hazards’ are associated with specific activities, it is often appropriate to assess that specific task, and examine each of the steps/ elements. For example, a particular high-level lifting operation as part of motor vehicle assembly in an engineering environment may involve many factors (i.e. harness, crane, engineers in area, other machine parts, etc). Similarly, following an ‘Accident’ it may be that the organisation wishes to review current practices, and attempt to prevent recurrence, or mitigate future risks, and therefore analyses specific tasks.

(4) Observe the operational area/ activity subject to Risk Assessment, and outline (in summary) the main tasks/ steps.

(5) Identify any ‘Hazards’, or anything reasonably foreseeable that may cause harm (i.e. working from ladders, electricity, blind-spots, wet floors, long-term exposure to chemicals, noise, etc)

(6) The associated ‘Risk’ is the chance (high or low), that somebody (identified in ‘People Groups’) may be harmed by this and other hazards, together with an indication of how serious the harm could be. (i.e. those identified in the ‘People Groups’ should include not only regular workers in the area, but regular visitors, contractors, suppliers, passers-by, etc).

(7) Define what those people may be at risk from; or, how could the hazard interact with them (i.e. vehicle collision, fall from height, slip on wet floor).

(8) Outline current/ live precautions being adopted in an attempt to minimise risks (from Observation, defined methods, personnel feedback).

(9) Rating the actual ‘Risk’ should be done as simply as possible, and understandable to any persons within the organisation (i.e. High, Medium or Low would be sufficient). Other more complex numerical approached may be appropriate in larger organisations.

(10) Consider what additional controls/ actions are necessary (appropriate to your organisation); your obligation is to ‘reduce risks so far as is reasonably practicable’ (often reviewing what you are doing with the best practice in other areas of your business, or as part of ‘Benchmarking’).

(11) It is important to communicate to all affected persons the outcome of your assessment, and implement the necessary controls (ensure that any actions identified are managed appropriately, assigning responsibilities, timescales, etc).