Element 4: Health & Safety Monitoring and Measuring

Summary & Key Takeaways

Summary and Key Takeaways from this element are given below:

Element 4.1 - Active and Reactive Monitoring

• Active monitoring is about checking to ensure that standards are met and that the
workplace is, in fact, safe and free of health risks before any unwanted event takes place.
• Safety inspections, sampling and tours are three active monitoring methods that can be
used to check conformance to standards and that play an important role in ensuring that
safety standards are acceptable in the workplace.
• Active monitoring methods are often called leading indicators because they give an
indication of the direction of future health and safety performance.
• Various factors must be considered when setting up an active monitoring system, such as:
– Type of inspection, tour, or sampling exercise.
– Frequency of active monitoring.
– Responsibilities for carrying it out.
– Competence and objectivity of the person doing the monitoring.
– Use of checklists.
– Action planning for problems found.
• Reactive monitoring is about measuring safety performance by reference to accidents,
incidents, ill health, and other untoward events that have already occurred.
• Reactive monitoring usually makes use of statistics such as accident rates. These are often
called lagging indicators because they give an indication of the direction of past health and
safety performance.

Element 4.2 - Investigating, Reporting & Recording Incidents

• Incidents should be investigated for several reasons, perhaps the most important of which is
to discover the causes so that corrective action can be taken to prevent similar incidents
from happening again.
• Incidents can be categorised in terms of their outcome:
– Near miss
– Accident (injury and/or damage)
– Dangerous occurrence
– Ill health.
• The level of investigation used should be determined by considering the foreseeable
consequences of the incident should it happen again, and not simply by looking at the actual
outcome that occurred on this occasion.
• Basic incident investigation procedure is to:
– Gather information about the event.
– Analyse that information to draw conclusions about the immediate and root causes.
– Identify suitable control measure.
– Plan the remedial actions.

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Element 4: Health & Safety Monitoring and Measuring
Summary & Key Takeaways

• Arrangements should be made for the internal reporting of all work-related incidents, and
workers should be encouraged to do so.
• Records of work-related injuries should be kept.
• Certain types of incidents – such as fatalities, major injuries, occupational diseases, and
some dangerous occurrences – must be reported to external agencies.

Element 4.3 - Auditing

• Auditing is the systematic, objective, critical evaluation of an organisation’s health and
safety management system.
• Preparations must be made before an audit commences.
• During an audit, three different types of evidence will be sought: documents and records,
interviews, and direct observation in the workplace.
• Audit reports feed information back into the review process so that action can be taken for
continual improvement.
• Audits can either be conducted by external personnel or internal staff. There are strengths
and weaknesses to both types.

Element 4.4 - Reviewing Health and Safety Performance

• Health and safety performance should be reviewed by managers at all levels within the
organisation on a routine basis to ensure that management systems are working effectively.
• Reviewing performance relies on data gathered from various sources, such as
– Accident data
– Inspection reports
– Absence data
– Safety tours
– Audits.
• Reviews enable action to be taken so that health and safety performance is continually
improved.

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