Managing Occupational Health and Wellbeing

Introduction
Why do we need Risk Assessments?
It is a legal requirement for a company with more than five employees for Risk Assessments to be carried out.
Workplaces become safer places when we use Risk Assessments to understand hazards and introduce controls to deal with those
hazards.
They are a vital part of safety and health.
They are a vital part of our courses, as well as part of the IOSH exams. Being comfortable with risk assessments will mean you can
take your learning back to the workplace and have an immediate impact.
As part of the Managing Occupational Health and Wellbeing course, you must complete a project and have it assessed. You’ll be
expected to carry out a health risk assessment based on your own work environment, and you will need to record the health risk
assessment on the form provided by the trainer. Do not submit any additional material in support of your project work (as it will not
be assessed).
Before returning your project, check that it is fully completed, including your name, date and signature. This project must be your
own work.
You have reached a point in your course where you are required to produce a risk assessment. This can be done in your workplace
or with a workplace in mind.
It is obviously a shorter assessment than you may actually carry out in the workplace, dealing with either three or four hazards,
depending on the course. But the exact same principles are in play here as they would be in the workplace.
The law states that a risk assessment must be 'suitable and sufficient. IOSH scoring follows a similar line. If you hand in a half-
finished assessment, you will fail this part of the course.

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 Managing Occupational Health and Wellbeing

Occupational Health Risk Assessment Instructions

Please read all the instructions before starting work on your project.
The health risk assessment project is broken down into a number of stages, which should flow from start to finish, telling a complete
story of the three tasks being performed, associated health hazards, risks and their required controls (Part A), along with an action
plan of how the health risks will be monitored (Part B).
Your trainer should have advised you of the health risk assessment form to use for this process.
For this health risk assessment project, it is important that you only choose health hazards that are not currently adequately
controlled.
Part A
Your health risk assessment must show the following about your work area/department:
– provide a brief description of three different tasks being performed in the work area/department
– identify one health hazard for each of the three tasks, then on each risk
row state:
• who may be harmed by the health hazard
• the potential harm from the health hazard
• the degree of exposure to the health hazard
• what existing control measures are in place
• the risk rating.
Part B
Your health action plan must state the following for the three different tasks that you risk-rated in Part A:
– additional controls for each risk row and the reason for them

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– the new risk rating for the new controls (residual risk).
You will then need to identify the health monitoring requirements by stating:
• if there are health surveillance requirements
• how the health risk will be monitored
• who will monitor the health risk
• the frequency of monitoring.
The risk rating calculations for Part A and B should be made using the IOSH 5 x 5 matrix and action level table.
In addition, it must also show the following basic information:
Part A:
– Your name (the assessor)
– Date and time of the health risk assessment
– The work area/department being assessed.
Part B:
– The assessment review date
– Your signature
– Your training provider’s name.

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 Managing Occupational Health and Wellbeing

Risk Rating System

The 5x5 risk matrix is just a way of calculating risk with 5 categories for LIKELIHOOD and 5 categories CONSEQUENCE
(Severity). With a 5x5 risk matrix, you're using numbers. As the name suggests, your numbers will go up to 5 on each axis, giving a
maximum score of 25 (5x5 = 25). But what do any of those numbers mean?

To calculate risk is fairly simple

Likelihood x Consequence(severity) = Risk Rating (L X C = R)

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 Managing Occupational Health and Wellbeing

The risk is how likely it is that harm will occur, against how serious that harm could be. The more likely it is that harm will happen,
and the more severe the harm, the higher the risk.

To calculate risk, you simply need to multiply the likelihood by the consequence

Likelihood Ranking
So, the likelihood could be ranked as:

1. Very unlikely – there’s a 1 in a million chance of the hazardous event happening.

2. Unlikely – there’s a 1 in 100,000 chance of the hazardous event happening.

3. Fairly likely – there’s a 1 in 10,000 chance of the hazardous event happening.

4. Likely – there’s a 1 in 1,000 chance of the hazardous event happening.

5. Very likely – there’s a 1 in 100 chance of the hazardous event happening.

Consequence Ranking:
1. Insignificant - no injury

2. Minor – minor injuries needing first aid

3. Moderate – up to three day's absence

4. Major – more than three day's absence

5. Catastrophic – death

Now we can calculate our risk level, from 1 (Very Low Risk) to 25 (Very High Risk) using the 5x5 risk matrix.

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 Managing Occupational Health and Wellbeing

Example 1: Employee working in dusty cement factory 5 days a week with little or no controls in place and low compliance to
wearing respirator masks.

• The likelihood of harm over a long period of time is very likely that the employee will develop silicosis, say likely (5).
The consequence will be 5 death as silicosis is killing 15 people a week in the UK – therefore overall risk rating will 5 (L) X
5 (C) = 25 (5X5=25).

• Residual ratings you need to reduce, but it is always difficult to reduce consequence unless you eliminate the hazard –
with good controls in place, you want the likelihood down to 1, so ratings would go from 5x5=25 to 1x5=5.

Example 2: Employee working in factory five days a week, lifting 10kg boxes, 8-hour shifts. The employees have had basic manual
handling training.

• The likelihood of harm over a long period of time is likely that the employee will develop back problems leading to time
taken off work – Likelihood of 4. The consequence will be 4 – therefore overall risk rating will 4 (L) X 4 (C) =16 (4X4=16)

• Residual ratings you need to reduce, but it is always difficult to reduce consequence unless you eliminate the hazard –
with good controls in place, you want the likelihood down to 1, so ratings would go from 4x4=16 to 1x4=4 by doing refresher
training, management inspections, toolbox talks etc.

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 Managing Occupational Health and Wellbeing

Understanding Types of Health Hazards

For this health risk assessment project, it is important that you only choose health hazards that are not currently adequately controlled.

Please understand if you submit in your risk assessment a 'safety hazard' then this will lead to zero points out of a possible 14 points
per hazard.

All 3 hazards submitted in your project must relate to a 'health hazard.'

o Health hazards affect the health

o Safety hazards make the surrounding conditions unsafe or risky

Health risks can take a long time to show their effects, e.g. noise-induced hearing loss, safety risks usually have immediate effects, e.g.
trip on a trailing cable, So it is easy to judge and deal with safety hazards, they are well understood, but health hazards are difficult to
catch and deal with as they usually show their effects after a long time. Occupational health is a different specialism to occupational
safety as it concentrates on health-related risks rather than safety-related ones. We can therefore draw out the health-related hazards
from OSH categories and group them into five health hazard categories:

• Physical hazards are factors in the environment that can cause harm to the body. An example is working in extreme
temperatures.
• Ergonomic hazards occur when the type of work being completed and the way it is being carried out means that the body can
have strain put upon it. An example is improperly adjusted workstations.
• Psychosocial hazards are often related to the adverse reaction of working with excessive pressures or other demands. An
example is a work-related stress.
• Chemical hazards are those associated with working with chemical preparations and by-products. An example is working with
adhesives.
• Biological hazards are found in occupations that work with plants, birds, animals or people. An example is the hepatitis B virus.

First4safety Limited Guidance Note OHW

 Managing Occupational Health and Wellbeing

First4safety Limited Guidance Note OHW

 Managing Occupational Health and Wellbeing

First4safety Limited Guidance Note OHW

 Managing Occupational Health and Wellbeing

First4safety Limited Guidance Note OHW