Risk assessments

As part of managing the health and safety of your business you must control the risks in your workplace. To do this you need to think about what might cause harm to people and decide whether you are taking reasonable steps to prevent that harm. This is known as risk assessment and it is something you are required by law to carry out. If you have fewer than five employees, you don’t have to write anything down.

A risk assessment is not about creating huge amounts of paperwork, but rather about identifying sensible measures to control the risks in your workplace. You are probably already taking steps to protect your employees, but your risk assessment will help you decide whether you have covered all you need to.

How to carry out your Risk assessment:

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1, Identify the hazards,

• walk around the kitchen, the stockroom and all other areas, noting things that might pose a risk
• Talked to staff to learn from their knowledge and experience, and to listen to their concerns and opinions.
• Look at the accident book, to understand what particular risks previously resulted in incidents.

2, Write down who could be harmed and how.

3, Write down what controls, if any, were in place to eliminate or reduce the likelihood of somebody being hurt. Where you consider the existing controls are not good enough, write down what else is needed to be done.

4, Put in place the actions the risk assessment identified as necessary. Discuss the findings with staff, pin it up in a prominent place so that all staff can see it and made it part of the induction process for new staff. If language is a problem, please ensure you have a copy available for the person to understand.

5, Review the risk assessment every year, or straightaway if major changes in the workplace happen. To get a better understanding of the risks ask staff to report any accident, however minor.

Please note we have provided a generic Risk assessment but you must ensure this is fit for your business. If you require anything adding on then please contact us