Local Health and Safety

The University Health and Safety Policy requires that:

• Each School/Support Service must produce its own Health and Safety Policy to supplement the University's Policy
• The Policy must be signed and dated by the Head of School/ Support Service
• The Policy must be reviewed annually and records of the review retained
• The Policy must be communicated to all staff and students in the School/Support Service.

It is a legal requirement for the University to undertake and record risk assessments to protect its staff, students and others from harm. As a minimum the University must identify what could cause injury or illness, decide how likely it is that some could be harmed and how seriously and take action to eliminate the hazard, or if this isn't possible, control the risk. The Health, Safety and Resilience team has developed guidance and accompanying documentation to assist Schools and Professional Support Directorates, and these can be found below:

• HS-GN-003 - Risk Assessment Guidance
• HS-SF-001 - Risk Assessment Form
• HS-SF-020 - Action Plan Template
• HS-SF-022 - Risk Assessment Checklist
• HS-SF-021 - Risk Register Template
• HS-SF-033 - Stress Risk Assessment and Management Action Plan Template
• HS-SF-035 - Stress Risk Assessment and Management Action Plan Major Change
• Risk Assessment for Business Travel Template
• Risk Assessment for Business Travel in the UK
• Risk Assessment for Business Travel Outside the UK

The health and safety training needs of all members of staff and students should be identified and appropriate training provided. Records of training should be kept and these should contain an explicit acknowledgement from trainees that training has been received and understood.

• Guidance Note.

The Records Retention Schedule is an index to different types of records, detailing how long they should be kept for, according to legal, regulatory, or operational requirements. 

For information on what Health and Safety records you should be keeping, and for how long, please see the Health and Safety Records Retention Schedule on the Records Management page on StaffNet

The purpose of a health and safety inspection is:

• to find out whether the policy arrangements are in place
• check if staff and students are doing what the policy requires of them

An inspection should be much more than an examination of the physical workplace. It should look at what people are doing and it should also look at any written records which are required to be kept.

A report on an inspection should include not only details of what is wrong and needs improvement but also details of what is right.  Reports should be produced principally for the Head of School or Directorate.  Following the issuing of a report, actions should be agreed with the Head of School/Support Service to remedy any deficiencies.

The main activities of the School are based in offices and teaching rooms on campus. There are also some trips for students to off-campus locations

Inspectors may however choose to limit the scope of inspections. If the scope of an inspection is limited, this should be clearly stated in the report.

• The report is just an example.
• The format is not prescriptive.
• The findings of an inspection can be documented in many different ways.
• Some may choose simply to make notes on a pre-prepared checklist.

However the key points for any report are:

• Find out if the requirements of the local health and safety policy are being met;
• Note what is right as well as what is wrong;
• Go beyond a physical examination of the workplace;
• Look at records and find out if people are doing what they should be doing;
• Agree any remedial actions which are required.

When a contractor comes to carry out work at the University, both the contractor and the University have responsibilities for the health and safety aspects of the work.

Read our Policy and Guidance .