Safety Management Systems

There is no specific requirement under health and safety law for you, as an employer, to have a safety management system (SMS) in place. However, without one, you cannot;

• Be sure that you are properly controlling risks to the health and safety of your employees and others
• Adequately prioritise, plan and allocate resources to allow you to deal with your health and safety responsibilities in an efficient and cost-effective way.
• Satisfy prospective clients / customers that you take the management of health and safety seriously
• Protect yourself and your organisation against claims for personal injury, damage and/or loss in the event of an incident.
• Demonstrate compliance with the general duties laid down in Section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work Etc. Act 1974 and Regulation 5 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

It follows, therefore, that if you are to successfully discharge your legal responsibilities and mitigate against risks to your employees and your business, then you need to have in place a SMS of some kind.

Subject to the size and nature of your business, the level of risk that you face, the processes and procedures that you employ for managing your various activities and whether or not you are seeking external accreditation, Ambeck Associates Ltd can help you to develop a SMS framework that's right for you.

HS(G)65 –- Successful Health & Safety Management This document provides clear guidance from the Health and Safety Executive on how to actually develop and implement a SMS for your business. It is not mandatory to follow this guidance (you can select one of the other frameworks) but it is recommended that you carefully consider its content before choosing your preferred system. HS(G)65 is easy to follow and parts of it will be familiar to you if you have some experience of general management practices.
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See also 'Managing Health & Safety - Five Steps to Success'

BS OHSAS 18001:2007 –- Occupational health and safety management systems. Requirements (Formerly OHSAS 18001:1999).

This standard specifies requirements for an occupational health and safety management system, to enable an organization to control its risks and so improve its performance. However, the standard does not provide specific performance criteria or detailed specifications for the design of a management system. This information can be found in BS OHSAS 18002:2008 - Occupational health & safety management systems. Guidelines for the implementation of OHSAS 18001:2007.

This latest version of BS OHSAS 18001 is more aligned with 'BS EN ISO 14001:2004 Environmental management systems. Requirements with guidance for use and with 'BS EN ISO 9001:2008 Quality management systems. Requirements to enable companies to adopt 'integrated management systems should they so wish.
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British Standard BS 18004:2008 –- Guide to achieving effective occupational health and safety performance (replaces BS8800:2004)

This document provides guidance on successful health and safety management and expands on the guidance given in HS(G)65 Successful Health & Safety Management. It aims to assist organisations that wish to manage health and safety effectively. This document is not a standard and so care must be taken to avoid claims of compliance with the standard. Nevertheless, BS 18004:2008 is useful with regard to;

• Establishing a management system to control risks to persons that may be affected by the organisations activities
• Assisting in policy development, planning and evaluating systems and arrangements
• Providing evidence of managing safety and of progressive improvement
• Creating a framework that can later be developed to meet the requirements of an accredited health and safety management system

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Ambeck Associates Ltd has a wealth of experience of designing, implementing and maintaining safety management systems, which has been developed over many years and through practical application. We realise that your business is unique and that your needs are different to those of others. Consequently, we will not provide you with ''off-the-shelf' documents. Instead, we will work with you and your team in building a SMS that is right for you and positively supports the way in which you run your business.