Role of the Health and Safety Practitioner

The role of the health and safety practitioner can be seen as seeking to minimise the risk of harm or injury at work by educating colleagues, setting procedures and building a culture of safety in the workplace.
This may involve:

• Advising managers on how to comply with health and safety legislation.
• Drawing up strategies, policies and procedures for the organisation.
• Carrying out site visits and safety audits, and identifying potential hazards.
• Designing and delivering training courses on health and safety issues.
• Investigating accidents and finding ways to prevent them happening again.
• Advising on specialist areas such as fire precautions and control of hazardous substances.
• Producing written reports.
• Keeping records, including accident statistics.

Health and safety practitioners need to work closely with managers, employees and sometimes trade union representatives. They may also liaise with external contacts, such as contractors, clients, local officials, insurance companies and enforcing authorities.

The skills and personal qualities required by a health and safety practitioner include:

• Strong interpersonal skills, for negotiating changes in the workplace and influencing others to adopt them.
• An understanding of health and safety legislation and how to interpret it.
• A sound knowledge of technical and operational processes.
• The ability to think ahead and anticipate potential problems.
• Presentation skills, in order to lead training sessions.
• An ability to communicate complex information in a straightforward way.
• A clear writing style.
• A thorough and methodical approach.
• Persistence, patience, adaptability and some degree of physical fitness if working outdoors or in major plants.

To do this properly, health and safety practitioners need to:

• Be properly trained and suitably qualified.
• Maintain adequate information systems on topics including civil and criminal law, health and safety management and technical advances.
• Interpret the law in the context of their own organisation.
• Be involved in establishing organisational arrangements, systems and risk control standards relating to hardware and human performance, by advising line management on matters such as legal and technical standards.
• Establish and maintain procedures for reporting, investigating, recording and analysing accidents and incidents.
• Establish and maintain procedures, including monitoring and other means, such as review and auditing, to ensure senior managers get a true picture of how well health and safety is being managed (where a benchmarking role may be especially valuable).
• Present their advice independently and effectively.

In terms of organisational structure/relationships, health and safety specialists must:

• Support the provision of authoritative and independent advice.
• Have a direct reporting line to directors on matters of policy, and the authority to stop work if it contravenes agreed standards and puts people at risk of injury.
• Have responsibility for professional standards and systems; on large sites or in a group of companies, they may also have line management responsibility for other health and safety specialists.

With regard to relationships outside the company, they must liaise with a wide range of bodies, including:

• Local officials.
• Consultants/contractors.
• Fire Service.
• Insurance companies.
• Enforcing authorities.