OHSAS 18001
OHSAS 18001
BS OHSAS 18001 is the internationally recognised assessment specification for an occupational health and safety management system. It is designed to enable an organisation to control its occupational health and safety risks and improve its performance. Like other management systems, BS OHSAS 18001 does not state specific occupational health and safety performance criteria. It is intended to provide a framework that allows an organisation to consistently identify and control its health and safety risks, reduce the potential for accidents, aid legislative compliance and improve overall performance.
The OHSAS specification is applicable to any organisation that wishes to:
- establish an Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) management system to eliminate or minimise risk to employees and other interested parties who may be exposed to risks associated with its activities;
- implement, maintain and continually improve an OH&S management system;
- assure itself of its conformance with its stated OH&S policy;
- demonstrate such conformance to others;
- seek certification / registration of its OH&S management system by an external organisation; and
- make a self-determination and declaration of conformance with this OHSAS specification.
What we can offer
In the first instance, we will carry out a compliance audit and gap analysis of your existing system, including a review of your organisation’s health and safety policies and documentation. This will allow us to compare your current health and safety practices against best practice and relevant standards. This comparison will pinpoint the areas that are working well and those that fall short. For each of our audits we will develop a comprehensive written report, which will provide a clear picture of your performance.
The key to having a successful system is to understand why a particular aspect is failing so that the root cause can be addressed. Our gap analysis report will prioritise each identified deficiency, along with estimated timescales.
The goal of a successful health and safety audit is to deliver continual improvement. In order to achieve this we will develop a strategy, through a project-specific action plan, which will assist you in implementation of the safety management system. The plan will include:
- quantifiable actions with a suggested timescale;
- specific low-level recommendations to help you achieve completion; and
- a ‘sensible’ approach – focusing on the real safety issues, not trivial risks.
Where necessary we will attend your Health and Safety Committee meetings and monitor and assist with any day-to-day health and safety issues on an ongoing basis. We see this as proactive management of health and safety.
Why choose Workplace Law?
- Experience in delivering OHSAS 18001 for a number of high profile organisations, including Fujitsu UK, London Development Agency and MMoser Associates.
- We are an independent company whose strategy is to develop successful long-term relationships with our clients. We can only do this by working in partnership with you and meeting your individual needs.
- Our intent is to enable you to make decisions that are right, by offering pragmatic and legally compliant solutions that are aligned with your objectives and based on your policies and procedures.
- We offer an account-managed service that gives you unlimited access to the dedicated practitioners in our team. By working with them on an ongoing basis, we can respond quicker and provide more consistent advice than organisations that offer a ‘call centre’.
- We believe that cultural change is vital to the acceptance of health and safety: we have carried out a cultural change programme for the Institute of Directors with successful results.
- Everything we do for clients is bespoke: while we operate to recognised human resource and health and safety systems, we work to support our clients, rather than imposing a fixed solution on them.
- Our information and advice service has won national recognition by the Periodical Publishers Association as the Best Business Website.
- All our health and safety advisors are qualified to Tech IOSH (as a minimum) and are experienced trainers, consultants and practitioners. Our quality assurance process and CPD programmes ensure high standards with regard both to technical knowledge and levels of customer service.
Personal service
Unlike our competitors, we don’t impose a standard system on you. We work with you to produce a health and safety system that is appropriate to your business, rather than making you use ours. And, wherever possible, you will speak to the same technical account manager every time. The result: less confusion, less clutter, and better buy-in.
Benefits
- Implementation of an occupational health and safety management system and better management of health and safety risks will lead to a potential reduction in the number of accidents, downtime and associated costs, including reduced public liability insurance costs.
- Demonstration of legal and regulatory compliance displays your commitment to health and safety and an innovative and forward-thinking approach which could lead to increased access to new customers and business partners, as well as an increase in employee morale.
Case studies
"In 2009 Chaps Ltd recognised that it needed to improve its health and safety systems. We changed our Health and Safety consultants to Workplace Law in order to give us a fresh approach towards our management of health and safety and to gain specialist construction advice.
"By using their expertise and experience Simon and Maria have guided us into developing a health and safety system that has achieved CHAS accreditation and given our customers and principle contractor’s confidence in our management of health and safety. They have always been available to offer advice when needed and to provide independent site inspections and audits which are often required by our customers.
"Both Simon and Maria continue to support Chaps Ltd and have become an important, integral part of our Health and Safety Management System."
Suzanne Jackson, HR Director, Emprise:
“Workplace Law has made a difference to the quality of the service we can provide to our staff. And because of the customised service from Workplace Law, the costs have come down.
“We’re now into the second year and we’re pleased with the level of service which is always turned around quickly with any queries being answered straight away.”
Martyn Ball, Head of HR at Akkeron Hotels:
“It’s not just telephone advice that we’ve come to rely on, Workplace Law consultants are also happy to attend our meetings in person and Jayn Bond has regular catch ups with us to discuss any HR related issues. Working with people you can trust is important to me and I value the personal relationship that we have developed with the team at Workplace Law.”
“The accreditation enhances our client services, evidences the robustness of our processes and demonstrates the passion and professionalism of our staff on every level.
“The exceptional support and input from the team at Workplace Law and in particular Simon Toseland, has ensured that the highest safety standards have been implemented and these are to be continually assessed and tested externally."
