Effective management of health and safety is vital for any organisation. Whether the main aim is legal compliance or best practice, Peak HSE can offer professional expert support and guidance. We are committed to developing systems and giving advice that is both practical and proportionate to an organisation’s risks and goals.
Auditing
Health & Safety auditing will tell you about the robustness of your management system.
An audit of your system can be conducted against a recognised standard, such as BS EN ISO 45001 or HSE’s HS(65) model, or an “in house” standard.
Auditing can involve a range of activities, including:
- Site inspection and investigation
- Review of documentation
- Interviews with key personnel
- Workplace sampling
Peak HSE can also train Internal Auditors to enable them to review OH&S Documentation.
Behavioural Safety Services
Peak HSE has significant experience in assisting organisations to take a step change in their health and safety culture, through the use of behavioural safety processes.
It is estimated that 80% of work related accidents are caused by employee’s behaviour – unsafe acts and omissions.
The behaviour based approach to safety is focussed on the observable, measurable behaviours critical to safety. This should not be confused with workplace inspections which look at unsafe conditions.
Typically, this approach requires the following steps in consultation with the safety team and senior management:
- Identification of a leader, outside the health and safety management area
- Defining key objectives and target areas
- Developing a tailored methodology
- Conducting management briefings
- Developing measures of safety performance
- Training of observers and observing safety performance
- Determining a baseline
- Establishing improvement goals
- Feedback and follow up
We can help at every stage of the process.
CDM Services
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 are a framework of regulations designed to enhance health and safety within the construction industry. These regulations clearly define the roles and responsibilities of various duty holders engaged in construction projects. By doing so, they aim to ensure safety and promote effective management practices throughout all stages of a project’s lifecycle.
Here at Peak HSE, we understand that complying with these requirements can be challenging, especially when dealing with work activities and regulations you may not be overly familiar with. Our team of experienced H&S professionals can guide you on the step you can take to ensure you projects compliance by offering the following services.
Health and Safety Climate Survey
Climate surveys can assist employers to:
- Pro-actively measure health and safety performance and capture employee feedback on how well they believe their employer is managing health and safety
- Promote employee involvement in health and safety and provide information for the continuous improvement process
- Explore key aspects of the management of health and safety
To be effective it is vital that the survey is correctly set up and implemented. It is also important that the data is properly interpreted and prioritised action plans developed and maintained.
Peak HSE can support with the development, distribution and analysis of your health and safety climate survey.
Management Systems
Peak HSE can provide a range of support options to assist you in developing, monitoring and maintaining your Health & Safety Management system.
Typical activities in which we have experience, include:
- Gap analysis of existing management arrangements
- Understanding the organisation and its context
- Understanding the needs and expectations of workers and other interested parties
- Helping top management to understand their role in respect of the OH&S management system
- Review and prioritisation of OH&S hazards and risks
- Development of a Strategy, Health and Safety Planning process
- Preparation/updating legal registers
- Development and updating of documentation, risk assessments and safe systems of work
- Internal auditing support and training
- Integration with other management systems, ISO14001, ISO9001
- Helping with management of change processes
Planning for Health and Safety
There are two important requirements that Peak HSE can help your business with.
Firstly, you will need a Health and Safety Policy if you employ more than 5 people.
Secondly, the law requires that you plan for Health and Safety to develop arrangements that really work.
By law businesses should:
- Write a Health and Safety Policy
- Define what you want to achieve, i.e.. how you will ensure that your employees and others are kept healthy and safe at work and then develop and implement plans accordingly
- Determine what might cause harm to people and whether you are doing enough or need to do more to prevent that harm (undertake suitable and sufficient risk assessment)
- Prioritise the improvements you may need to make
- Determine who will be responsible for health and safety tasks, what they should do, when and with what results
- Have access to, or appoint a competent person
- Implement controls, including training
- Decide how you will measure and review whether you have achieved what you set out to do
Peak HSE will help you with this documentation to ensure that it is up-to-date and in line with current legislation.
Risk Assessment
Peak HSE offers support, training and guidance in the development of suitable and sufficient risk assessments for your business. We offer support in a range of risk assessments including:
- General – as required by the Management Regulations
- COSHH
- Dangerous Substances & Explosive Atmospheres (DSEAR)
- Manual handling and ergonomic assessments
- Display screen equipment (DSE)
- Noise at work
- Vibration
- Fire
- Machinery safety / PUWER
- Vulnerable persons
- Transportation / traffic management
COSHH Assessment
COSHH stands for the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2022. These regulations aim to protect employees from exposure to any hazardous materials – dusts, mists, vapours, gases and biological materials.
The regulations require employers to assess the extent of exposure and to identify controls.
COSHH assessment can be a reasonably simple exercise but sometimes involves taking complex decisions to protect your employees. Where this is necessary Peak HSE can assist with advice and practical assistance:
- Training and assistance to managers and supervisors on how to carry out assessments
- Create assessments on behalf of employers
- Review and inspect assessments for compliance
- Advice on record keeping, review, LEV and RPE controls
- Support with Occupational Health queries, e.g. investigations into how an employee has become ill due to chemical exposure
Noise Assessment and Control
Noise induced hearing loss is cumulative – the more exposure, the greater the loss.
Employers are under a legal duty to prevent or control the exposure of their employees to noise. In order to do this noise exposure must be assessed.
The Noise at Work Regulations 2005 require that employers carry out an assessment of employee noise exposure where they are liable to be exposed to noise above 80dB(A) (L,EP,d).
Noise assessments must be carried out by a ‘competent person’ to established protocols, using quality calibrated equipment. Peak HSE offers the expertise required to conduct these surveys and the knowledge to interpret noise measurements to assist clients in developing suitable and sufficient noise assessment.
Our service includes:
- Full survey
- Interpretative report
- Recommendations for improvement
- Technical expertise and advice
Occupational Hygiene Service
Peak HSE offers an airborne monitoring service through a Chartered Occupational Hygienist – CMFOH.
The company is committed to quality and uses regularly maintained and calibrated equipment, with samples analysed by a UKAS accredited laboratory. Reports are written in line with HSE and British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) guidelines.
The results can be used in the assessment of risk required by COSHH assessments.
Typical workplace monitoring surveys include:
- Inhalable and respirable dust including further analysis for analytes such as respirable silica, toxic metals, etc
- Wood dust monitoring
- Welding fumes
- Pharmaceuticals
- Solvent vapours from painting, degreasing, etc
- Acid mists from metal finishing operations
- Metal working fluids
Vibration Assessment and Control
The Control of Vibration Regulations 2005 aim to protect workers from health risks related to vibration, primarily hand-arm and whole body vibration.
Typical activities resulting in significant vibration exposure include:
- Use of vibrating hand tools, including jack hammers, chipping hammers, drills, grinders, sanders, not runners, riveting hammers, strimmers, chain saws, etc
- Holding vibrating work pieces while grinding, finishing, sanding, drop forging and stamping
- Use of hand guided equipment, e.g. lawnmowers, floor polishers, impactors
- Whole body vibration from driving of construction, mining and quarrying plant, agricultural machinery, etc
Peak HSE is able to carry out hand arm vibration assessment to meet the requirements of the regulations and provide advice on controls.
Our service includes:
- Assessing risk to employees from all sources of vibration
- Advice on methods of control
- Interpretative report
- Assistance in the event of HSE intervention
Peak HSE provides a range of occupational health and hygiene services and support. In addition to the services above we can also assist with:
- Workplace Mental Health
- Ergonomics
- Display Screen Equipment Assessment
DSEAR
The Dangerous Substances & Explosive Atmospheres Regulations (DSEAR) 2002 regulations require employers to control the risks to safety from fire, explosions and substances corrosive to metals.
The first step in this process is DSEAR assessment.
Peak HSE’s service includes:
- Workplace assessment
- Practical guidance on equipment design, management and zoning
- DSEAR awareness training
Fire Safety Risk Assessment
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO) applies to the management of Fire Safety in England and Wales.The FSO applies to all non-domestic premises in England and Wales, including the common parts of blocks of flats and houses in multiple occupation (HMOs).
Under the FSO, the responsible person must carry out a fire safety risk assessment and implement and maintain controls to prevent fire.
The risk based regime requires employers to take action to prevent fires and protect against injury. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) have published a number of guidance documents to help you meet your responsibilities.
This is where Peak HSE can help. We have competent personnel who can carry out the assessment & offer practical support, where required, to implement any recommendations.
We will also undertake Fire Training for your staff and Fire Marshals and assist you to put together Fire Plans and procedures.
Work at Height
The Work at Height Regulations 2005 are a single set of regulations covering work at height activities for all businesses.
These regulations apply to all sectors of business including many that may not have considered that they have work at height issues.
Examples where businesses have not considered their work at height issues include:
- Access to and from the back of a lorry for deliveries
- Putting posters up (e.g. in a school)
- Simple maintenance tasks (e.g. window cleaning, cleaning leaves out of gutters, painting edges of flat roofs)
- Control of contractors working at height on clients’ premises
The regulations require every business to:
- Avoid work at height if possible
- Prevent falls by using suitable means of working at height, if work at height is unavoidable, and if so,
- Mitigate the consequences or distance of any potential fall.
The regulations also require businesses to consider the need for collective protection over personal protection (for example, guardrails which protect everyone are more significant than harnesses which protect individuals, particularly important when working on roofs).
Work at Height must be properly organised, planned and supervised by people who are competent and knowledgeable enough to select the safest solution.
Peak HSE can assist with the following:
- Work at height safety audits
- Development of work at height specifications and procedures
- Work at height planning, co-ordination and supervision
- Work at height training
Work Equipment and PUWER
Peak HSE has undertaken a large number of “independent” risk assessments in relation to the Provision & Use of Work Equipment Regulations
This helps “Users” to assess equipment after it has been purchased or modified to ensure that it is safe to use. It can also act to prevent machinery guarding companies selling their own bespoke packages, rather than equipment that may be more suitable as a control.
We offer practical support and guidance to companies designing, importing and manufacturing machinery to ensure compliance with applicable ISO standards.
Dangerous Goods Safety Advisor Service
The carriage of dangerous goods is a complex and strictly regulated operation.
Carriers and Consignors (senders) of dangerous goods are required by the Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2009, as amended, to appoint an examination qualified Dangerous Goods Safety Advisor (DGSA).
These services are offered by our parent company, Independent Safety Services Limited (ISSL). ISSL acts as DGSA for numerous organisations throughout the UK. These include NHS Trusts, universities, private sector, veterinarians, packaging manufacturers and haulage firms.
We offer a comprehensive solution to all dangerous goods transportation issues, including radioactive and infectious materials, and high consequence dangerous goods (including but not limited to UN2814, UN2900 and UN3549).
Dangerous Goods Safety Advisor (DGSA) Services include:
- Comprehensive auditing of all dangerous goods related activities
- Completion of legally required annual reports
- Contractor auditing
- Advice on development of new products designed to carry dangerous goods
- Assistance with reportable incidents concerning dangerous goods
- Development of dangerous goods policies and procedures
- Provide organisations with updates on relevant legislation and best practice
- Provide a 24 hour helpline service, 365 days a year
- DGSA, ADR and general awareness training and implementation
Transportation Safety
Peak HSE’s parent company Independent Safety Services Ltd has many years experience in Driver Safety Training and an enviable record in claims reductions, both remediating cost and frequency.
Health & Safety legislation applies to driving for business, as all work risks should be effectively managed within a health & safety management system. The Department for Transport takes the view that employers should provide a Driver Assessment & Training programme to achieve compliance with the above.
Over 95% of road traffic accidents are caused by driver error. Statistically, company vehicle drivers are 49% more likely to be involved in accidents than other drivers.
We offer advice on assessments, strategies & policies. We also back this up by providing tailor made training programmes, including;
- Training programmes tailored to individual requirements
- Defensive Driving
- Driver Assessments (overt/covert)
- Driver Safety Training (all types of vehicle)
- Driving Assessor/Instructor courses
- Personal Safety Courses (for vulnerable drivers)
- Fleet Risk Management (Safety Management Systems)
Peak HSE provides a range of health and safety management services and support. In addition to the services above we can also assist with:
- Accident management and investigation
- CE/UKCA Marking – machinery and other equipment
- Electrical safety
Our health, safety, and environmental services can be provided as an one-time project or included in a “Retained Consultancy package”.
Retained Consultancy packages involve a client committing to a specific number of support days over an agreed timeframe, such as 12 months, which allows for discounted rates.
These packages deliver a range of support options, specifically customized for each client to assist businesses in enhancing their health, safety, and environmental performance.
For more information please complete an enquiry form, email enquiries@peakhse.co.uk or call 0114 272 0335