We manage a large Scottish estate. Over the years the H&S consultant’s documentation has become so unwieldy that we now think it is more of a liability than help, with individuals finding it difficult to see what their responsibilities are. Speaking to other potential consultants they seem to produce more of the same. Part of the issue is that the documentation is a verbose mix of legal requirements, regurgitated best practice, and general guidance (reminding folk to wipe their ass..), which nobody reads, so if something does go wrong we are exposed.

We want to filter this to make sure that the salient points are obvious, but with more info/guidance available if necessary. The con Anybody got any pointers for best way to do this – excel, bespoke system etc??

It really shouldn’t be that unwieldy and could be very easily streamlined. How many people are there who have h&s roles within the organisation i.e. manager, advisor team leader with h&s responsibility for grounds maintenance etc..
If you want to have a chat about it more than happy to put you in touch with a couple of very capable “real world” h&s consultants that can simplify it to ensure legal compliance without the fluff

The Health and Safety Executive offer plenty of straightforward advice. Maybe download the free material here for a start.

Avoid Rivo Safeguard – it son becomes an unworkable mess.
I suggest making sure that all your HSE and SOPs after in the same documents, rather than one for HSE and one for the SOP. Also get the people who will use the document to write it. My place is full of meaningless documents, written by people who have clearly never been out of the office, let alone been in the field.

I would point you in the direction of our simple, lightweight and responsive system that HSE, ROSPA and Play Safety Forum are all holding up as good practice, but it’s in the wrong industry…

We looked at all sorts of “solutions”. All were written in a confusing, text heavy and difficult to manage way. All had major shortcomings, all had immense cost and “expert” input that was often fear mongering and misplaced in an industry that should view considered risks as a positive thing.

In the end we decided that as a small organisation we were best placed to write the system that worked for the staff who have to work within it. I was sent off on training, plus a few days visiting friendly organisations who shared thier systems. I then sat down with two colleagues and designed the system. Everyone helped out with risk assessments and related SOPs, I collated, related and standardised them.

We then approached play safety forum and HSE for feedback, which they gave, then piblished it to all staff and online. Feedback loops and record keeping is simple (an email system plus staff meetings). So far it’s run for three years and has served us well with minimal changes to risk assessments, driven by feedback of incidents, possible incidents and staff knowledge.

That’s both interesting and frustrating that we are not alone in finding the H&S industry being divorced from the practical reality of safely running a business. Across the Estate there are about 30 employees, and 5 department heads responsible for the safety of operations.
We manage the forestry, both for the estate and others on a consultancy basis. We have evolved our own systems over the years which are brief, pragmatic & comply with HSE industry guidance. The same format would be applicable to others.

Tazzy – interested in those contacts – if you ping me an e-mail steve AT cawdorforestry DOT com

Cheers