Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

health and safety culture
within the organization.
The performance assessment phase
The performance assessment phase may be either 
active or reactive
or, ideally, a mixture of both. Active 
assessment includes work based 
inspections and 
audits
, regular health and safety committee meetings, 
feedback from training sessions and a constant review 
of risk assessments. Reactive assessment relies on 
records of accident, work related injuries and ill-health 
as well as near miss and any enforcement notices. Any 
recommended remedial or preventative actions, follow-
ing an investigation, must be implemented immediately 
and monitored regularly.
The performance improvement phase
The performance improvement phase involves a 
review
of the effectiveness of the health and safety manage-
ment system and the identifi cation of any weaknesses. 
The review, which should be undertaken by the manage-
ment of the organization, will assess whether targets have 
been met and the reasons for any under-performance. 
Issues such as the level of resources made available, the 
vigilance of supervisors and the level of co-operation of 
the workforce should be considered at the review stage. 
When recommendations are made, the review process 
must defi ne a timescale by which any improvements are 
implemented and this part of the process must also be 
monitored. 
Continual improvement
implies a commit-
ment to improve performance on a proactive continuous 
basis without waiting for a formal review to take place. 
Most management systems include an 
audit
requirement, 
which may be either internal or external. The audit pro cess 
examines the effectiveness of the whole management 
process and may exercise as a control on the review 
process. Many inquiry reports into health and safety man-
agement issues have asserted that health and safety per-
formance should be subject to audit in the same way that 
fi nancial performance must be audited.
In the publication ‘Successful health and safety 
management – HSG 65’, the HSE recommend a similar 
four step approach to occupational health and safety 
management known as: