casemx 270
Member
- Location
- East midlands
What needs to be included? Any helpful websites? Thanks
Company health and safety policy
- Thread starter casemx 270
- Start date
Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
HSE website very helpful.
Hi . Look to use an external company. It will cover your better than google copy and paste. You then need to really have most if not all operations documented . We use Merit check ag as do a lot of big corporate farms. Make it a culture rather than a chore…
Last edited:
smcapstick
Member
- Location
- Kirkby Lonsdale
My staff policy is this:
If it's for Red Tractor purposes, then this ticked the box
Health and Safety for Small Businesses
Managing health and safety doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming. For many small businesses, a basic series of practical tasks will help to protect you and your employees from harm and at the same time help protect your business.
www.nfumutual.co.uk
You can type in the boxes, then print it off
Steevo
Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
I would sooner go on a course than employ a consultant.
At least that way I would know what is required and can then have it covered.
I see H&S a bit like my tax return. I can pay someone else to do the paperwork for me, but it’s my neck on the line making sure the paperwork matches reality.
Compliance has become an industry in itself these days. More about the money than the actual safety element.
Sadly nowadays everyone makes such a big deal about everything being done a certain way that tasks like this feel humongous and so they risk getting put off or farmed out to a consultant. Both options risk removing it from the day to day mindset imo.
Paperwork is nothing without implementation.
Sadly implementation is almost seen as worth nothing if you haven’t written it down either.
At least that way I would know what is required and can then have it covered.
I see H&S a bit like my tax return. I can pay someone else to do the paperwork for me, but it’s my neck on the line making sure the paperwork matches reality.
Compliance has become an industry in itself these days. More about the money than the actual safety element.
Sadly nowadays everyone makes such a big deal about everything being done a certain way that tasks like this feel humongous and so they risk getting put off or farmed out to a consultant. Both options risk removing it from the day to day mindset imo.
Paperwork is nothing without implementation.
Sadly implementation is almost seen as worth nothing if you haven’t written it down either.
- Location
- East Sussex
If it's for Red Tractor purposes, then this ticked the box
Health and Safety for Small Businesses
Managing health and safety doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming. For many small businesses, a basic series of practical tasks will help to protect you and your employees from harm and at the same time help protect your business.
You can type in the boxes, then print it off
I don't think many on here will take this one up as it is written by those awful people the NFU!!
kfpben
Member
- Location
- Mid Hampshire
I had an HSE inspection a couple of months ago as they are doing a blitz of farms in Hampshire. They ALWAYS find something, essentially so they can charge you handsomely for their time.
In my instance apparently a modest 100ltr compressor needed an annual MOT type certificate.
I had the NFU risk management guy out on Monday have a look round and to help get the paperwork side up together. I could lose weeks of productive time writing risk assessments etc. for every task on farm.
In my instance apparently a modest 100ltr compressor needed an annual MOT type certificate.
I had the NFU risk management guy out on Monday have a look round and to help get the paperwork side up together. I could lose weeks of productive time writing risk assessments etc. for every task on farm.
- Location
- Ceredigion
NFU risk assessment
just get a mirror and a sign under it saying your looking at the person responsible for your safety
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I did a risk assessment the other day.
Main outcome : don’t employ anybody, don’t risk doing anybody else a favour, keep your business as small as will just get you a living, interacting with as few other people as possible.
Don’t be a martyr to creating jobs for people or contributing to economic growth or making a big profit to pay taxes to support public services. You just make yourself a target if you try that in the U.K. They’ll take you to the cleaners and load you with unsustainable costs so you can’t compete with imports and who wants the hassle and stress?
Is that too negative? Maybe, but it’s what I hear from a lot of small business owners who can’t wait to retire. Many have to install CCTV just to reduce the number of fabricated compo claims they are now subjected to, all encouraged by a predatory and parasitical legal system that’s feeding on the carcass of British commerce and industry.
Main outcome : don’t employ anybody, don’t risk doing anybody else a favour, keep your business as small as will just get you a living, interacting with as few other people as possible.
Don’t be a martyr to creating jobs for people or contributing to economic growth or making a big profit to pay taxes to support public services. You just make yourself a target if you try that in the U.K. They’ll take you to the cleaners and load you with unsustainable costs so you can’t compete with imports and who wants the hassle and stress?
Is that too negative? Maybe, but it’s what I hear from a lot of small business owners who can’t wait to retire. Many have to install CCTV just to reduce the number of fabricated compo claims they are now subjected to, all encouraged by a predatory and parasitical legal system that’s feeding on the carcass of British commerce and industry.
- Location
- Cheshire
Marc Skivington had to deal with the aftermath of a fatality where he is farm manager (he joined the farm after the accident). WIth HSE all over the business, he believed there had to be a better way of keeping a farm safe, and being able to prove it, whilst not getting bogged down in paperwork (also meets Red Tractor criteria). As a result he has spent 3 years developing Smart Farmer App. Worth checking out; includes a number of risk assessments.
smartfarmerapp.co.uk
Transform Your Farm Safety with One Powerful App - Smart Farmer
The easy way to record pre-start safety checks on farm machinery. Protect your workers and transform your farm safety overnight.
smartfarmerapp.co.uk
Steevo
Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
Marc Skivington had to deal with the aftermath of a fatality where he is farm manager (he joined the farm after the accident). WIth HSE all over the business, he believed there had to be a better way of keeping a farm safe, and being able to prove it, whilst not getting bogged down in paperwork (also meets Red Tractor criteria). As a result he has spent 3 years developing Smart Farmer App. Worth checking out; includes a number of risk assessments.
Transform Your Farm Safety with One Powerful App - Smart Farmer
The easy way to record pre-start safety checks on farm machinery. Protect your workers and transform your farm safety overnight.
Does this only cover machinery?
I’m thinking many farms have a lot of non-machinery related risks too and if so this is only half the job….
deleted user 436632456
Member
The NFU template isn't too bad as a base and is more than sufficient for most but you still need to understand what it is saying, as a vast majority of farms have under 5 employees they are under the legal threshold for recording information so..
"Maintaining Safe Systems of Work"... are you definitely doing that with risk assessments and method statements?.. "Ensuring safe handing and use of substances"... do you have COSHH assessments for all substances used on the farm?..
It's all about your statement of intent and what you are actually doing and personally I think things like the provision of PPE needs a mention too.
The more compliance documentation you see the more you realise that most is just a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy and no one really knows what they are saying anymore or even if the original document was correct to start with.
"Maintaining Safe Systems of Work"... are you definitely doing that with risk assessments and method statements?.. "Ensuring safe handing and use of substances"... do you have COSHH assessments for all substances used on the farm?..
It's all about your statement of intent and what you are actually doing and personally I think things like the provision of PPE needs a mention too.
The more compliance documentation you see the more you realise that most is just a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy and no one really knows what they are saying anymore or even if the original document was correct to start with.
Steevo
Member
- Location
- Gloucestershire
With a margin and a margin and a margin and a margin and a margin and a margin added on top by each successive party!
Common sense has left the building.
I'm no fan of the NFU but when Red Tractor brought this in, I googled and this was free, simple, and does the job. I'm anything for an easy life
I still argued to the Red Tractor dude that this sign on the parlour door covers everything
- Location
- Cheshire
Can be is
It can be used for all processes on farm; for example, it's used to record temperatures in cold storage. If you're handling animals, you can set up a risk assessment and record for that.
Woldgrain Storage
Member
- Location
- Hemswell, North Lincs
The HSE have lots of guidance on their website
Including how to write a company policy:
Prepare a health and safety policy - HSE
The law says that every business must have a policy for managing health and safety.
Don't forget the policy needs to be read, understood and signed off by all employees.
In addition to a H&S policy I would suggest, as a bare minimum:
- A risk assessment for each routine task (written by a "competent person") - reviewed annually
- A method statement for each routine task (written by a "competent person"), signed off by whoever is doing the task - reviewed annually
- A COSHH folder with a product data sheets, signed off by people handling each substance
- A training folder, including refreshers at appropriate intervals.
- Location
- Yorkshire
Worth having a loo at Safe Ag Systems https://www.safeagsystems.com Australian based with a growing number if UK users
- Location
- Cheshire
Seen in New Zealand a few years ago:I'm no fan of the NFU but when Red Tractor brought this in, I googled and this was free, simple, and does the job. I'm anything for an easy life
I still argued to the Red Tractor dude that this sign on the parlour door covers everything
View attachment 1096872
