If you are a Company Director then you have health and safety responsibility for the Company operations. If you have that responsibility then you need to ensure that decisions that you make are made from a place of competency. Increasingly this competency is being seen as including formal training - and not just from experience.
This is because material breaches of health and safety are very often caused by a failure of organisational management.
Those in managerial positions have to lead by example in managing health and safety. This is by ensuring strong and active leadership from the top with active commitment from the management team.
Effective communication and clear management structures are integral to ensuring that the commitment is demonstrated.
Following the HSE publication HSG65 Managing for Health and Safety the Plan, Do, Check, Act approach is integral to successful health and safety management and competency is a key factor in that process.
“Truly effective health and safety management requires competency across every facet of an organisation and through every level of the workforce” (Source: The health and safety of Great Britain: Be part of the solution (www.hse.gov.uk/strategy/document.htm)).
Competence is the ability to undertake responsibilities and perform activities to a recognised standard on a regular basis. It combines practical and thinking skills, knowledge and experience.
Directors and Senior Managers must be competent as decisions that are made can affect the health and safety of employees and others. Decisions are made that affect health and safety right across the organisation such as compliance (e.g. documenting management systems), recruitment, purchasing (e.g. work and safety equipment), pricing (e.g. assigning staffing), budgeting (e.g. training), etc. etc.
Many Safety Schemes In Procurement (SSiP) area now asking for evidence of Director competency and are now less likely to be satisfied with the grandfather rights of “experience” as evidenced by a CV. Competency is a mix of Skills, Knowledge, Experience and Training (SKET) and evidence of Training is increasingly being requested.
