Health and safety advice for members: How to set up your H&S committee

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Did you know that if two or more union-appointed health and safety representatives request in writing that you set up a health and safety committee, you must do so within three months of the request?

Although there is no such requirement if you consult health and safety representatives elected by the workforce, it is good practice to set up a health and safety committee where:

  • you have several health and safety representatives elected by employees; or
  • you have to consult both union-appointed health and safety representatives and employee-elected representatives.

CFW’s health and safety consultant, Anthony Arcari (pictured), has the following advice on setting up a health and safety committee for your organisation.

Membership

In terms of members,  it is useful to have a senior manager as chair, with a mix of employees (no more than 4-6)  and even a service user who may have an interest ( even if for only part of the meeting).

It is beneficial to have an agenda to stick to, (this could be for the first meeting to agree) making it clear to members that the time (perhaps a 2 or 2.5hour maximum) is for discussing significant issues, not things that are being brought up that should be dealt with outside the meeting (such as a trip hazard or fire extinguisher bracket hanging off the wall).

Agenda

Suggested content for an agenda could include:

  • accident/ incident/ near miss statistics,
  • any significant incidents, that have been investigated and the learning from them,
  • Statistics around H and S Training records, attendance at training, feedback positive and negative,
  • Safety feedback from CSSIW , fire HSE or LA inspections
  • developing new policies or procedures such as vaccination policy,
  • new legislation or safety guidance from HSE/Local Authority/CSSIW

Sharing information

Brief minutes with action points could be discussed at team meetings or placed on notice boards, whichever best suits the organisational structure/ethos.

Anthony Arcari can be contacted for further advice – email Anthony.