1. Risk Assessment
Training Pack

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3. Introduction
This training pack is for use by staff who are required to carry out risk assessments for work activities and working environments.
You need to keep this training pack as it has health and safety information you need for your job.
If you are having difficulty with this pack, approach your manager for help or call the Safety Section.
This symbol in the top right corner of the page means you need to find something out and write it in the space provided.
This symbol means that the page contains example answers

4. Training Pack Objectives
In this training pack you will learn about the principles and be
guided through the practice of risk assessment to help keep
everyone well at work.
This training pack will give you the following information:-
What risk assessment is and what it aims to do
People’s responsibilities for risk assessment
The steps needed to do an adequate risk assessment
How to reduce risks
Why everyone should know about risk assessment

5. Risk Assessment
By Law, risk assessments must be carried out for all work activities and working environments.
It is the manager’s responsibility for making sure this is done, but the actual task of doing risk assessments can be delegated to suitable staff.

6. The Aim of Risk Assessment
The aim of a risk assessment is to make working reasonably safe.
To do this you should look at the risks to the staff and to anyone else likely to be affected by the work, eg visitors, service users, members of the public.
You must then identify reasonable action to take to make the job safer. Your manager is then responsible for making sure this action is taken.
Your manager needs to make sure that risk assessments are shown to the staff they cover and tell them about anything they need to do to make the job safer.

7. What are Hazards and Risks?
Look at the following questions and write your answers in the spaces provided.
What is a Hazard?
________________________________________________________________
What is a Risk?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. What are Hazards and Risks?
A hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm, eg a wet floor. A person can be a hazard too, eg someone who could be potentially aggressive or violent towards you.
A risk is the likelihood that the hazard would cause an accident resulting in damage or injury, eg the chance that someone would walk over the wet floor and slip as a result, causing an injury.

9. The Risk Assessment Process
Step 1 Identify hazards – ask the staff to help with this if needed
Step 2 Evaluate risk for each – is it a significant risk?
Step 3 Identify suitable control measures to reduce significant risks
Step 4 Implement any control measures you have identified
Step 5 Tell staff about the risk assessments. Also tell any new staff when they are inducted
Step 6 Monitor control measures put in place – are they working?
Step 7 Review your risk assessments yearly as an absolute minimum or sooner if work changes

10. The Risk Assessment Process
Step 1 – Identify the Hazards

11. Step 1 – Identify the Hazards
Write down all the areas you can think of where you might find hazards around your work and the working environment:-
_______________________________ _______________________________

12. Step 1 – Identify the Hazards
The following are suggestions for areas which may need a written
risk assessment:-
Electricity
External environment
Entrances & exits
Fire
First aid
Gas
Housekeeping
Internal environment
Moving and handling
Noise
Personal safety
Slips, trips & falls
These examples are only a guide. You may find others where you work.
Violence
Staff Kitchens
Stress
Food Safety
Hazardous Substances
Window Cleaning
Transport
Any other risks specific to the work

13. Step 1 – Identify the Hazards
You may find it useful to involve other staff members when you are identifying hazards. Perception of risk can vary from person to person. Ask them about what they see as hazards - they may notice things that you might not.
Write down the hazards that you have identified on a risk assessment form. (See example form overleaf)
Hazard

14. Example Risk Assessment Form
Department: Service/Establishment:
Hazard
Risks resulting from hazard
Existing control measures
New control measures
Date completed
Name of Assessor _____________________________________ Job Title ___________________________
Managers Signature ____________________________________ Date of Assessment _________________
 All risks should be reviewed at least once a year or if circumstances change

15. The Risk Assessment Process
Step 2 – Evaluate the Risks

16. Step 2 Evaluate the Risks - Is the Risk Significant or Insignificant?
To decide whether or not the risk from a hazard is significant, you need to
consider the following things for each hazard you have identified:-
The Probability, or likelihood, of the hazard leading to an accident
The likely Consequences of any accident that would be caused
Then make a judgement – is it significant or insignificant? If it is significant, is it Medium or High priority?

17. Step 2 Evaluate the Risks - Is the Risk Significant or Insignificant?
A. Probability (Likelihood)
How likely is it that an accident will occur as a result of this hazard?
For example, you have identified an uneven floor surface that could be a tripping hazard.
If it is in a main thoroughfare, it could potentially affect staff or anyone else likely to be present so it is likely that it would cause an accident.
If it is situated in a corner of a room or an area where it was unlikely people would have to walk over it, it would be unlikely to cause an accident.

18. Step 2 Evaluate the Risks - Is the Risk Significant or Insignificant?
B. Consequences
What would be the worst that could happen if you did nothing about this hazard?
Would it be likely to result in serious or moderate consequences? Eg a death, a fracture, an amputation or a dislocation. or
Would it be likely to result in minor consequences such as a small cut to a finger or minor damage to equipment?

19. Step 2 Evaluate the Risks - Is the Risk Significant or Insignificant?
C. Significant or Insignificant?
For each hazard you have identified, look at the answers you have come up with for Probability and Consequences and decide whether or not the risk is significant. If it is a Significant risk, you will also need to decide if it is high or medium priority.
For the examples below, decide whether the risk is significant or insignificant and tick the corresponding box:-
Likely probability and serious consequences
Likely probability and moderate consequences
Likely probability and minor consequences
Unlikely probability and serious consequences
Unlikely probability and moderate consequences
Unlikely probability and minor consequences
Insignificant Risk
No or Low Priority
Significant Risk Medium Priority
Significant Risk
High Priority

20. Step 2 Evaluate the Risks - Is the Risk Significant or Insignificant?
C. Significant or Insignificant? Answers:-
Insignificant No or Low Risk
Significant Medium Risk
Significant High Risk 
Likely probability and serious consequences
Likely probability and moderate consequences
Likely probability and minor consequences
Unlikely probability and serious consequences
Unlikely probability and moderate consequences
Unlikely probability and minor consequences

21. Step 2 Evaluate the Risks - Is the Risk Significant or Insignificant?
If the risk is insignificant, no further action is necessary, but you should monitor the situation and encourage your staff to tell you about any changes.
If the risk is significant, ie a High or Medium risk, you need to complete the rest of the risk assessment form, detailing the risk and the control measures needed to reduce it to an acceptable level.

22. The Risk Assessment Process
Step 3 – Identify Suitable Control Measures to Reduce the Risks

23. Step 3 Control Measures – Reducing the Risks
What Are Reasonable Control Measures?
A balance between … Cost & Risk
Control measures are things done or action taken to control or reduce the risks to people’s safety. “Reasonable” means that the cost of taking the action is in proportion to the risk, ie the higher the risk the higher the cost.
Cost
Risk
cost
risk

24. Step 3 Control Measures – Reducing the Risks
You need to identify the things you can do to reduce the
risks from a hazard. The action you should take could
include:-
Elimination/Substitution
Do not do the task that presents the risk or do a different task which is a lower risk activity.
For example, the hazard in question might be the need to use step ladders to reach something on a high shelf or cupboard. By rearranging the storage of items so that you can reach them all without using the stepladder, the risk of falling off or dropping something on someone else is eliminated.

25. Step 3 Control Measures – Reducing the Risks
Isolation/Containment
Keep people away from the hazard.
For example, the hazard might be a wet floor being cleaned. By putting up barriers or warning signs around the floor area being cleaned, the risk of people slipping on it would be reduced because people would see the danger and avoid the area, or be prevented from crossing it by the barrier.

26. Step 3 Control Measures – Reducing the Risks
Engineering Controls
Make the task safer by design.
For example, the hazard might be evacuating people with mobility problems down a step in the event of an emergency.
The solution could be fitting a ramp to the fire exit instead of steps, reducing the risk of falling.

27. Step 3 Control Measures – Reducing the Risks
Personal Protective Equipment
This should be used as a last resort and only after all of the previous control measures have been considered and judged unsuitable or impractical to put into place.
You must make sure that any control measure you decide to put into place is working and does
not cause another hazard, as the risk may be made even higher than the original risk.

28. The Risk Assessment Process
Step 4 – Implement Control Measures

29. Step 4 – Implement Control Measures
When you have identified the best way to reduce the risks, you must take reasonable action to put these control measures into place.
Things that can be done easily should be done immediately or as soon as possible.
The rest of the control measures you have identified should be prioritised for action.

30. The Risk Assessment Process
Step 5 – Communication

31. Step 5 - Communication
When you have identified and evaluated the risks and put control measures into
place, the staff need to be made aware of the result of the risk assessment.
You should tell staff about:-
the risks that apply to them
the control measures in place to protect them
any further control measures to be implemented and any interim measures
You should also tell staff where to find the risk assessments if they need to refer
to them, and give them reasonable access.
If there are any other services working in the same building and any of the risks
identified would affect them, you should share your risk assessment with them.
You should also make sure that any new staff are shown the risk
assessment before they start work there.
Risk assessments must be available for inspection at all times
to Enforcement Officers, managers and Safety staff.

32. The Risk Assessment Process
Step 6 – Monitor the Risks

33. Step 6 - Monitoring
When you have put control measures into place to reduce the risks, you need to make sure that they are working properly. Sometimes putting a control measure or procedure into place causes another hazard that was not thought of before the control measure was introduced.
Encourage staff to tell you if they think that a control measure or precaution is not working or is not practical.
Where control measures are not working, you should look at other ways of reducing the risk that may be more effective and put those into place instead.

34. The Risk Assessment Process
Step 7 – Review the Risk Assessments

35. Step 7 - Review
Once a year, or more often if the work changes, you will need to look again at your risk assessment to make sure that it is still valid
You should look at each hazard and its associated risk(s) in detail. This is so that you can see if it is still relevant, that the controls or procedures put into place are working and that the risk is reduced as much as is practical
You should always encourage staff to tell you if they notice anything where they are working that they think may be a hazard
For any new hazard identified, if it is a significant risk you will need to add them to your risk assessment. You will also need to implement any control measures needed within a reasonable amount of time.
You should tell your staff about the review and whether or not anything has changed

36. Risk Assessment Summary
Step 1 Identify the hazards
Step 2 Evaluate the risks
Step 3 Identify suitable control measures
Step 4 Implement control measures
Step 5 Tell staff
Step 6 Monitor the control measures
Step 7 Review your risk assessments

37. Risk Assessment - Why Should I Bother?
Why are risk assessments important? Make a list in the space provided:-
_________________________ _________________________

38. Risk Assessment - Why Should I Bother ?
Risk assessments are important because:-
they help us to look after staff and other people who could be affected by the work
they improve the quality of the service we provide - a fit, healthy workforce can provide a better service
they help to stop people from being injured or becoming ill due to accidents and incidents at work.
it is the Law. Managers have a legal duty to make an assessment of the risks to their staff and anyone else that might be affected by the work.
The Council can be prosecuted by Inspectors or sued by injured workers, members of the public or service users.
they save the Council money. Less accidents means less people
have to have time off work, so the cost of covering absence is
reduced
if anyone has an accident, everyone will want to know where the
risk assessments are. If a risk assessment has not been done,
we could be found to be failing in our health and safety responsibilities.

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40. Risk Assessment Self Assessment Questions
Please tick the answer you feel is correct:-
Who is responsible for safety?
your manager
you
your staff
all of the above
Who has the responsibility for doing risk assessments?
agency staff
Why do we do risk assessments?
Because it saves the Council money
Because it helps to keep people healthy and safe
It is the Law
What is the difference between a hazard and a risk?
A hazard is the likelihood that a risk will cause an accident
A risk is the likelihood that a hazard will cause an accident
It has something to do with gambling
What should you do if a member of your staff reports a hazard to you?
Ignore it and hope it goes away
Evacuate the building
Add it to your risk assessment if it is a significant risk and take reasonable action control it.

41. Risk Assessment Self Assessment Questions
If you decide a risk is Insignificant, you need not take any further action.
True/False
If you decide a risk is Significant, you need not take any further action.
What is a reasonable control measure?
One that balances the cost against the risk
One that costs as much money as possible
One that is very time consuming and bureaucratic
Personal protective equipment should only be used after other control measures have been considered.
True/False
When your risk assessments are completed, what should you do with them?
File them on a high shelf out of reach and let them gather dust
Lock them away for safe keeping so no-one else can see them
Share them with your staff, keep a copy at the house or patch base and review them at least annually

42. Risk Assessment Self Assessment Questionsd b c
True
False a