Health and Safety

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Health and Safety

• Dynamic Risk Assessment

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Aim

• To inform the students of the need for and the
  importance of a risk assessment.

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Learning Outcomes
At the end of the session students will

• Understand the principles of risk assessment
• Be aware of the strategy of risk assessment and
  control.

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Dynamic management of risk

• Definition
• The continuous process of identifying hazards,
  assessing risk, taking action to eliminate or
  reduce risk, monitoring and reviewing, in the
  rapidly changing circumstances of an operational
  incident.

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Hazard

• The property of a substance, article or situation
  which has the potential for damaging persons,
  plant, material and or the environment
• The potential to cause harm.

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Risk

• The probability of an event occurring in a given
  set of circumstances
• RISK probability of event and severity of
  outcome
• Expresses the likelihood that the harm from a
  hazardous substance, article or situation is
  realised.

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Key elements

• Identification of the hazards
• Assessment of the risks associated with the
  hazards
• Identification of who is at risk
• The effective application of measures that
  control the risk.

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Evaluation
For every situation, task and person the Incident
Commander will need to consider

• Information available e.g. risk cards, fire
  safety plans, etc
• Nature of the tasks to be carried out
• Hazards involved.

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Risks involved to

• Firefighters
• Other emergency service personnel
• Members of the public
• The environment

Resources available

• Experienced personnel
• Appliances and equipment.

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Safe systems of work

• Review the options available in terms of standard
  procedures, choose the most appropriate for the
  situation
• The starting point must be procedures agreed in
  pre-planning and training.

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Assess the chosen system

• Once a course of action has been decided, the
  Incident Commander will need to make a judgement
  on whether the risks involved are proportional to
  the perceived benefits.

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Assess the chosen system

• If YES proceed after ensuring
• Goals, both individual and team are understood
• Responsibilities have been clearly allocated
• Safety measures and procedures are understood.

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Assess the chosen system

• If NO then introduce additional control
  measures.

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Additional control measures
Incident Commanders will need to eliminate or
reduce remaining risks to an acceptable level

• PPE (safety glasses, safety harnesses)
• Use of breathing apparatus
• Specialist equipment e.g. HP, TL
• Appointment of safety officers.

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Re-assess systems of work

• Even when safe systems are in place there may be
  residual risks or the risks and hazards may
  change
• It is therefore important to continually
  re-assess the hazards, risks and perceived
  benefits and ensure the safe systems of work in
  place are adequate.

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Incident debrief
It is important to highlight any unconventional
system or procedure used which was successful or
made the working environment safe

• Review
• Re-evaluate
• Refine
• Modify.

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Incident debrief

• It is equally important to highlight all
  equipment, systems or procedures which did NOT
  work satisfactorily, or made the working
  environment unsafe.

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Initial stage of incident
Evaluate the situation, tasks persons at risk
Select systems of work
Assess the chosen systems of work
Consider viable alternatives
Proceed with tasks
YES
Are the risks proportional to the benefits?
NO
NO
YES
Can additional control measures be introduced?
Do not proceed with tasks
Re-assess systems of work
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Development stage of incident
As the incident develops

• Constantly assess the risks and control measures
  required
• Halt tasks completely if the risk outweighs the
  benefit.

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Closing stage of incident
Maintain the process of task hazard
identification, assessment of risk, planning,
organisation, control, monitoring review of the
preventive and protective measures
Incident debriefed
Significant information fed back to
Strategic level
Systematic level
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Confirmation
Assessments will be based on this session and the
corresponding study note

• Learning Outcomes
• Understand the principles of risk assessment
• Be aware of the strategy of risk assessment and
  control.

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THE END