How to

• Undertake a risk assessment
• Undertake a risk assessment for an employee with health/medical conditions or disabilities

• What is a risk assessment?
• When should I undertake a risk assessment?
• What are control measures?
• Do I need to use "Risk Ratings"?
• What are manager's / headteacher's responsibilities regarding risk assessment?
• Is it admissible to undertake a Workplace / Premises Risk Assessment?

More FAQs on risk assessment are available on the Health & Safety Executive's web site that you can link to here. They include:

• What is a hazard?
• What is risk?
• What are significant risks?
• Who should my risk assessment cover?
• What do I need to record?
• What does 'reasonably practicable' mean?
• What is the hierarchy of control?
• When should I review my risk assessment?
• What is the difference between a risk assessment and a method statement?
• What responsibilities do my employees have?

• LCC Basic Risk Assessment Pro-forma

For use by accredited services (normally those with high risk activities e.g. Design & Construction, Waste Services, Highways and Scientific Services)

• Risk assessment pro-forma ISO 45001 certified
• Guidance on completing the ISO 45001 certified risk assessment pro-forma
• Risk assessment hierarchy of control form (accompanies ISO 45001 certified risk assessment pro-form)

For use by ALL services

• General (Model) Risk Assessments
• Curriculum General Risk Assessments
• COSHH General Risk Assessments
• Risk Assessment for Employees with Health/Medical Conditions or Disabilities
• Guidance for undertaking a risk assessment for Employees with Health/Medical Conditions or Disabilities

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Where it has been identified there is a significant risk to a person's health, safety or wellbeing arising from a work activity then a risk assessment detailing what the risk is and how it is controlled should be readily available (this is a legal requirement). 

The following publication from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides general guidance on how to undertake a risk assessment and is recognised as good practice.  Please refer to this guidance for advice when undertaking your own risk assessments. 

• HSE publication "Risk Assessment – a brief guide to controlling risks in the workplace" (INDG163)

Managers and headteachers must follow the steps outlined in the above guidance when undertaking risk assessments i.e.:

• Identify the hazards
• Decide who might be harmed
• Evaluate the risks 
• Record your significant findings
• Regularly review your risk assessment

Please also see our Forms, Templates and General Risk Assessments which are based on the HSE's guidance. These can be used to help document your own risk assessments.

Important notes for managers and headteachers:

• New work activities must be risk assessed prior to commencement to ensure that any significant risk(s) is adequately controlled and that sufficient information has been communicated to all those affected.
• Superseded risk assessments should be archived, as reference to them may be required in future years when systems change or for use in legal proceedings. Please see our retention of records procedure for further information.
• Procedures must be in place for staff to report any problems with risk assessments and for progressing any remedial action required. 
• Risk Assessments must be brought to the attention of anyone who may be affected by them. They should be discussed at staff meetings or in local staff training sessions and should be brought to the attention of new employees at induction.
• Employees temporarily taking over responsibility for a particular task should be told to familiarise themselves with any associated risk assessments and control measures e.g. booking in & out systems when travelling away from base; wearing hard hats on a construction site.

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A risk assessment is nothing more than a careful examination of what, in your work, could cause harm to people, so that you can weigh-up whether you have taken enough precautions, taking into account what is "reasonably practicable", or  whether you should do more to prevent harm.

• Task Risk Assessments –covering a single task or operation that may be undertaken regularly e.g. home visits, cleaning gutters at a school.
• Specific Risk Assessment – usually produced for a single one-off operation or event e.g. school fete, moving office.
• Workplace Risk Assessment – covering all the hazards present within a specific workplace or premises and any routine activities that take place there e.g. in a Day Centre. However, it should be borne in mind that any additional or new activities introduced to the workplace will need to have either task risk assessments completed for them, or the Workplace Risk Assessment will need to be updated to include them.
• Dynamic or Mental Risk Assessment – conducted at the point of undertaking a particular activity.  Individual experience, training and skills are used to assess the level of risk and any controls required. This assessment is not formally recorded. e.g. Agile worker using different touch down facilities.

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When you or others e.g. employees have identified hazards and in your judgment there is a significant risk of an accident or incident if nothing is done to control it.

Managers must also assess risks that may arise during periods of significant change, and plan how those risks will be managed and controlled.  Examples may include: the major changes that arise from an office move, or a restructure, or a change to work processes, or a major change to practices and their impacts on operations, processes and activities.  LCC's risk assessment pro-forma can be used to identify risks and to document how they will be controlled. See our Forms, Templates and General Risk Assessments above.

Example: The types of risk that may be considered as part of an office move include manual handling of furniture & office supplies, overfilling storage boxes, stress, adequacy of design of the new office areas, storage facilities, adequacy of emergency escape routes, space, lighting, etc, for the work being undertaken, adequacy of IT network points and power points for the work equipment being used (this list is not exhaustive).

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Any risk to health and safety should be either eliminated at source or adequately controlled to reduce the risk to a reasonable level.  The means by which we do this are often termed as ‘control measures’.  It can sometimes help by considering these as 3 different groups:-

1.  Technical Control Measures e.g. suitable design of work areas, machinery, equipment, suitable guards, fencing, emergency stop buttons, extractor fans, air con systems and emergency electrical cut-out systems.

2.  Procedural Control Measures e.g. demarcation of areas to keep clear, warning signage, permit-to-work systems for high risk operations, safe systems of work or local procedures to be followed such as booking in and out systems or wear specific personal protective equipment (PPE) when undertaking a specific task.

3.  Behavioural Control Measures e.g. the provision of adequate information, instruction, training and supervision.  Ensuring work tasks are within the capabilities of the staff chosen to do them.  Making staff aware of the risk and the potential consequences of not following safety procedures for the work they do.

A combination of the above will usually be required dependant on the risks involved and the practicality of applying such measures.

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Risk ratings are not a legal requirement. Non-accredited services e.g. schools, libraries and day centres, do not need to use a risk rating in their risk assessments and are advised to use the LCC Basic Risk Assessment Pro-forma to record their risk assessments.

For externally accredited services risk ratings must be included in their risk assessments. They are a good way of evidencing the effectiveness of control measures e.g. if prior to any controls being implemented the risk rating is 'Intolerable' or 'High', and then after the controls have been considered the risk rating drops to 'Moderate', 'Low' or 'Insignificant', then you can demonstrate how well the controls are working in theory.  However, you must still ensure the controls are working in practice by observing staff using them and asking them for feedback on how easy they are to use.

It is each manager's / headteacher's responsibility to ensure that risk assessments are:

• Carried out for any tasks/activities undertaken by staff, or third parties e.g. contractors, for whom they are responsible (this can be done either by themselves or delegated to another competent person);
• Reviewed regularly:
  • annually is recommended for the non-technical aspects of a fire risk assessment
  • 3 yearly for task risk assessments and the technical aspects of a fire risk assessment
  • 5 yearly for COSHH risk assessments
• or review when they are no longer valid, or if there has been a significant change.