Small firms need simple 'how to' safety guides

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) said such a move would help dispel a perception among small firms that health and safety was "burdensome".

In its response to the Better Regulation Executive’s (BRE) consultation on health and safety, IOSH also called for the subject to be "embedded in the education system."

Ray Hurst, IOSH president, said: "Unfortunately, it's true that some small firms see health and safety as a drain on their time and resources, mainly because they mistakenly think it's all about paperwork and stopping them doing things.

"To help remedy this, we believe there should be easy access to simple 'how to' guidance and competent advice on health and safety."

He went on to say that guides should be provided free of charge, and called on the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to scrap any charges for their publications to encourage more small firms to download and use them.

"We need to get the message across about a balanced and sensible approach to managing risk – the benefits of improving health and safety and also the costs, in financial and human terms, of failing to do so," said the IOSH president.

Educational needs

IOSH also wants health and safety to be included in national, vocational and professional curricula.

"We believe every child should leave school with a basic knowledge about sensible attitudes to health and safety that they can apply when they first enter the workplace," said Ray Hurst.

"This will help small businesses too, as they will be able to recruit people who already have a head-start – and will mean they focus on providing induction and health and safety training that are job specific."

He added that senior business people and other professionals also needed to be more aware of health and safety issues, and that it should be a compulsory part of vocational and professional qualifications for managers, planners, designers, GPs and teachers.

"We want to make sure the business leaders of tomorrow know how to look after their staff and themselves properly, so that UK enterprise can flourish hand-in-hand with good health and safety standards."

Norwich Union is about to launch a new campaign providing a broad spectrum of trades with regular downloadable information on a range of health and safety topics. We'll have more news on this in the coming weeks...