In regards to an organisation you work for, or one with which you are familiar, select three different
hazards which pose a significant threat to workers at an operational level, i.e. hazardous substances, fire,
mechanical hazards etc.
For each of the identified hazards complete and provide a suitable and sufficient safety, health or wellbeing
risk assessment form. The risk assessment MUST meet all relevant legislative and / or sector guidance
requirements. Sources used for each risk assessment must be cited in a list at the end of each risk
assessment.
You are then required to write a professional report (suitable for presentation to a Board of Directors)
critiquing the methodological approaches used to complete the risk assessments.
Your report should include:
A brief overview of the organisation and rationale for the selection of the three hazards;
Critical evaluation of the factors that influenced the selection, design, development and
implementation of the risk assessments;
Critical evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen approach used in each risk
assessment;
Recommendations of how the risk assessments can be improved
The three risk assessments and any supporting documents should be added as an appendix to your report.
The report should be written in Arial 12 point text with 1.5 spacing between lines (Line spacing in tables
can be spaced as appropriate).
Table of Contents
This is a report so you need a table of contents.
Abstract/Executive Summary
- Overview of company
Name (can be fake), number of staff (approximate), size of organisation, size of premises being
considered for risk assessment, type of activity undertaken there. - Hazards chosen and rationale for selection of hazards
Hazard:
Why chosen:
Hazard:
Why chosen:
Hazard:
Why chosen:
Choose hazards not processes or tasks. It is simpler to risk assess them. Choose hazards that are easy
to risk assess and be specific (e.g. choose one manual handling activity rather than all manual
handling, choose one use of a hazardous chemical substance rather than risk assessing the use of all
chemicals) - Critical Evaluation of Influential Factors on the Risk Assessments
Consider what influenced the selection, design, development and implementation of the risk
assessments used.
Some questions to consider:
If you chose a specific table format, then why that format?
If you chose qualitative risk assessment, then why was that suitable?
Who was/would be involved in the risk assessment process and why were they/would they be
involved? Who could have been involved and what were the strengths and weaknesses of involving
them?
How was the risk assessment implemented/would it be implemented (along with its control
measures) and what were the strengths and weaknesses of that approach? Plenty to say here.
2
Has the risk assessment been updated/how would it be updated and what was/would be the
process for that change? What might be the strengths and weaknesses of that approach?
Consider aspects such as the working environment, level of risk posed by the hazard and type of
staff involved.
Use guidance documents from the grey literature, but you must also draw from the journals where
you can find relevant articles. - Critical evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen approach.
Has the risk been reduced sufficiently (as low as reasonably practicable), is the assessment ‘suitable
and sufficient’ (see lecture slides), have relevant guidance and UK legislation requirements been
met?
Is there evidence about the chosen approach in the literature that you can use to support your
evaluation and discussion?
Use guidance documents from the grey literature, but you must also draw from the journals where
you can find relevant articles. - Conclusion
Conclusions arise logically from the work you have already done. You shouldn’t present any new
information here. Just use the information you have collected to inform the options, indicators,
lessons or advice you wish to give the readers. - Recommendations
What could be done to improve the risk assessment approach? Give specific recommendations, preferably with timescales attached. Back these up with reference to the literature where possible - References
