Introduction to Fire Safety Management

Introduction to Fire Safety Management
In civil law all employers have a duty to take reasonable
care of the safety of anyone who may be affected
by his work undertaking. This includes, for example,
employees, customers, end users of products and other
members of the public.
The way in which employers discharge these duties
will vary with the size and nature of an organisation.
However, in general terms it will be the employer’s role
to ensure that effective policies are in place, suffi cient
resources are allocated to ensure that all work can be
carried out safely and that an effective safety culture
(see Chapter 4) is established and maintained.
It is often the case in larger organisations that the
employer may himself be remote from the workplace.
For many public service organisations, e.g. NHS trusts,
police authorities and social services, the employer is a
board of elected representatives of the public. In these
circumstances it can be seen that it is even more critical
for the employers to set clear policies in order that the
directors and senior managers of the organisation can
fulfi l their roles to assist in discharging the legal duties of
their employers.
As with all persons who have safety responsibilities
within any organisation the exact roles and responsibilities
of the employers to achieve effective health and
safety management will be detailed in the health and
safety policy required by section 2(3) of the HSWA.
3.2.3 Directors and senior managers
The Health and Safety Commission has identifi ed health
and safety as a boardroom issue. The chairman and/or
chief executive are seen as having a critical role to play
in ensuring risks are properly managed. They further
argue that those at the top of any organisation have a
key role to play. In order to allow directors and senior
managers to contribute to the HSC it is recommended
that a director is given specifi c responsibilities for health
and safety. These again will be detailed in the organisation
section of the company’s health and safety policy.
Current authoritative guidance suggests that the
‘boards of companies’ take the following fi ve actions:
1. The board needs to accept formally and publicly
its collective role in providing safety leadership
in its organisation. Strong leadership is seen as
being vital in delivering effective risk control. Everyone
should understand that the most senior management
is committed to continuous improvement
in safety performance.
2. All members of the board should accept their
individual role in providing safety leadership for
their organisation. Board members are encouraged
to ensure that their actions and decisions
always reinforce the messages in the board’s safety
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Figure 3.1 The responsibility for safety management
starts and stops in the board room
policy statement. Any mismatch between board
members’ individual attitudes, behaviour or decisions
and the organisation’s safety policy will undermine
employees’ belief in the intentions of the board
and will undermine good fi re and health and safety
practice.
3. The board needs to ensure that all its decisions
refl ect the organisation’s safety intentions, as
stated in the policy statement. Many business decisions
will have both fi re and health and safety implications.
It is particularly important that the safety
ramifi cations of investment in new plant, premises,
processes or products are taken into account as the
decisions are made.
4. The board must recognise its role in engaging
the active participation of workers in improving
safety and risk management. Effective safety risk
management requires the active participation of
employees. Many successful organisations actively
promote and support employee involvement and
consultation. Employees at all levels should become
actively involved in all aspects of a safety management
system.
5. Current best practice is that boards appoint one
of their number to be the ‘safety director’. By
appointing a ‘safety director’ there will be a board
member who can ensure that fi re and health and
safety risk management issues are properly addressed
throughout the organisation.
It is important that the role of the safety director should
not detract either from the responsibilities of other directors
for specifi c areas of fi re and health and safety risk
management or from the safety responsibilities of the
board as a whole.