MTEM-How To Guide: Health and Safety and Risk Assessments

"It is an employer's duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of their employees and other people who might be affected by their business. This means making sure that workers and others are protected from anything that may cause harm, effectively controlling any risks to injury or health that could arise in the workplace." (Employer's responsibilities: Worker's health and safety 2015) 

Health and safety in the entertainment industry is about enabling people to carry out tasks safely, not stopping them from doing them. Risk assessments are in place for doing unavoidable tasks as safely as possible.

Three main areas of risk: 

• Manual Handling- Find an appropriate way of moving the load e.g. more people, mechanical aid. 
•  Electrical Safety- Equipment should carry an in-date PAT sticker. Be installed by a 'competent' person and regularly visually inspected. 
• Working at Height (Covered in previous blog: here ) 

It is important before any event that a risk assessment is carried out to identify potential risks when carrying out unavoidable tasks. Writing a risk assessment should include:

• Identifying risk and potential outcome.
• Identify who is at risk and assess the severity.
• Identify that the risk is controlled from the information, if not identify what needs to be done.
• Document findings.
• Regularly update and review.  

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Bibliography/References:

Employer’s responsibilities: Workers' health and safety. 2015. [online]. Available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/workers/employers.htm [accessed 12 October 2016].

MTEM-How to guide: Working at height. n.d. [online]. Available at: http://jessmtemhowto.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/mtem-how-to-guide-working-at-height.html [accessed 19 October 2016].