Health and Safety Policy

Introdction

This Health and Safety manual has been prepared by WorkNest on our behalf and with our involvement. It contains our Health and Safety Policy as required by the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and it defines the way we manage the health and safety hazards and risks associated with our business, premises and activities.

Bardney Group Parish Council are committed to managing health and safety effectively to protect our employees and other persons with whom we interact because we recognise that we have not only a moral and legal duty but also that our employees are our greatest asset.

Our Health and Safety Policy Statement sets out our commitment and the objectives we aspire to in managing health and safety. It is signed by the most senior person in our organisation to demonstrate that our commitment is led from the top.

Our approach to managing health and safety will be pragmatic and proportionate and will be prioritised according to risk with the objective of maintaining continuous improvement. We accept that we cannot eliminate risk from everything we do but we can manage risk in such a way that exposure to hazards is controlled as far as is reasonably practical.

We recognise that improvement in health and safety will not happen by chance and that planning to manage using a systematic approach through risk assessment is a necessary first step and an ongoing process. In moving forwards we will wherever possible eliminate risk through selection and design of buildings, facilities, equipment and processes. Where risks cannot be eliminated they will be minimised by the use of physical controls or, as a last resort, through systems of work and personal protection.

Our success in managing health and safety will be measurable and we look to establish performance standards against which we can monitor our progress to identify future actions to go into our improvement programme.

Based on our performance measurement in the form of accident monitoring, internal monitoring and external audits we will review our health and safety arrangements periodically and at least annually. The results of our measurement will be recorded and presented to the Board in our Annual Report.

This Policy has been created by the named consultant from WorkNest with the co-operation of our staff. They have signed the Policy to confirm that at the time of creation it is suitable, sufficient and relevant to our circumstances and operations. Our nominated responsible person has signed the Policy to confirm that it is a true reflection of the activities and operations that we undertake and the circumstances in which the council operates.

Creation Date Signed on behalf of WorkNest Confirmed
15/01/2026 David Rogers DR

POLICY REVIEW

This Health and Safety Policy will be reviewed annually by WorkNest in conjunction with our nominated responsible person. As each review is completed it will be signed off by the consultant from WorkNest and confirmed by our nominated responsible person.

LEGISLATION

Extracts of relevant legislation are provided for ease of reference on the WorkNest webpage. Full copies of relevant legislation are available on the Office of Public Sector Information web page (www.opsi.gov.uk) and the National Archives (www.legislation.gov.uk)

GUIDANCE

Guidance on a number of health and safety issues can be accessed by logging onto the WorkNest webpage which we hope you will find useful as a quick reference source.

Should you require further advice or assistance not available here then remember that advice on any health and safety issue is available from the WorkNest advice line – Tel: 0345 226 8393.

FORMS

Relevant forms and templates that may be utilised can be accessed by logging onto the WorkNest webpage.

See the attachment for the full document.