As a manager or supervisor, there are number of health and safety responsibilities you need to meet.
The health and safety webpages provide further guidance and resources. This page is intended to provide managers and supervisors with an overview of your responsibilities as a manager or supervisor.
Understanding Health and Safety Policy and leading by example
The day-to-day decisions you make can have a direct impact on health and safety. You need to show your commitment to health and safety by:
- Ensuring you understand your responsibilities - the university’s organisation and arrangements procedure details the H&S responsibilities for all levels of staff.
- Demonstrate a visible commitment to health and safety
- Set a positive example by consistently following procedures and promoting good practice.
- Challenge unsafe behaviour.
Planning – Assessing risks and integrating health and safety into everyday decisions
The University has health and safety policies and procedures which ensure all staff, students and visitors enter a safe environment when working, studying or visiting Oxford Brookes University. As a manager, you contribute to this by:
- Identifying and assessing hazards – ensure potential risks are recognised and properly evaluated before activities take place.
- Communicating risks clearly – make sure staff, students, visitors, and contractors are aware of any hazards relevant to them.
- Embedding health and safety in daily management – integrate considerations into routine operations and decision-making.
- Planning work with safety in mind – factor health and safety into task design, scheduling, and resource allocation, particularly when doing something new.
Risk Assessment training is available in the managing risk and compliance area of the Staff Learning Portal.
Implementation – Putting in place the right information, training, supervision and controls
- Induction and training – ensure staff complete required health and safety training so they have the knowledge, skills, and safeguards needed to work safely.
- Support and supervision – offer guidance and oversight to ensure safe practice in day-to-day activities.
- Communicate clearly – share safety information and instructions in a way everyone can understand and apply.
- Put safeguards in place – make sure protective measures, equipment, and procedures are available and consistently used.
Health and Safety training is available via the risk and compliance area of the Staff Learning Portal. If in doubt, you should contact the Health and Safety teamn by email at healthandsafety@brookes.ac.uk.
Checking – Monitoring how effectively health and safety is being managed
- Actively monitor your team’s risk controls – check that agreed safety measures are being followed in practice.
- Respond to accidents and incidents – ensure these are reported, investigated locally, and that lessons are shared with your team.
- Follow up on actions – make sure corrective steps are carried out and embedded in your team’s activities.
- Acknowledge performance – recognise and reinforce good practice, and address unsafe behaviours promptly.
Incidents, accidents, dangerous occurrences, near misses and safety concerns are reported via ServiceNow. The link is available on the health and safety webpage.
Review – Learning from experience and improving future practice
- Engage with reviews, audits, and performance data – actively participate in assessing how health and safety is managed within your team.
- Use insights to make improvements – identify opportunities to enhance safety practices and processes.
- Support implementation of changes – help embed improvements within your team’s day-to-day activities.