Regular health and safety inspections are the cornerstone of any safe workplace. Regardless of how much money is spent on developing rules and implementing systems and procedures, the investment will be a waste if they are not adhered to. Inspections need to be conducted regularly. No wonder much emphasis is place on this chapter in the MAKROSAFE Health and Safety Certificate.
When companies celebrate milestones achieved, health and safety practitioners should be concerned. Milestones of so many working hours without incidents should issue a warning of an imminent incident. It is human nature to become lax over time and even though machines and equipment have managed to operate safely over a previous period wear and tear could cause things to happen soon. Manufacturers of machines and equipment can draft schedule of time-frames at which machines, or elements of the machine, should be inspected for wear and tear. But companies can do something similar for their employees too. Various inspections should be considered regularly. The Inspection chapter of the MAKROSAFE Health and Safety certificate looks into the various inspections that can be done, as well as the way they should be conducted. At the end of the learners should be able to describe the purpose of pre-use, safety and/or audit inspections. They are also expected to explain the relevant hazards and risks likely to be encountered during these inspections, as well as the importance of initiating immediate remedial actions.
The Inspections chapter explains how health and safety practitioners should prepare themselves and which tools they should take with them when inspecting. It also discusses the relevant hazards and risk control measures that come with inspections. A simple but clear check-list is provided to allow the future health and safety practitioners to quickly establish what is important and what to prioritise.
Learners are also taught how and why to develop an OHS action plan before they conduct the inspection as well as ways to manage hazards.
This chapter comes with many documents that have been drafted by MAKROSAFE employees and that can be used as samples. In reality, however, these documents have become the norm in the industry.
As inspections can have a significant impact on people and processes it is important that they are conducted a certain ways and with a certain attitude. All learners will, therefore, be prepared and trained about the way they should conduct such inspection and how they should handle situations and discussions they can expect.
The Inspections chapter also teaches future health and safety practitioners about what to do and how to handle all information obtained during an inspection. It will teach them how to monitor and evaluate outcomes and how all these should be measured. As the 'Legislation' chapter provides the theoretical explanation and the 'H&S Representation Activities' section defines the scope of responsibilities the this Inspection section will be the first chapter in making dream of becoming a health and safety practitioner a reality when knowledge gained is put into practice.
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