Health and Safety Policy

Health and Safety Policy

Introduction

Leamington Studio Artists (LSA) Executive Committee has overall responsibility for health and safety in the organisation, and for ensuring that it fulfils all its legal responsibilities. As LSA has no employees and East Lodge is not a place of work the Health and Safety at Work Regulations do no apply. However, the Executive Committee recognises its common law duty of care and will uphold this policy providing the necessary funds and resources to put it into practice.

The LSA Executive Committee is committed to ensuring that all its activities are safe and it will do whatever it can to provide for the health, safety and welfare of all volunteers, members and visitorsensuring that risks to volunteers, members and visitors are minimised at all times.

This policy will be reviewed biannually by the Executive Committee.

  1. Responsibilities

The East Lodge Manager is responsible for:

  • The implementation and monitoring of this health and safety policy and recommending changes where necessary;
  • Identifying what measures are needed to comply with LSA’s health and safety obligations
  • Providing information, instruction, training and supervision to volunteers in safe working methods and procedures as required;
  • Encouraging volunteers and members to co-operate in ensuring safe and healthy conditions and systems by effective joint consultation
  • Establishing emergency procedures, as required;

The Risk Assessor is responsible for:

  • Assessing the risk to the health and safety of volunteers, members and visitors, using the risk assessment attached to this policy;
  • Ensuring that East Lodge is safe and without risk to health including safe ways of entering and leaving;
  • Ensuring that equipment is safe and well maintained;
  • Investigating all accidents or unsafe incidents on behalf of the Committee as soon as possible;
  • Reporting all accidents or unsafe incidents to the Committee at the next available meeting.
  1. Volunteer Responsibilities

All LSA Volunteers will ensure that:

  • They are aware of the contents of this safety policy
  • They comply with this policy
  • They take care of themselves and others who may be affected by their actions or omissions
  • They report all accidents, or unsafe situations, and any near misses (things which could have led to an accident), to the Health and Safety Officer or another Committee member at once.
  • They record accidents or near misses at work in the accident book kept in the cupboard in gallery 1 at East Lodge.
  • They are aware of all fire procedures for the area in which they are working
  • If they identify anything which they think could be in any way unsafe, they will report it.
  1. Risk Assessments

The Risk Assessor will ensure that all premises and tasks are assessed against the written risk assessment. Assessments will be repeated when there is a

  • trip or event to organise
  • change in legislation
  • change of premises
  • significant change in work carried out
  • transfer to new technology

or any other reason which makes the original assessment not valid.

  1. Training 

To comply with legislation and to promote the health, safety and welfare of volunteers, health and safety training will be provided as follows:

  • at inductions
  • on the introduction of new technology
  • when changes are made to venues
  • when training needs are identified during risk assessments. 
  1. Resolving health and safety problems

Any volunteer with a health and safety concern must first tell the Risk Assessor or, in their absence, the East Lodge Manager.

If, after investigation, the problem is not corrected in a reasonable time, or the Risk Assessor decides that no action is required, but the volunteer is not satisfied with this, the volunteer may then refer the matter to the Chair of the Executive Committee. This must be in writing.

If the volunteer is still dissatisfied, the matter will be entered on the agenda for the next meeting of the Executive Committee.

November 2019