Here you can find information on the Health & Safety Policy Statements.
The health and safety policy shows how you intend to maintain a safe environment for everyone using your premises.
If you are an employer and have five or more employees, you will need one in writing. While if you have fewer than five employees, you don’t need to do this, but you should still provide basic health and safety information.
If you have no employees at all, you are under no obligation to prepare a policy. But you still have a ‘duty of care’ to protect others from danger. A safety policy demonstrates that you have taken this responsibility seriously.
Broadly speaking, church health and safety policies should contain:
- A general statement, dated and signed, usually by a member of the vestry.
- Details of the responsibilities for managing health and safety and those who hold them
- Details of any specific arrangements setting out what will be done practically.
A template, based on that suggested by Ecclesiastical Insurance, can be downloaded here.
A summary of information in the policy in a form which can be displayed on the church noticeboard is available here. A poster giving general health and safety information can be downloaded by clicking on the link here.
The Health and Safety Information for Employees Regulations 1989, requires employers to either display the HSE-approved law poster(adjacent) or to provide each of their workers with the equivalent leaflet.
Even if you have no employees, the advice is to display the poster, perhaps beside the employer’s Liability Insurance Certificate.
HSE approved posters can be purchased from the HSE via this link.