Update Details: A new Health and Safety update has been issued on Lone Working. The full article has been emailed to subscribers with the H&S updates preference and is available as a PDF in the Update Service folder.
Why Lone Working Matters
Most organisations have more lone workers than they think. A lone worker is anyone working without close or direct supervision, which covers engineers opening up early, delivery drivers, staff visiting client premises and people working from home. There is no law that prohibits working alone, and no exemption from the usual duties either, so the obligation to assess the risk and protect the worker applies as it would anywhere else.
What the Lone Working Update Covers
The update starts where every job should start, with a risk assessment that decides which tasks can safely be done alone and which cannot. It sets out the work that should not be done alone whatever the controls, and the judgement needed on the person, the task and the place for everything else.
It then works through the risks that come with working alone: an ordinary accident or sudden illness with nobody there to summon help, violence and aggression, driving and travel, and remote locations where communications drop out. The practical section covers check-in and check-out arrangements, escalation when a check-in is missed, communication that works where the work is, and involving lone workers themselves in the assessment so the controls are practical as well as adequate.
Getting the Full Lone Working Update
The full update, along with the supporting documents and risk assessments for managing lone working, is provided to subscribers as part of the update service.
Health and Safety updates are issued as part of the ISO and legal update service and the content is also saved to the Update Service folder (this is in the alphaZ subscribers section) where they can be downloaded in pdf format and used for providing topic-specific training or for sending out as an update to workers.
