Health and safety leadership checklist

This list is designed to check your status as a leader on health and safety. See the resources section for advice and tools that may help you answer these questions.

• How do you demonstrate the board's commitment to health and safety?
• What do you do to ensure appropriate board-level review of health and safety?
• What have you done to ensure your organisation, at all levels including the board, receives competent health and safety advice?
• How are you ensuring all staff – including the board – are sufficiently trained and competent in their health and safety responsibilities?
• How confident are you that your workforce, particularly safety representatives, are consulted properly on health and safety matters, and that their concerns are reaching the appropriate level including, as necessary, the board?
• What systems are in place to ensure your organisation’s risks are assessed, and that sensible control measures are established and maintained?
• How well do you know what is happening on the ground, and what audits or assessments are undertaken to inform you about what your organisation and contractors actually do?
• What information does the board receive regularly about health and safety – e.g. performance data and reports on injuries and work-related ill health?
• What targets have you set to improve health and safety and do you benchmark your performance against others in your sector or beyond?
• Where changes in working arrangements have significant implications for health and safety, how are these brought to the attention of the board?