Health and safety management in the public sector

Health and safety management is a key corporate responsibility in any organisation. However, my practice focuses on health and safety management within a public sector organisation (PSO) setting. I consider health and safety challenges faced by line management that are common in any large public or private sector organisation and identify the need, in these circumstances, to rely on a systematic approach to achieve adequate health and safety risk control. I discuss how I have applied systematic principles to produce detailed health and safety guidance appropriate to PSO settings.

The Public Works submitted in parallel with this context statement were based initially on HSG65, 2nd Edition before using HSG65, 3rd Edition, published in
"Managing for health and safety" (2013) produced by the UK Health and Safety Executive and grounded in the Plan, Do, Check, Act principle of continuous improvement to prepare the context statement. In reflecting upon the successes of the change initiative and looking towards further opportunities for enhancements of the guidance and my practice, l have reviewed the practical and philosophical evolution encapsulated within the latest iteration of the health and safety standards culminating in the publication of the British Standards (BS) ISO 45001 standard.

I reflect upon my experience of leading a major programme of change aimed at producing a significant shift in organisational culture with respect to health and safety management within a large PSO, and I provide practical examples that reflect PSO line management challenges and their possible solutions.

I seek to challenge the individual presuppositions within each of the Plan, Do, Check, Act pillars through critical reflection and academic scrutiny. Indirectly, this reveals the inescapable requirement to embrace self-supervision in the overarching needs of the host PSO where the health and safety management-of-change process took place.

This context statement seeks to scrutinise the line management principles of control, co-operation, communication and competence, within the overall remit of health and safety performance measurement, in a fashion designed to engage members of any PSO senior management team.