Health and safety is about preventing harm to people. There are many different things that could cause accidents and some common ones are:

• Stored equipment
• Damaged Carpets and Loose Rugs
• Wet Floors
• Heating Systems
• Electrical Wiring and Equipment

A health and safety programme addresses essential and urgent capital work that is required to be done to remove health and safety hazards that are an immediate danger to people at the Parish and general public attending the facilities.

One of the most important things to do is a Risk Assessment. To do this some one in the Parish needs to do a regular check to identify hazards, some of which may need maintenance and budget funds. Look closely at what could cause an accident or fire in the buildings and grounds and decide if enough is been done to prevent harm to people.

Health and safety hazards should be picked up by an inspection. The first stage is to walk around the building(s) and note the hazards (that is the things that could cause harm to people).

Judgement needs to be used to decide if enough is been done to reduce the risks to a low level. The risk is the chance that someone may be harmed by the hazard. If it seems that the risk is too high and it could affect a large number of people then consider what can be done to reduce the risk. Then depending on the risk of the hazard, it needs to either be fixed immediately or can wait until it becomes a priority in your Property Plan.