Depending on the nature of your business, and the equipment you use, you will need to carry out regular assessments of your employees’ ability to carry out activities and use equipment safely.

Manual handling assessments

The term ‘manual handling’ applies to a wide range of activities, including lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling or carrying. As an employer, you must not assume that your employees will be able to work out how to conduct these operations safely. Incorrect manual handling is one of the most common causes of injury at work and accounts for 38% of all reported injuries. Through proper assessment and training the risks can be minimised and the likelihood of injury to your employees reduced. Getting the right advice on handling devices suitable for your environment, along with recommendations for improving storage of equipment and materials can all further reduce the risk of manual handling injuries.

Sophus Safety Solutions can provide the assessments, training and advice needed to reduce the risks of injury in your workplace.

DSE assessments

The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 require employers to minimise the risks of VDU work by ensuring that workplaces and jobs are well designed.

The regulations apply where your employees habitually use VDUs as a significant part of their normal work. That’s anyone who regularly uses a computer or any other kind of screen. People who use screens only occasionally are not covered by these Regulations, but as their employer you still have a general duty to protect them under other health and safety at work legislation.

Sophus Safety Solutions can assess the way your staff uses screens, their working habits and environments and provide advice to help them avoid situations where they could be at risk from injury or ill health. Understanding the way your employees use display screen equipment is the key to reducing the risks and fulfilling your health and safety legal obligations.

COSHH assessments

Do you know what a CoSHH assessment is? Do you think it is enough to have a copy of a material’s safety data sheet? It isn’t.

We can help you to use the information from the material safety data sheets to assess the hazards and risks in your workplace and undertake a thorough CoSHH risk assessment. Hazards and risks from materials in your workplace aren’t limited to substances specifically identified as hazardous. Some, like fumes, dust or gases, arise from processes, and don’t have a data sheet – but they are still dangerous to health.

Noise assessments

Sophus Safety Solutions will help you fulfil your responsibilities under the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 by completing a comprehensive assessment of the levels of noise your employees are exposed to at your premises.

A detailed investigation of workplace noise exposure levels and your employee working practices will allow us to develop an appropriate plan to help you eliminate the risk of noise exposure, or reduce it to a level that is as low as reasonably practicable, as required by the Regulations.

Asbestos management

A Management Survey is required to manage Asbestos Containing Materials (ACM) during the normal occupation and use of premises.

The Management Survey must locate ACM that could be damaged or disturbed by normal activities, by foreseeable maintenance, or by installing new equipment. It involves minor intrusion and minor asbestos disturbance to make a materials assessment. This shows the ability of ACM, if disturbed, to release fibres into the air.

The Management Survey aims to ensure that:

• nobody is harmed by the continuing presence of ACMs in the premises or equipment
• the ACMs remain in good condition
• nobody disturbs them accidentally.
• Sophus Safety Solutions can undertake an asbestos Management Survey to ensure your employees and your business are protected.