Practice for OBE: Mock Assessment 2

You are a newly appointed health and safety advisor for a construction company. You work
in the head office, which is a two-storey office building, along with:

• 20 other office-based workers who administer construction contracts. One of these

workers has impaired hearing;
• an office-based contracts manager, who co-ordinates construction work contracts and
activities;
• 20 mobile construction workers, including an operations manager, who occasionally
visit the office in their vehicles.

The opening hours of the office are flexible depending on the needs of the work.

The contracts manager has a reputation for being irritable and unapproachable, is only seen
when arriving and leaving, and is occasionally abusive if interrupted.

The office building is in a business park away from main traffic routes. The office has its own
on-site car park, but spaces are sometimes limited. When all of the allocated spaces are taken,
some vehicles are parked across existing parked cars, blocking them in and making it
hazardous to manoeuvre. No one has assessed the risks in the car park.

Recently, a near miss occurred in the car park, when a distracted construction worker
reversed their vehicle recklessly, narrowly missing a fellow construction worker walking to
their own vehicle parked opposite. As a result, there was an angry exchange between the two
of them.

You decided to talk informally with some of the workers. They described previous near misses
and minor collisions; with vehicles reversing out of allocated spaces into other vehicles, and
vehicles narrowly missing pedestrians. The workers said that they would not report these
because they were afraid of being blamed. Also, no one listened to them or took any action.
They also told you that there is no formal health and safety discussion between workers and
managers.

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In your role as a health and safety advisor you would like to improve health and safety because
you take your responsibilities seriously and want to make the workplace safer for everyone.

You discuss the near miss and subsequent exchange with the two workers and the operations
manager. You ask for their opinions. The worker, who was almost struck by the reversing car,
suggested that it would be safer if everyone reversed into car parking spaces. The operations
manager was less helpful and said that there was nothing to worry about, and that this has
been happening for years, but no one had ever been seriously hurt. The operations manager
also said it was best for people to sort it out themselves.

Workers tell you that outside of daylight hours, lighting levels in the car park are poor.
Sometimes workers arrive and leave when it is dark. Floodlights are mounted on the office
wall facing the car park. However, the floodlights were not working at the time of the incident.
Again, no one had reported that these lights were not working.

You have decided to review the commitment the company has made to worker health and
safety. There seems to be no statement of general policy (statement of intent) on health and
safety. The policy is not displayed on noticeboards. You have searched the company intranet
and you cannot find this statement of general policy anywhere. You have asked the contracts
manager about this, who replied that the safety policy is an important document and is only
available if needed for third parties. None of the workers know what a statement of general
policy looks like. You tell the contracts manager that the company is breaking health and
safety law.

Due to the seriousness of the recent car park near miss and health and safety policy issues,
you insist that a health and safety committee meeting should be held as soon as possible. You
have asked the contracts manager and the operations manager to attend. Both managers
agree, as the last health and safety committee meeting was over a year ago.

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Task 1: Discussing moral reasons for managing health and safety

You have been asked to chair the health and safety committee meeting. Before the meeting,
you decide that you will open the meeting by reminding everyone of moral expectations of
health and safety.

Prepare notes of the moral arguments you will use at the meeting. (10)

Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant information from the
scenario.

Task 2: Why near misses should be investigated

At the health and safety committee meeting, you discuss the recent car park near miss. Some
of the committee members dismiss the idea of investigating trivial car park near misses, but
you disagree.

What arguments can you give to convince the committee to investigate this car park near
miss? (10)

Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant information from the
scenario.

Task 3: Effective health and safety policy arrangements

The contracts manager tries to reassure the health and safety committee that the company
has an adequate statement of general policy for health and safety. Copies of the policy are
shown to the committee – see below:

This health and safety policy is a commitment to:

• Prevent accidents.
• Investigate accidents and near misses.
• Prevent injury and ill-health.
• Provide safe and healthy working conditions.
• Provide safe plant and equipment for office and mobile workers.
• Ensure safe handling and use of substances.

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 • Set and review specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound (SMART)
health and safety objectives.
• Meet legal requirements.
• Identify health and safety hazards and risks in the workplace.
• Provide adequate training.
• Consult with workers.
• Review this policy every 10 years.

Based on the scenario only, comment on how effectively this policy has been implemented.
(10)

Task 4: Improving formal consultation

The health and safety committee now look at consultation within the company.

What formal meetings could you plan, that are likely to help improve consultation in this
workplace? (5)

Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant information from the
scenario.

Task 5: Safety culture

Based on the scenario only, comment on the current health and safety culture in the
company. (15)

Task 6: Special case application for disabled workers

Based on the scenario and the existing hazards mentioned, what special measures will you
advice to take care of the health and safety of the hearing-impaired worker (5)

Task 7: Active monitoring

Based on the inputs of incidents that have happened in the car parking area, you need to
come up with regular safety inspections.

Elaborate what are the factors to be considered while deciding on safety inspections of the
car parking area. (15)

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Task 8: Effective training arrangements

Considering the scenario what sort of health and safety training can be planned for the
different levels of employees in the organization? Comment, when this training would need
to be imparted to the employees and also identify the indicators to measure the effectiveness
of the training (10)

Task 9: Auditing

You decide on conducting audits from an external agency to further understand the
organizations shortcomings and ensure continual improvement

How will you convince the management to invest in this external audit? (10)

Task 10: Management review

As part of your regular duties, you decide to conduct the management review meeting.

What points would you consider discussing during this meeting? What could be the outcomes
of this meeting? (10)

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