Health & Safety Services -
Safe Systems of Work
 Safe
Systems of Work (SSOW) are known by various names e.g. working
procedures (WPs), standard operating procedures (SOPs),
method statements etc. They are all variations of the
same theme which is to accurately document how you
consider the work of the company should be done by your
employees, particularly with regard to hazardous work
processes. Simply put, they are the detailed
instructions given to employees to enable them to work
safely.
As an employer you are required by law to implement SSOW. These are developed by a process of
firstly recognising the significant hazards which are applicable to your
workplace, then subjecting each hazard to a risk
assessment process. The result of the risk assessment
process is the detail used to develop a safe system of
work.
SSOW are designed to standardise working practice in
order to ensure that no-one gets hurt or injured .When
these are developed they should be rigorously
implemented. They are the benchmark used to determine
fault should an incident occur. Clearly from this
perspective it is important to get the balance right
between insufficient relevant detail in the SSOW, which
expose employees to unsafe working practices, and too
much unnecessary detail which would impede efficient
working. Our consultants have the training and
experience to ensure the balance is right.
Plus Safety recommends that all SSOW are collated in one
place and freely available to all employees. This is
usually as a manual issued as your H&S Employee Handbook
or incorporated into your Company Handbook.
For more information, please
contact us or call us on 0845 519 7061.
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