Health and safety management has come a long way in the last thirty years or so.  Prior to the 1970s, management systems focused on protecting and informing the workforce on the assumption that workplace accidents were generally the result of individual unsafe acts.  In the UK and USA however, safety standards were poor by comparison with today’s performance until the introduction of wholesale legislation in the 1970s. For the first time, the law placed responsibilities on employers (and later managers) for ensuring the health, safety and welfare of the workforce, customers and the general public. 

There is general agreement that the introduction of legislation has had a positive effect on organizational health and safety performance, but subsequent developments have recognized the limitations of relying on legal, punitive force for the attainment of high safety standards.Part of the progress made by industry made in this area over the latter part of the twentieth century can be attributed to improvements in safety design, safety training and perhaps most of all to the dawning realization that a high proportion of workplace accidents occur as a result of management omissions and organizational failings. 

Increasingly, organizations are coming to view health and safety as an integral part of business management – not a specialist silo.  The recent increases in civil litigation and environmental consciousness have also caused many organizations to involve people outside the workplace in their planning for safety improvement – public stakeholders and non-governmental organisations are now commonly involved in health and safety-related business decisions. 

This dossier covers these developments in the practice and perception of health and safety management.  Aimed at any manager with responsibility for health and safety, it looks at current best practice in areas such as accident prevention, risk assessment, and communication, and uses a variety of real examples from various industry sectors, both public and private.  With a range of practical activities designed to help readers assess and develop current performance in their own organizations, the dossier will be of particular value to managers wishing to bring about health and safety improvements in the workplace. 

Managing Health and Safety has been developed in the belief that effective health and safety performance is more than just a legal requirement.  Leading organizations seek continuous improvement in health and safety performance because of the economic benefits of doing so, and because in the 21^st century, high ethical standards have become a common expectation among customers and stakeholders.