7.1 The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require employers to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of:
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- employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work; and
- non-employees arising out of / in connection with the employer’s activities
7.2 Risk assessments must be completed for any essential moving and handlings tasks that cannot reasonably and practicably be avoided and should include elements of clinical reasoning, from which a management handling plan will be produced (The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (as amended 2002).
7.3 The manager has responsibility for the risk assessment, but the task of undertaking the assessment can be delegated to a trained and competent member of staff.
7.4 Moving and Handling risk assessment must consider: Task, Individual Capability, Load, Environment and Other (see appendix 1 on carrying out risk assessments).
7.5 The Care Quality Commission (CQC) insists that independent care providers conduct their own risk assessments but it would be good practice where multidisciplinary agency working is involved for risk assessments to be jointly completed.
7.6 The risk assessment document used should align with this policy and be appropriate for each individual service needs (e.g.: In-House staff should use the moving and handling risk assessment in the Nourish case recording system).
7.7 Risk assessments should be regularly reviewed. The assessment should be kept up to date and reviewed if new information comes to light or if there has been a significant change in the manual handling operations. It should also be reviewed if there is an accident/incident or a case of ill health as a result of manual handling operations.
7.8 Generally risk assessments must be
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- Reviewed annually in the council’s In-House Services
- Reviewed based on a change in presentation when prescribed by OTs in the community
