This 6-minute video provides a taster of what to expect in RSSB’s Taking Safe Decisions e-learning course.

Go to https://rssb-external.sabacloud.com/Saba/Web_spf/EU2PRD0220/app/me/learningeventdetail/cours000000000006605 to complete the free course.

Transcript:

0:07

The railway environment presents many hazards that we need to understand and manage, from rail collisions to slips, trips, and falls, and including health and well-being hazards.

0:17

It's vital to appreciate the value of good safety management and to understand the potential consequences if things go wrong.

0:25

Keeping people safe can cost money, but excellence in health and safety management drives reliability, performance, and efficiency.

0:33

And maintaining and improving safety is critical in an industry that's undergoing significant change in cost-constrained times.

0:41

Whatever role you have in supporting the GB railway, you're contributing to many decisions that might affect safety - some big, some small.

0:53

Failure to comply with health and safety laws can lead to severe legal consequences.

0:57

At the heart of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act is a requirement for all employers to ensure safety so far as is reasonably practicable, or SFAIRP.

1:07

This is sometimes described as reducing risk to as low as reasonably practicable, or ALARP.

1:12

There are many challenges in consistently and methodically interpreting what reasonably practicable means in different situations.

1:20

To demonstrate that your decisions ensure safety so far as is reasonably practicable, you need to identify what might go wrong and understand the level of associated risk - in other words, the likelihood and severity of hazards.

1:34

You then need to evaluate whether the level of risk is acceptable or whether you need to do something more to make it acceptable.

1:41

It's not about achieving zero risk, reducing risk to as low as possible, or achieving safety at any cost.

1:48

It's about comparing the risk reduction from a potential safety improvement with the cost, time, or effort required to deliver it.

1:59

Unlike for normal business decisions, when it comes to making decisions that affect safety, it's not an exercise in simply balancing the costs and benefits of measures and deciding what's best for business.

2:09

It's about adopting all risk control measures except when they're ruled out as not being reasonably practicable because they involve grossly disproportionate sacrifices.

2:19

In other words, you must implement a safety measure unless you can prove that the cost, time, or effort is grossly disproportionate to the risk reduction.

2:28

An important consideration when thinking about these concepts is the level of uncertainty in your understanding of costs and safety benefits.

2:35

This uncertainty tends to be higher when you're managing the risk from rare but potentially catastrophic events, such as collisions and derailments.

2:44

Another important thing to note is that the affordability of a safety measure is not a valid argument to justify not implementing the measure that is otherwise considered reasonably practicable.

2:56

The e-learning course provides more guidance on reasonable practicability and gross disproportion.

3:07

The safety decision process is supported by a safety risk assessment.

3:11

The risk assessment process is an opportunity to show that you understand the hazards you're responsible for managing and that the risk associated with them is as low as reasonably practicable.

3:21

There's no single specific way to carry out a risk assessment, but it must be suitable and sufficient and proportionate to the risk you're dealing with.

3:29

This is a legal requirement.

3:32

The risk assessment helps you identify which risk controls you should implement and which would not be considered reasonably practicable to implement.

3:44

Often, safety can be achieved by following good practice, such as what's captured in standards or mandatory requirements, or what's already been proven safe elsewhere.

3:53

Where good practice is not available - for example, for novel or complex situations - techniques such as cost-benefit analysis can help.

4:02

Within a risk assessment, the argument for safety might be captured qualitatively using well-reasoned argument and expert judgement.

4:09

In other cases, it might be enhanced by quantified risk assessment methods using data analysis.

4:18

When deciding the most appropriate way to manage hazards, it's important to prioritise the most effective measures, such as eliminating the hazard completely, over implementing less effective measures, such as providing warning signs or personal protective equipment.

4:32

This principle is referred to as the hierarchy of hazard controls.

4:36

This also relates to the idea of safety by design, where safety decisions and their implications should be considered as early as possible in a project or decision process, even as the scope and specification are being discussed.

4:50

An organisation can make significant cost savings by implementing the right safety decisions early on in a project, rather than retrofitting safety at the end of a project.

5:04

Taking Safe Decisions is a framework that helps you work through the decision making process in a way that's robust, rational, equitable, and defensible.

5:13

It contains fundamental principles you can refer to when decisions get complicated or if there are different opinions on how best to approach a problem.

5:22

It's a good practice policy rather than a detailed guidance, allowing organisations to interpret and embed the principles in their own safety management systems in a way that best suits them.

5:33

The principles support balanced risk decisions that are good for safety and good for business.

5:38

So, as we make decisions, we're confident: that we understand the risk we're responsible for managing and that we're managing it appropriately;

5:48

that we protect the safety of rail industry, staff, passengers, and others;

5:54

that we satisfy the law; that we respect the interests of stakeholders; and that we deliver a railway that's safe, efficient, cost effective, and high performing.

6:08

You can learn more about how Taking Safe Decisions can help your organisation in the e-learning course available via the Taking Safe Decisions hub.