Within the UAE and currently particularly within the education sector, health and safety is an ever tightening requirement. Laws change and evolve – for the good of everyone. A recent example is Sharjah Emirates OSHJ (Occupational Safety and Health Sharjah) Guideline on Safety in Education Facilities. Which Corporate OHS were proud to work on as the Health and Safety Consultancy and utilizing our HSE Consultants. We partnered to develop.
There are also many other Federal and Emirate level health and safety laws, legislation and Codes of Practice. There to protect both students, staff, contractor and site visitors. Not forgetting the education entity itself’s assets and reputation.
Federal level law comes from MOE (Ministry of Education). Emirate level health and safety legislation comes from varying bodies including; ADEC (Abu Dhabi Education Council) KHDA (Knowledge and Human Development Authority) and (SPEA) Sharjah Private Education Authority.
Health and Safety Challenges particular to Education
Educational institutions are exposed to a wide range of risks. The must ensure the highest levels of mitigation towards health and safety risk to their staff and assets. In addition to the extremely high profile duty of care that must be discharged to protect their young charges.
Staying on top of legislation, protecting employees and students from everyday hazards, keeping track of contractors and suppliers… More than ever there is an increasing burden to deliver best practice and have reliable systems in place to effectively manage health and safety obligations.
Health and Safety Challenges particular to Universities
Large Universities, can be like small cities ! With a multitude of campus buildings and possibly also accommodation. Coordinating all health and safety maintenance related work, inspections and mandatory checks that are required to manage and measure your overall compliance can feel overwhelming.
The health and safety risk assessments required can be complex and need specialist input. We have assessed Universities who are working with nuclear materials, high risk chemicals or heavy duty civil engineering equipment.
A further challenging aspect can be how to manage and source contractors and make sure the products and services they deliver are safe and can do the job safely. In the United Arab Emirates liability will be placed on you, as the education entity if there is an HSE failure with one of your contractors. The unfortunate reality is that their failure will be regarded as your failure, and the resulting negative publicity and attention could well have extremely serious repercussions for your institute.
Let Health and Safety help you Win the Competitive Battle for Students
With more and more education institutes opening every day, the battle for students is fierce. Just one health and safety failure could decimate a companies reputation. Additionally dramatically reduce their profits now. And ability to earn profit for many years to come.
How about International ISO Health and Safety Standards ?
If further international standards are desired. Such as ISO 45001 Management of Health and Safety. Or, ISO 14001 Environmental Management. We can also provide outsourced or retained appropriate health and safety staff assistance. Such as an expert HSE Consultant, to create and implement a management system adherent to both international standards and local directives.
How can Health and Safety Consultancy help ?
You may already have Municipality driven health and safety standards in place to mitigate risk. And checked your safety compliance boxes.
But if your institution needs help in attaining more robust measures then a Health and Safety Consultancy such as Corporate OHS can highlight where you currently are.
We can develop a Legal Register to ascertain exactly where all of you health and safety compliance lies. Once gaps have been establish and health and safety risk assessments undertaken. Then an action plan will be created to help you embed the appropriate level of processes, policies and procedures to mitigate all residual risk.
We would work closely with your staff providing a systematic evaluation with prioritized recommendations. We will bring insight, best practice and cost saving initiatives – continually evolving to meet your business needs.
The peace of mind gained from knowing that you can anticipate, recognise, evaluate and control hazards within your organisation against all of your health and safety disciplines – thus minimizing the risk of accidents or incidents within the workplace and enhancing your institutions reputation amongst all key stakeholders. Is immeasurable.
The Corporate OHS website with it’s specialist Education page and multitude of Education Case Studies can provide further information resource.
If you are looking for an HSE Consultant in the UAE, Corporate OHS is a Health and Safety Consultancy services provider whose HSE Consultants offer expert resources and superior performance to give you greater results.
We specialize in creating workable, user friendly solutions aligned to your business activities, operations and budget.
Our range of health and safety consultancy services includes;
- Health and Safety Risk Assessments
- Hazard identification and control measure implementation
- Gap Analysis
- Audits and compliance audits
- HSE management system development, implementation and review including locally compliant systems such as OSHAD or OSHJ and/or accredited systems such as ISO 45001, ISO 14001,
ISO 9001 and ISO 50001 - HSE legal compliance reviews and assistance
- Accident investigations
- Business continuity and crisis management
- Long term or project based HSE outsourcing
- Flexible monthly support retainers giving access to HSE service without the burden of a permanent cost
To find out more about our services, please visit our website www.corporateohs.com or send an email to enquiries@corporateohs.com, or call 00 971 4 550 7862.