USHA is the Universities Safety and Health Association.
Their role is to promote safety and health in the higher education sector and to ensure the wellbeing of staff, students and visitors.
USHA produces guidance documents which offer best practice for some of the common challenges that are found in the University sector.
The University of York is a member of USHA and we actively promote their style in safety management across our activities. As such, the starting point for many of our risk assessed activities and management should include USHA guidance where possible, as well as legislation, guidance notes, information sheets and codes of practice from organisations such as the Health and Safety Executive, British Compressed Gas Association, IOSH etc.
It produces statistical analysis of the sector’s H&S performance, runs events seminars and conferences, and publishes professional standards and guidance documents.
- USHA Health and Safety Management in Higher Education
- USHA Fieldwork Guidance
- USHA Health and Safety in Research
- USHA Health and Safety of Placements Guide
- Health and Safety Management Profile (HASMAP)
- USHA Managing Work Related Stress within the Higher Education Sector
- USHA Stress Risk Assessment template
You can use this standard to help you understand your legal duties and demonstrate your visible commitment to the success of the health and safety management system in the University.
The broad principles can all be captured within the management system approach:
Plan, Do, Check, Review
This approach is no different to management processes used across Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) for other purposes, such as procurement, applying for research bids or developing institutional strategies.
This standard describes principles and practices which managers in any HEI will need to apply in order to demonstrate good health and safety management.
A healthy and safe environment is an important part of any work and study place, regardless of where that may be. Fieldwork forms a key element of academic teaching and research, enabling our Department to develop innovative and exciting solutions to a wide variety of problems, issues and intriguing questions.
The approaches and methods used in fieldwork can vary across disciplines and can be carried out in almost all parts of the world. As such the risks associated with fieldwork can be multiple and complex. It is important therefore that any assessment and mitigation of risk is carried out in a sensible, informed and pragmatic way.
This document provides a framework for establishing policies and procedures that enable staff, students and other participants in the Department to undertake fieldwork safely. It provides us with a way to demonstrate that we are following good practice to manage fieldwork, thereby facilitating fieldwork in even the most remote and challenging of environments and circumstances.
It is aimed at the Head of Department, fieldwork leaders and others who may be accountable for the health and safety of staff, students and other participants engaged in fieldwork. It also gives practical advice to other stakeholders, such as academic researchers; students; supervisors of students undertaking independent field research; advisers in health
and safety; occupational health advisers and insurance officers.
Research is about investigating new avenues of knowledge, and this carries an unavoidable element of the unknown. The outcome of research work can be uncertain or can differ from what was originally predicted.
Health and safety legislation applies just as much to research as it does to any other area of industry. Despite the
inherent elements of uncertainty, it is possible for research workers to innovate without exposing themselves or others to unnecessary health and safety- related risks. Sensible management systems, together with suitable
practical training for those involved, are essential to providing a framework in which people can work safely.
This guidance was written for higher education institutes and research councils engaged in research. You will find it useful in helping to understand your responsibilities under health and safety law, and providing a basis for good practice.
This guidance provides a strategic and generic framework for the pragmatic management of:
The health, safety and welfare of students on placement; and
The risks arising from health and safety related liabilities associated with placements.
A healthy and safe environment is an important part of any work and study place, regardless of where that may be. Students are an essential and core part of our Department so we need to do everything reasonably possible to ensure that they are enabled to maximize their potential by supporting them in the right way.
Placements are an important aspect of the student experience but can potentially pose a significant risk to the Department. This guidance recognizes the value of placements but also the risks that they might pose. The framework within this document enables a sensible approach to be taken to minimize risk and which acknowledges the diverse range of placements taking place.
HASMAP (Health and Safety Management Profile) is a management standard developed for use in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) by the Universities Safety & Health Association (USHA). HASMAP is based on the Health and Safety Executive publication, Successful Health and Safety Management (HSG 65).
The legal obligation to ensure that employees and third parties are kept safe is a cornerstone of health and safety law. From the overarching obligation in the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to provide a system of work that is, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health, through to the requirement to plan, organise, control, monitor and review preventive and protective measures which forms the basis of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, We are required to have in place an effective framework to audit system effectiveness.
During prosecution of duty holders following serious or fatal cases, there is a trend of failures in review processes and opportunities missed. An organisation may have excellent assurance at a main campus location, but fail to monitor non-core or satellite activities. A focus on lagging indicators may result in missed opportunities to learn from near misses. Reliance on zero reportable incidents as an adequate demonstration of safety excellence is a naïve management perspective. By contrast, the HASMAP Management standard is a structured programme which provides evidenced assurance (if implemented correctly) to resolve such concerns.
This guidance has been produced for those within each higher educational institution who have a responsibility for the mental health of their employees. This includes the governing body, the executive team, senior managers, line managers and those who have a professional role to play.
Whilst the document had its origins during the starting phases of the pandemic, the systems it advocates are as relevant now and into the future as they were then and also complement HSE guidance which is underpinned by the Health & Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999. To this end the Stevenson-Farmer review from 2017, "Thriving at Work" detailed a number of actions to be taken to improve mental health of employees in the public sector.