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Expectant Mothers’ Safety in the Workplace: It’s About Good Management, not Just Ticking a Box

07/04/2016

Dame Judith Hackitt’s blog has again caught our attention, this time on the subject of risk assessments for expectant mothers.

Dame Judith Hackitt's blog has again caught our attention, this time on the subject of risk assessments for expectant mothers.

The Chair of the Health and Safety Executive had read a question posed in an occupational safety and health magazine. The question was, "How often should I revisit the risk assessment for one of my employees who is pregnant?"

The answer stated that employers should be taking into account the various risks that could arise at different stages of the pregnancy, including risks to the employee and unborn child and considering working process and conditions, medical evidence, etc. and suggesting that the assessment should be regularly monitored and reviewed.

Do expectant mother risk assessments need to be revisited regularly?

Whilst Dame Hackitt agreed with the importance of making careful and comprehensive considerations, she questioned the part about ‘revisiting' the assessment. She suggested that if the risk assessment is done properly in the first place, taking all the important factors into account, including the risks to an expectant mother and her unborn child at the various points throughout the pregnancy, and then go on to put appropriate risk control measures in place, then the risk assessment will not need to be revisited, unless something changes significantly concerning the working conditions, or the health and well-being of the employee.
 

Dame Hackitt suggested that if an employer takes the time to have regular conversations with the expectant mother and ensures there is an open door policy so that pregnant employees are comfortable in discussing any issues they are facing, then it will be a straightforward process to identify whether anything needs to be reconsidered risk wise. "This isn't about compliance with health and safety," she said, "it's simply what a good manager should and could do to show care and concern for their employee."

Employer duties to expectant mothers

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 place a duty on employers to protect the health and safety of new and expectant mothers who work. Dame Judith Hackitt believes that good management practices will do this in a far more effective way than an approach that is focused on ticking boxes on a form.
 

If you would like assistance with complying with the Regulations, PMR Solutions offers a dedicated, fully tailored service for employers. Please contact us in complete confidence for personalised advice and practical assistance.

You can read Dame Judith Hackitt's blog, ‘A Means to an End - doing things right is good management' in full here.


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