The common-sense approach to moving and handling of disabled children and young people

Risk Management

What is Risk?

Risk exists in all aspects of life – and affects all of us.

The Health and Safety Executive defines a risk as the likelihood that somebody could be harmed by a hazard, together with an indication of how serious the harm could be.

For example, moving and handling children and young people may cause harm to them or their workers. However the risk of injury (the chances of it happening and its seriousness) varies depending on a number of factors including: the moving and handling tasks; the environment; equipment; needs of the child or young person being assisted; and the individual capabilities and skills of the workers involved.

Managing Risk

A "no lifting" policy is not a good way to control moving and handling risks.

An across the board no lifting policy, whilst eliminating some handling risks, totally ignores the needs of the child and young person and their rights under the Equality Act4 and other legislation ^[1] , ^[2] , ^[3] . The Manual Handling Operations Regulations ^[5] and the Health and Safety Act ^[6] and Regulations ^[7] , do not prohibit all moving and handling; rather they require employers to adopt a risk management approach.

The correct approach to safe moving and handling is through the five steps of the risk assessment ^[11]

Risk cannot be eliminated completely. Risk management is about reducing risk so far as is reasonably practicable ^†.

There is a legal requirement ^[5] for employers to:

• Ensure that the moving and handling needs are clearly identified in order to minimise risk to the child or young person and worker(s)
• Revisit moving and handling plans as necessary.

It is critical from a children's rights perspective that employers should:

• Actively involve the child or young person and their worker(s) in the risk assessment and decision making processes
• Review the moving and handling plans with the child or young person and their workers in accordance with the worker's ability and the young person's physical and emotional development
• Ensure that preserving the dignity of the child or young person is a key consideration ^[10] .

†Reasonably practicable means weighing up the risk against the cost in terms of money, time and effort of reducing the risk. Employers have to take action to control the health and safety risks except where the cost of doing so is "grossly disproportionate" to the reduction in the risk.