What is Safeguarding in Health and Social Care
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January 17, 2025
Dynamic Risk Assessment: Why Do You Need This? Download Template
May 07, 2024
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There is a saying that the biggest risk is not taking any risks. However, some risks are so unpredictable that you have never thought of, e.g. dynamic risks. All you can do is be careful and take preventive measures to avoid or mitigate the upcoming hazards. This is where dynamic risk assessment comes into play.
Theoretically, there are two types of risks – Static risks and Dynamic risks. Static risks are predictable, whereas dynamic risks are hard-to-predict and mostly uncertain. Therefore, it is challenging to determine, measure, and control dynamic risks. So how to do that?
Here in this article, we will walk you through dynamic risk assessment, the procedure and why you need this. In the end, we have also provided a downloadable template that will help you conduct a risk assessment.
Upon completing the article, you will know:
- What is dynamic risk assessment?
- Why do you need it?
- Why is dynamic assessment critical?
- How to create a risk assessment?
- What is a risk assessment template?
- Risk assessment template examples.
- How to write a risk assessment template?
So let’s start, shall we?
What is the dynamic risk?
Dynamic risk involves the risk associated with real-time works that are ever-changing with the environment and other determining factors. Unlike static risks, dynamic risks are mostly unpredictable, unforeseeable and evolving in nature.
Examples of dynamic risks
There are a lot of works that include dynamic risks. For example, a social worker who works to collect donations may have to encounter different risk factors from people. Whether people are accepting or not, how people may react or even how aggressive people will be.
Again, a doctor who is providing services may face several risks. Especially during a pandemic, there may be a vast number of patients in the hospital. All of them demand quick treatment, which may be difficult for a doctor to take action immediately. In such conditions, people may react differently than usual. Even there are health hazards for doctors from a contiguous disease.
As we said earlier, dynamic risks are difficult to detect due to their uncertain nature. Therefore, the risks and hazards may differ from work to work.
What is a dynamic risk assessment?
Dynamic risk assessment is a process of inspecting, measuring and controlling dynamic risks while taking preventive measures to ensure the safety of workers, company assets and others included with the hazards.
So dynamic risk assessment comes when the nature of risks are:
- Unknown and constantly changing
- Risks are present but hard to measure
- Risks are known and need preventive measures
While risk assessment involves assessing any types of risk & hazards, dynamic risk assessment only examines the perils of developing and changing situations. It provides a whole picture of unknown risks, possible preventive measures, and how to control them.
A group of people or designated person conduct the assessment and take further action to enhance safety eliminating the risks. The method also includes some paperwork for future references or routine work.
Why Do You Need Dynamic Risk Assessment?
Dynamic risks are primarily unpredictable and changing in nature with environmental conditions, the worker’s role, and task types. For example- bad weather may cause slip & fall hazards or entering a house for workers who provide house cleaning services.
Dynamic risk assessment needs to perform on the spot by workers to ensure their safety and others. Hence, it helps workers to avoid hazards caused by hard-to-detect risks.
Risk assessment is also a legal requirement. According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), it is a legal right for employees to be safe and risk-free in the workplace.
As an employer, you’re required by law to protect your employees and others from harm.Health and safety executive (HSE)
Again, according to the Management of health and safety regulations 1999, at least you have to do the following:
- Identify what can cause injury to your business. (Hazards)
- Measure how likely and seriously it could harm someone (Risk Level)
- Take action to resolve the risk. If you can’t, at least control the risk (Control)
Therefore, as a precautionary measure to prevent any potential risks, it is vital to conduct risk assessment from time to time for any organisation.
What are the conditions when dynamic assessment is needed?
Regular assessment and observations of your work environment are necessary to predict unforeseen events. Dynamic risk assessment helps to find out the risks & hazards that may happen from the following conditions:
- A new area of business
- Introduction to new equipment or arrangement
- Change of the supervision control
- Reallocation of work
- Areas prone to health and security risks
You have to perform a dynamic assessment check under the conditions above. It will allow you to know the possible dangers of your work. Hence, it is possible to avoid the risks and uncertain dangers.
Why is dynamic risk assessment important?
Performing risk assessment as a routine task ensures a healthy and safe workplace. Essentially, it may reduce workplace injury and accidents to a great extent, in some cases, death.
Since dynamic risks are involved with the real-time working environment, it is challenging to predict, measure and control. However, while you are doing risk assessments, know of the hazards, how bad they may be, or even control them.
While measuring the risks, you can assume possible prevention for the risk or stop doing it unless it becomes safe. Besides, the assessment report lets you know the dangers of a completely new environment you haven’t dealt with before. So you can become careful of the risk factors.
Apart from that, conducting risk assessment practice among employees can benefit an organisation in many ways such as:
- Build a proactive work environment rather than a reactive one
- Make employees responsible and accountable for their company
- Create a collaborative work environment between co-workers
- Increase the transparency of the company regarding employee safety
- It makes people mentally strong and less panicked in the event of an accident
After all, conducting a risk assessment check-up is incredibly important to ensure the safety of any person in a working environment.
How to perform a dynamic risk assessment?
Here are 5 steps to perform a dynamic risk assessment:
1. Stop and look around the workplace: Before starting your work, make it a habit to look around your workplace carefully to find any hazards. It can be physical, chemical, biological, organisational safety hazards. Identify and rate the level of risks, severity and likelihood.
2. Check and select the risks: Check the available safety plans of your workplace and find out the appropriate ones for the risks.
3. Examine the risks: Assess the chosen system of work. In case a course of action is detected to be offensive or defensive, decide whether to change it or not.
If yes, proceed to the safety measures to continue the work.
If the answer is no, go back to step 2.
4. Take necessary measures: Apply extra safety measures and precautions such as PPE or high-class safety equipment.
5. Record your findings: Finally, write down your findings in the report for any future reference or for documentation purpose.
Here, one notable thing is to report the assessment. For this, there are different assessment templates available. So let’s know what a dynamic risk assessment template is and how to write it.
If you want to know more about how to conduct a risk assessment and protect your business, you can take a look at the following courses.
What is a risk assessment template?
A risk assessment template is a tool used to determine and assess the risks involved in any work environment. It includes a systemic process to identify and document the level of risk, severity, likelihood and taking action to mitigate the risks.
Source: Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
Important terms to know
The overall risk matrix consists of the following things:
- Consequence: it measures the severity of the injuries due to the risks. It is shown as fatality, major, minor, negligible damages.
- Likelihood: it shows the probability of a person getting injured by the risks. The indicators are likely, very likely, unlikely & highly unlikely.
- Overall risk rating: it detects the dominant risk factors associated. It can indicate a risk as low, medium or high.
Hierarchy of controls
There are different control hierarchies available as follows:
- PPE: Protect the workers using protective equipment. Examples include protective glass, hand gloves or high-level equipment.
- Administrative controls: Changing the way people work falls under administrative controls. Any decision made by the administrative body to control the hazards.
- Engineering controls: An effective control strategy. Isolate people from the hazard till the place is being safe.
- Substitution: Substituting the hazard with all necessary controls and preventive measures.
- Elimination: The highest level of the control strategy is to remove the hazards physically.
How to create a risk assessment report?
Preparing a risk assessment report is a daunting task as the implications involve so many life and limb. However, knowing where to start can make the job easier. In this regard, a format can help you in a way different. It acts as a guideline to create a risk assessment report. So let’s know how to do it and what is the appropriate way.
What is the proper format to write a risk assessment report?
There is no specific format for creating a report. The report may vary depending on the type of operations, size or specifications set by governing bodies. Regardless of the structure, the following information should present in every report:
Who is at risk?
While creating a risk assessment report, specifying the demographics at risk is very important. Give a clear picture of whether it is the lone workers, engineers, or if everyone is at risk. Knowing which party is at stake can be a good start to the assessment report.
Current Control Features
Find out what the organisation is currently doing to lower the risk factors and include it in the report. By doing this, you can know whether the safety measures available are enough or not.
Necessary improvements in the measure
Mention what needs to improve the safety, whether new measures should be implemented or further improvements of existing systems.
Assignments & Deadlines
Finally, assign the tasks to the person responsible for bringing the update. Clearly communicate the deadline. This small initiative makes a big difference by increasing the accountability of the individuals involved with safety issues.
Writing the title
In the title section, there should be a brief description of the assessment. A title must be followed by these mentioned below:
Who prepared it?
This section indicates the responsible person who created the report. It can be a person, a team or an organisation that has done the job.
Who is it for?
This describes the report for whom it is prepared, e.g. the person at risk or the whole organisation.
Assessment date
It denotes the date the assessment was conducted and completed. If the report completion date is different from the assessment date, it needs to be mentioned separately.
Review Date
Sometimes a report may need to be reviewed after a while. While installing a new plant, machines or a new line of business, you need to recheck the risk factors every six months or according to the company guideline. A review date will remind you of the date to assess the risks again.
Writing the main body.
You have to mention the type of risks in the body of the report. There are two types of risks found-
1. Physical: Slip, fall, cut or caught in between machinery, accidents from falling objects fall under this category.,
2. Substance: Hazards caused by toxic, flammable chemical agents fall under these types of risks.
You may make a list of these types to indicate the risks and hazards included.
Top Risk assessment templates with examples
There are multiple ways to document the risk assessment report. Writing on papers can be an easy way, but it takes a lot of time. However, this option is prone to take a much longer time for its descriptive nature.
In that case, a template can be helpful. Hence, you can check and can add short remarks on it. After all, a risk assessment template can make your work quicker, organised, easy and effective.
Here are 6 examples of risk assessment report with templates:
1. Dynamic Risk Assessment Template
2, Office Risk Assessment Template
3. HSE Risk Assessment Report
4. COSHH Risk Assessment Template
5. Fire Risk Assessment Template
6. Construction Risk Assessment
Dynamic Risk Assessment Template
Let’s see an example of a dynamic risk assessment conducted by Michael Johnson for One Education. Here he inspected the workstation and found a faulty cable connection. So he prepared an assessment report in the following way.
Area of work:
He indicated the area he had inspected with a specific location and company name.
Description of the work:
I walked across the workplace and found a faulty electric cable with no insulation. The cable was plugged into a socket to connect the printer. I supposed that the line is risky and can cause any hazards in the office area, e.g., electrical short circuit or printer damage.
So Michael describes the entire event and what could be the possible outcome of it. Keep in mind; you have to mention the things you have inspected so that anyone can easily understand them.
Types of hazards:
Here, in this case, it falls under the physical hazards. It can be an accident due to an electrical short circuit or maybe a cause of the fire.
Likelihood:
The possibility of someone getting injured from the risk is very likely.
Consequences:
The damages range from minor to significant injury or even death. So Michel mentioned it as fatality to ensure the highest safety.
Who is at risk?
From the case, it is clear that the person or party at stake here can be many. It can cause accidents to any employees, or even the whole office area can be affected. Electrical devices connected to it may damage due to a short circuit. Hence, Michael mentioned it.
Available Safety Measures:
No available safety measures were available.
Controls:
Replacing the wire is the best possible solution here, Michael advised. Again, immediate action like detaching all the connections available with it can be the primary step.
Recommendation: He was also advised to avoid the area until the area is secure.
Overall Risk Rating: As per the risks available, the report shows high-level risk.
Assessment Date: It shows the date of inspection and the completion date of the assessment.
Assessed by: Here in this report, Michael is the person who assessed it.
Review Date and Person: This area shows whenever further checking is needed and who will perform that.
Signature: The sign & seal of the person or department conducted the complete risk assessment.
Office Risk Assessment Template
It allows you to conduct risk assessments for your office. It can be your workplace safety, kitchen hygiene, fire safety, and others. Thus, it ensures overall workplace safety, reducing workplace injuries. It is similar to the previous one.
HSE Risk Assessment Report
Prepare a report following all the health and safety executive protocols. Referring to the HSE standards, every employer must ensure the safety of his employees. It is a legal requirement for them. This assessment report describes the party at risk, the possible causes of damage, and how to control it.
COSHH Risk Assessment Template
This control of substances hazardous to health assessment template is to measure the risks caused by hazardous substances exposure. Identify hazards associated with the work and find what measures have to be taken or which protective equipment have to be used while dealing with these dangerous substances.
Fire Risk Assessment Template
Fire workers always deal with the highest level of risk factor. It involves saving lives & assets while ensuring their safety as well. Identify the risks of your operation and determine which measures can prevent it or control the risk. A fire risk assessment can make these tasks easier and faster.
Construction Risk Assessment
Construction work possesses a lot of risky tasks. Accidents from falling objects, slip and fall injuries, or caught between machinery are examples. Assessing the risk factors can reduce the damages and injury while taking preventive measures for uncertain dangers.
Others:
Apart from these, some other risk assessments are needed, such as job hazard analysis, environmental risk assessment, manufacturing risk assessment, working at height risk analysis, etc. The ultimate goal of these assessments is either to reduce the risk factor or to control them.
Risk Assessment – IIRSM Approved
The course is designed to provide learners with an in-depth understanding of the risk assessment process, taking them through each stage and the tools required.
Risk Assessment – IIRSM Approved
The course is designed to provide learners with an in-depth understanding of the risk assessment process, taking them through each stage and the tools required.
End notes
The importance of risk assessment to ensure safety is significant. Especially dynamic risk assessment can help to eliminate risks in a changing work environment. It reduces the risk factors involved with your work and makes you aware of any potential dangers.
Moreover, practising risk assessment in the workplace brings a safe and healthy environment for employees. Even you can practice it at home to avoid any uncertain dangers for your children and family.
In this regard, all the information above to conduct a risk assessment and other factors can help you. After all, make it a habit both for your work and real life. Remember, prevention is always better than cure.
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