All organisations have a responsibility to look after the health and safety of their staff, volunteers and people accessing their services. Ultimately, this responsibility sits with the management board of a voluntary organisation, but it can be delegated to a member of staff or a volunteer.
Health and safety means planning to prevent any risk, and responding if something does go wrong. The kinds of things you might need to consider include:
For more information and support see the Health and Safety Executive website. They provide a wide range of information on what health and safety is and what you need to do. They also have example risk assessments, policies and information.
Healthy Working Lives provides free health and safety advice for organisations in Scotland, including free workplace visits and a free helpline 0800 019 2211.
Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector (GCVS) provide a subscription-based Health and Safety Service for third sector organisations across Scotland.
SCVO's HR & employment support service provides support to people managing organisations, including information on regulations, working with staff representatives and health and wellbeing.
Our templates are here to give you a good starting point for making sure you have the policies, procedures and checks in place that you need, and we hope you find them helpful.
You should adapt them to suit your own organisation and, if necessary, get some advice to make sure they meet all your legal and regulatory requirements. Read more about using SCVO's templates.
You can find more useful documents in our full list of templates and checklists.
No templates are available for you to access
SCVO members have access to 3 exclusive templates in this section. Find out more about SCVO membership.