Since 1994 the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the GTC have been working in partnership to produce resources for managing health and safety on golf courses. In November they will launch a new guide, which will combine all resources into one simple document – Health and Safety in Golf Course Management and Maintenance.
The GTC approached and commissioned health and safety advisors Jon Allbutt and John Davis to review the original dated booklet, and received input and feedback from the HSE, GTC representatives, employers and greenkeepers from within the GTC committees, as well as local authority environmental health officers, who are responsible for the inspection and enforcement of most golf courses.
The new guide is packed with information and guidance on all aspects of golf course management including:
• Education and training – ensuring that all current and new employees have the correct qualifications and that they are aware of the health and safety procedures in the workplace;
• The all important matter of risk assessments – advice on how to manage risks effectively on the golf course and making sure they are all recorded in a risk assessment file for future staff training;
• Occupational health – guidance on how to deal with accidents and injuries. making sure they don’t occur again;
• Priority on the course – explaining the rules of a golf course to ensure safe play and work;
• Working alone – advice when working alone, whether it’s outside normal hours, such as late duties in the evenings or working at weekends or in a remote part of the golf course, and how to identify typical control measures;
• Investigating accidents and incidents – guidance on how to investigate accidents in more detail in order to see if there is anything that can be done to reduce the risks of it happening again;
• Managing events – making sure that all health and safety requirements are in place before all events;
• Emergency planning – ensuring that all Health & Safety guidelines have been put in place and that all employees are aware of the procedures and their responsibilities;
• Employing volunteers – guidance on what risk assessments must be put in place when employing volunteers, children or young people;
• The safe use of work equipment – guidance on how to safely use work equipment, which means any machinery, appliance, apparatus, tool or installation used at work, how to deal with any injuries caused by machinery and how to maintain them;
• The use of pesticides – explaining the correct conditions of use and storage of pesticides and what qualifications are required to handle them.
Included in the guide are web links to other sites where more information can be downloaded on specific subjects. Where appropriate there are also references to publications and other guides by HSE and other organisations.
Jon Allbutt, Health and Safety advisor, comments, “The guide refers to other resources already available to employers and managers but also enhances existing documents required for effectively maintaining golf courses, such as the GTC Training Manuals; the revised GTC Training Wall chart; BIGGA/GCMA’s Safety Management System and many other publications. It is directly relevant to the management of health and safety in all types of golf course businesses and sets the standard expected by the industry and the enforcers, the HSE, and local government Environmental Health Officers.”
The new guide will be published on the GTC website www.the-gtc.co.uk at the beginning of November.