Manual lifting and carrying assessment
To help you to manage the risk assessment process associated with manual handling activities, we’ve developed a new tool. How does it work and when should you use it?
History
A few years ago the HSE came up with a new method of assessing manual handling tasks called the Manual Handling Assessment Chart (MAC). This MAC tool aims to help the user measure and deal with manual handling risks. However, there’s a flaw. When you’ve worked your way through the complicated process to finally produce a total score, there’s no indication of whether this figure is good or bad. So to make the process more worthwhile, we’ve developed our own version - the manual handling and carrying assessment tool (see The next step).
Legal status
The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 specify the requirement to complete a manual handling risk assessment for tasks which have significant risks involved. Our tool doesn’t quite do this for you, but it can be used to identify which tasks should be risk assessed in greater depth.
Tip. If the tool identifies that the task is low-risk, you don’t need to complete a formal manual handling risk assessment. If the tool highlights that the task has high risks associated with it, you should look at alternative ways of completing it, or make sure that you’ve covered every angle first.
Keeping it simple
To make our tool straightforward to use, we’ve limited its scope to lifting carried out by one person for a maximum of two times per hour. For each task you simply answer the questions, print your report and follow the guidance we’ve provided.
What’s involved?
The first page of our tool explains how to use it.
Tip. You’ll need to observe the task and have details of the load weight and carrying distance before you begin. You then click the “start” key to get going.
The next page asks 19 detailed questions about the task. A few of these require you to enter text in order to answer, for example it asks for a task description and details of who is involved. There are also questions covering historical incidents and staff concerns associated with the job. Wherever possible we’ve used drop-down boxes with a choice of answers. For example, “what is the approximate load weight?” can be answered with: 0-20kg, 20-40kg, 40-50kg and more than 50kg. Other questions focus on risk factors such as twisting, reaching, carrying distance, space restriction, etc.
And finally
When you’ve completed all the answers simply click “go to score sheet” to view the numerical scores for each section and the overall total. Sections cover ten risk factors, including load weight, grip, postural constraints, carrying distance and so on. Each score displayed is given a colour-coded risk rating for easy interpretation. You then click “Go to end report” and all the information is displayed in a single page. You can add in any actions you intend to take, then print and sign the report for your records.
For a free sample copy of our manual handling and carrying assessment tool, visit http://healthandsafety.indicator.co.uk(HS 08.13.05).
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