Why are many COVID risks managed departmentally?

All of Brooklands’ departments have been outstanding in their preparation for the Autumn 2020 Term. The reasons that many risks are managed departmentally are both legal and operational:

Legally, risk assessments for any health and safety matter must be conducted collaboratively, involving all levels of personnel who are closest to how and where the work is done. The operational reason that this is written into law is that involving those people gets a better end result.  It is only the individuals who work in a department on a day to day basis, who can foresee where hazards will be, can visualize where things will go wrong if they’re not addressed.  They might need support or at least a second opinion from the College’s Health and Safety Advisor or from our HR department and then help implementing from our Estates team but the knowledge and experience they have are necessary for suitable and sufficient assessment.

This departmental model may create the impression of inconsistency at first across the College but more accurately what is being seen is a risk-based approach where departments prioritise their efforts against varying risk types and severities.