PUWER
The acronym PUWER stands for the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations, which applies to all work equipment that employees use to do their work.
To ensure such equipment is safe to use, the Cenheard PUWER assessment is the perfect tool. PUWER was introduced in Great Britain in 1998 after extensive development during 1997. It brings together many of the legal health and safety duties placed on employers.
This makes a PUWER assessment a strategic tool in the road to compliance. It provides a transparent view of an organisations health and safety compliance for a wide field of disciplines.
Our PUWER Systems
A thorough PUWER assessment, aligned with detailed risk assessments, has the power to highlight opportunities to significantly improve health and safety in the workplace.
Cenheard PUWER systems gather data systematically to provide data rich reports. Ultimately culminating in a prioritised list of health and safety enhancements.
Our before and after analysis techniques help businesses decide where the biggest improvement opportunities are, how to tackle them, and what the outcome will be for the organisation.
PUWER assessment process
The intent of PUWER is to improve health and safety within the workplace. By accomplishing a detailed analysis with Cenheard systems, your business can focus on actions that make the workplace safer, not just compliant.
For further information on PUWER you can visit the HSE website: https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/puwer.htm
- Hazards
Are there any obvious risks to the employee using the work equipment that need to be risk assessed? What are the controls measures that need to be put in place? What are the consequences of the risks?
- Regulation compliance
Which regulations apply to the work equipment? Does the work equipment comply? What are the potential risks and consequences that could occur?
- Action plan
What actions need to be taken? Which actions are most important? A prioritised plan of actions is essential to drive momentum.
- Take action and review
The work never stops, continually reviewing the use of the work equipment is vital to health and safety standards.
Why choose Cenheard?
PUWER requires a multidisciplinary approach to cover all of the regulatory requirements. Cenheards team of engineering consultants help bridge the gap between health and safety and engineering. Our fully qualified engineering team have the experience and expertise to identify all non-compliances with your work equipment. From safety related parts of a control system (SRP/CS), guarding designs and even CE/UKCA marking requirements.
Each non-conformance will be identified with a risk assessment in compliance with standard BS EN ISO 12100. This approach not only identifies the issue, but also proposes a fully compliant solution. Our recommended actions aim to mitigate the risks as far as reasonably practicable.
Cenheard offers full turn key solutions, whether it be for PUWER assessment, safety circuit design all the way through to CE/UKCA marking.
What our PUWER service provides
Each of our PUWER assessments are created using our own bespoke in-house software. Our software outputs a clear and concise PDF report. Along with a simple spreadsheet summarising the recommended actions.
PDF PUWER report
The final PDF PUWER report covers all of the following:
- The exact equipment we’ve assessed
- Any mechanical and non-mechanical hazards
- A full assessment against all of the relevant PUWER regulations
- Each of the risk assessments conducted, prioritised by risk level
All of the risk assessments included provide possible practical solutions to achieve compliance. We work with you to identify the most practical solutions which you can implement with ease.
Each risk assessment is formatted as a work order, providing a simple and intuitive document that can easily be delegated. This allows ease of distribution to both internal and external resources.
Actions spreadsheet
Along with the PDF report, we provide an excel spreadsheet with a prioritised list of the recommended actions. A single go-to point for looking at the actions associated with the PUWER assessment.
For clients where we conduct more than one assessment, we compile all of these actions onto a single overarching actions tracker. This makes it even easier to delegate actions, monitor progress and demonstrate your hard work towards compliance.
What happens afterwards
At Cenheard we don’t just hand you a report. We continue to help you along your journey. A post assessment handover meeting is essential to cover:
- Any trends
- Quick wins
- Industry leading solutions
- Awareness and training
We want you to have a good understanding of our PUWER assessments. Our internal engineers will be available to explain any actions identified in as much detail as you require. Furthermore, we can check that any alternative ideas which you generate would be compliant.
Upon completion of any remedial work, we can also offer a sign off service. Giving you peace of mind by verifying all solutions meet the required standards and show full compliance with PUWER.