As an employer, you have the same health and safety responsibilities for people working at home as for any other worker.  This includes staff who are required to prepare work from home ready to deliver in the workplace setting such as teachers or trainers.

The HSE’s home working guidance has just been redesigned and expanded to provide more detail on straightforward actions to manage home workers’ health and safety.  It is the employer’s responsibility to prepare a risk assessment. 

Risks include stress and poor mental health as well as working with display screen equipment (DSE), use and safety of electrical equipment, use of tools or chemicals, providing a suitable working environment, lone working, slips trips and falls, temperature control, emergency procedures, domestic radon exposure and reporting incidents and accidents (RIDDOR). At Delegated Services, we have been advising our customers for some time, especially from the onset of Covid, that this action is essential. We particularly include teaching staff and trainers who spend considerable time in front of screens home working but could also include staff who are working overtime to meet the deadlines of a project for a period, and so need to be taken into account with your approach. If we can assist with a proportional way forward or any other aspect of this, please contact us at: info@delegatedservices.org