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A01 - Safe Working Practices - Safety Patrol UK

Safety Patrol UK are an organisation that travels to businesses to give presentations and advice on using ICT safely in the workplace. As one of their patrol 'officers' you have been asked to research, design, create and present a presentation on the many dangers in the workplace and the

guidelines that all businesses should try and follow.

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This presentation is to introduce you to…

• Measures to protect health• Measures to protect physical safety• Measures to protect files from loss• Measures to protect files from unauthorised

access and modification• Reasons for measures

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Measures to protect health

• You must consider the following:– ergonomic designs of equipment and furniture– positioning of equipment– posture– taking regular breaks/ change of activity– eye sight checks– health and safety training

• What does this mean?– Making sure people at work are comfortable, safe and have regular breaks

away from their desk or workstation. It's also important that seats, desks and any equipment are comfortable, in sensible positions and that employees are trained properly in their use.

– Those using ICT equipment must have breaks away from their screens and have their vision checked regularly.

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Ergonomic Design

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Measures to protect physical safety:

• You need to explain the following:– trip hazards e.g. trailing cables– electrical safety,– electrical checks (PAT)– no water by machines– not overloading sockets– safely positioning equipment to avoid falls– observing health and safety rules– health and safety training

• What does this mean?– Making sure members of the organisation are kept from phyical risks in the

workplace. Cables and equipment can be tripped over, drinks spilled over computers and power sockets can be overloaded or fail if not annually tested.

– Employees must be trained to avoid these risks and then agree to follow the rules, otherwise accidents will be their responsibility.

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Measures to protect files from loss

• You must explain the following:– organising files– folder structure– meaningful file and folder names– backup strategies– files to backup– frequency– destination/medium– storage

• What does this mean?– As you all know, saving files as 'untilited 1' or 'xXx0).docx' striaight to the recycle bin

doesn't help when you're trying to redo coursework at the last minute.– This is especially true for business, files need to be organised in folders with correct

names so that multiple people can understand and find what they are looking for. Important files must also be regularly backed up and the amount of files will decide on the method, from portable hard drives to DVD discs.

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Measures to protect files from unauthorised access and modification

• You must explain the following:– setting a password to open– setting a password to modify– password protecting the contents of documents– choosing a strong password

• What does this mean?– Setting passwords prevent unauthorised access to important files, staff wages

for example, but there are different methods to try and the strength of the password depends on the characters used.

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Reasons for measures

• complying with health and safety legislation• ensuring safety of staff, equipment and data• specific reasons for different measures, matching the measure with the risk it is

intended to protect from.• What does this mean?• There are official guidelines, usually set by the Health & Safety Executive, that

businesses and staff must follow or risk prosecution. Guides are written about every aspect of workplace safety, from screen heights to footwear and safety clothing. Its important to match the right measures to the correct situation.

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Measures to protect health

• Keywords

• Ergonomics, electrical safety, repetitive strain injury (RSI), eye tests, adjustable chair, adjustable screen, regular breaks, legislation, training, law enforcement, posture

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Measures to protect physical safety

• Keywords

• Electrical safety, tripping, cable ties, electric shock, overloading, equipment position, rules, safe, working environment

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Measures to protect files from loss

• Keywords

• Virus, hacking, password, backup, backup media, restoring, archive, locking, meaningful file name, folder structure, Norton

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Measures to protect files from unauthorised access and modification

• Keywords

• Password to open, physical security, password to change, modify, password strength

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Reasons for measures

• Keywords

• Legislation, the law, health and safety executive, prosecution,