Most fires are preventable. Those responsible for workplaces and other buildings to which the public have access can avoid them by taking responsibility for and adopting the right behaviours and procedures.

We take look at five of the most important fire safety documents to display in your work premises:

- Health and Safety Law Poster.
- Health and Safety Policy.
- Employers Liability Insurance.
- First Aiders.
- Fire Evacuation Arrangements.

Health and Safety Law Poster - If you are an employer, you must display the Health and Safety Executive’s health and safety law poster. The only alternative to this is to provide each and every worker in your organisation with a copy of an approved leaflet or an equivalent pocket card. As you can see, it’s much more effective, much cheaper and far less work to display your health and safety law poster on a noticeboard where your workers can easily read it.

Health and Safety Policy - It’s also good practice to display your company’s health and safety policy. Depending upon the size and type of your business this could run into hundreds of pages so this isn’t particularly practical to display on a noticeboard in its entirety. However, what many businesses do is display the first part of the policy, the statement of intent. This lists the company’s aims for health and safety in a clear and simply way and is signed and dated by the person whose responsibility health and safety is in the workplace.

Employers Liability Insurance - As an employer, you really should display one or more valid copies of your employer's liability insurance. This shows that your insurance is fully up-to-date. But it also shows much more than this. It shows to your employees and your visitors that you are a business that takes its health and safety considerations seriously.

First Aiders- As an employer, you are required to make appropriate first-aid arrangements in your workplace. This means that you should consider the particular circumstances of your workplace, your workers and the health and safety risks that may be present. For example, the arrangements for a small office will be much different from a construction site where the health and safety risks are higher. One of the key things to do is to have fully trained and appointed first aiders and display these clearly on your noticeboard. In the event of an accident, a trained first-aider can be quickly contacted to give vital first aid whilst an ambulance arrives.

Fire Evacuation Arrangements - As well as first-aiders, it is crucial that your workplace noticeboards display fire precautions and fire evacuation arrangements in the event of a fire. The information that you should provide should include:

- General instructions of what to do in the event of a fire.
- Where the nearest escape route is.
- The names of staff who are designated fire wardens / fire marshals.
- Maps / diagrams of where the nearest assembly points are.

Is your business displaying all of these items? If not, maybe it’s time you had a rethink about your organisation’s noticeboards.

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