Health & Safety
Managing Risk
Your Men’s Shed must be a safe place for your members and visitors. This means making plans about how you will manage any risks in your Men’s Shed.
You will need to identify any hazards in your Men’s Shed and make plans about how you reduce the risk from these hazards. At the SMSA we suggest you go above and beyond present law requirements and all Sheds should have these in place. We suggest doing it at least once a year after your AGM by the board or a sub committee and if you get new machinery during the year keep it updated. This will also help in insurance claims if you have them up to date and you ever need to make a claim. So a win win situation.
The SMSA has created a RISK ASSESSMENT and HEALTH & SAFETY Shed template for you to use and tweak to make it fit your requirements. This is available in our resources section and a benefit of our Shed membership package.
There is also a great deal of information and support available. Your Men’s Shed will be unique, so you need to assess your own particular premises as well as getting general advice please do contact our Shed Development team.
Some sheds have had advice from local Technical Colleges, retired Firefighters, retired Project Managers and Local Authority Officers.
Health & Safety Film
Shed safety is of paramount importance and we have created a film to help your Shed know the basics of good governance and health and safety protocols in the Shed.
Huge thanks to Stonehaven & District Men’s Shed for bringing the idea to us and for collaborating in the whole process utilising the members skills and creativity to create a film we are very proud of and we hope will be of great benefit to you as well.
IF YOUR SHED REQUIRES A DOWNLOADABLE COPY OF THE VIDEO TO SHARE WITH YOUR MEMBERS, PLEASE EMAIL YOUR REQUEST TO comms@scottishmsa.org.uk
The Health and Safety Executive produce very helpful advice. They also provide example risk assessments,
which can give you a good starting point. There is also a very useful Health and Safety Toolbox.
Westhill & District Men’s Shed in Aberdeenshire – the first-ever Scottish Men’s Shed that opened in 2013 – has produced some very useful guides which they generously share with other sheds.
These are available in our members online resource library.
Part of your Shed Membership benefits, if you use our insurance partner Greenwood Moreland Insurance Brokers, are some Risk Assessment documents also to help you. Be sure to ask for them when your quote is finalised.
Also you will find loads of information in the Australian Men’s Shed ‘How to run a Shed’ manual which is also part of your paid SMSA Shed membership (£25 per Shed per year). Be sure to have your Shed get all these benefits and become a paid up Shed member – Join SMSA