INDG275: INDG275: Plan, Do, Check, Act for Health & Safety

What is this document?

INDG275 is the HSE's introductory leaflet on managing health and safety using the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) approach. It serves as the summary companion to HSG65, the full guidance document on successful health and safety management.

This leaflet provides a straightforward framework that any business can use to organise their health and safety arrangements. Rather than treating safety as an add-on, PDCA integrates it into your everyday business operations.

Who needs to read this?

Small and medium business owners looking for a practical safety management approach
Managers responsible for implementing health and safety systems
Health and safety advisers helping organisations improve their safety culture
Directors and senior leaders with ultimate responsibility for safety
Anyone new to health and safety management who wants a clear starting framework
Property managers responsible for building safety and compliance

The Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle

INDG275 sets out a four-stage management cycle that drives continuous improvement:

Plan

Before you can manage health and safety effectively, you need to plan your approach:

Set your policy — Define what you want to achieve and how
Plan for implementation — Decide who does what and when
Identify hazards — Know what could cause harm in your workplace
Assess risks — Understand who might be harmed and how seriously
Decide on controls — Plan how to eliminate or reduce risks

Good planning means thinking ahead about what could go wrong and what you will do to prevent it. It also means allocating adequate resources — time, money, and people — to make safety happen.

Do

This stage is about putting your plans into action:

Implement your risk controls — Put the measures in place
Provide training — Ensure workers know how to work safely
Communicate — Make sure everyone understands their responsibilities
Secure cooperation — Engage workers in making safety work
Manage contractors — Extend your safety standards to those working for you

Doing is where plans become reality. It requires active management, not just paperwork.

Check

You need to know whether your controls are working:

Monitor performance — Measure what is happening day to day
Investigate incidents — Learn from accidents, near misses, and ill health
Check compliance — Verify that controls are being followed
Benchmark progress — Compare performance over time and against standards
Review data — Look for patterns and trends

Checking is about gathering evidence. Without measurement, you cannot know if you are improving or where problems lie.

Act

Based on what you find, take action to improve:

Address failures — Fix problems identified through monitoring
Update risk assessments — Respond to changes in your workplace
Improve controls — Strengthen measures that are not working well enough
Revise procedures — Update working practices based on experience
Review the system — Periodically assess whether your overall approach is working

Acting closes the loop. It turns lessons learned into lasting improvements, then feeds back into planning for the next cycle.

How this differs from older approaches

INDG275 reflects a shift in HSE thinking away from bureaucratic paperwork towards practical risk management:

Focus on outcomes — What matters is whether people are actually protected, not just whether you have documents
Leadership matters — Safety works when senior people are visibly committed
Worker involvement — Those doing the work often know the risks best
Proportionate response — Do what is sensible for your level of risk
Integration with business — Safety should be part of how you run your business, not a separate system

Key points covered

The leaflet emphasises several critical principles:

Strong leadership is essential — Directors and senior managers must be actively involved
Worker participation improves safety — Engage employees in identifying and solving problems
Proportionate action — Your approach should match the size and nature of your risks
Competence — Everyone needs adequate training and information for their role
Learning culture — Treat incidents as opportunities to improve, not just problems to deal with

How this applies to you

Use INDG275 as a starting point for organising your health and safety management:

Review your current approach — Does it follow a logical cycle, or is it reactive and ad hoc?
Check your planning — Do you have a clear policy and adequate resources?
Examine your doing — Are controls actually in place and being used?
Assess your checking — Do you know if your controls work?
Look at your acting — Do you learn from experience and make improvements?

For smaller businesses, the cycle can be simple and informal. Larger or higher-risk organisations will need more structured systems. The key is that the cycle works for your situation.

The relationship with HSG65

INDG275 is the summary leaflet. For full details, refer to HSG65 "Managing for health and safety", which provides:

Comprehensive guidance on each stage of the cycle
Detailed advice on risk profiling and organising for safety
Guidance on measuring performance
Information on reviewing and auditing your system

Why PDCA works

The Plan, Do, Check, Act approach works because it:

Creates structure — Gives you a logical framework to follow
Drives improvement — Each cycle should leave you better than before
Identifies gaps — Reveals where your current approach is weak
Builds accountability — Makes clear who is responsible for what
Adapts to change — Regular review keeps your approach current

Common mistakes to avoid

All planning, no doing — Paperwork without action does not protect anyone
All doing, no checking — You cannot know if controls work without monitoring
No acting on findings — Investigations are worthless if nothing changes
Treating it as a one-off — PDCA is a continuous cycle, not a single exercise

INDG275: Plan, Do, Check, Act for Health & Safety