We carry out dynamic risk assessments in everyday life from crossing the road to driving a car; whenever or wherever we may encounter new hazards that would require us to think and act quickly.

In the workplace, a dynamic risk assessment is an active observation used for evaluating new risk in an operational environment on the spot.

The hazards should be controlled to then proceed with the task in hand, safely.

Dynamic Risk Assessments are usually carried out in your head to act quickly upon hazardous situations, but it would best practice is to write the risk assessment down.

Decisions need to be made quickly and concisely in order to control the risk sufficiently, as dynamic risk assessments are typically utilised in ‘one off’, ‘ad hoc’ tasks which haven’t yet been formally risk assessed. Ideally all tasks carried out by a business should have a formal written risk assessment, but this can be challenging in an operation that encounters a constantly ever changing, high risk environment on a daily basis.

This is where a dynamic risk assessment are used to their advantage.

Carrying out dynamic risk assessments is great for improving risk awareness and quick decision making on site.

Examples of where dynamic risk assessments can be used include:

-Unpredictable patients that emergency services have to attend to

-Unusual slip hazard in a busy factory environment

-Unloading activity from a lorry which would normally be carried out safely, but the pallet has become stuck so offers a challenging unload …Or any other unforeseen hazard not identified by general risk assessment.

Should you need any further information, or if you’d like to discuss your requirements further, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.