Solved
The job changed. Nothing was written down.
The reassessment recorded on the phone, where the work is.
Dynamic risk assessment
Dynamic risk assessment,
Dynamic risk assessment,
recorded where the work is.
When conditions change on site, the risk is reassessed there and then. Unibuild records it on the phone or in the office portal, against the same job as the RAMS, with photographs kept alongside.
Problems we solve
Eleven dynamic risk assessment problems. All eleven solved.
What goes wrong when a reassessment stays in somebody’s head, and how Unibuild puts it on the record.
Solved
The site does not match the RAMS.
A changed method leaves a record against the job.
Solved
Nobody can find it after an incident.
One register with the RAMS, permits and toolbox talks.
Solved
The RAMS changed. Half the crew never re-signed.
Every revision signed again, in the app or by link.
Solved
A reactive call-out with no RAMS written for it.
The assessment made on arrival, on the phone.
Solved
The office hears about it on Friday.
Filed against the job and read in the office portal.
Solved
Conditions change. Who is on site?
The clock-in shows who is on the job to brief.
Solved
A form that is one blank box.
Twenty questions answered on site before work starts.
Solved
The evidence is on somebody’s own phone.
Photographs kept with the assessment.
Solved
A carbon pad in the van, soaked by Tuesday.
In your firm’s own app, even with no signal.
Solved
A form that asks somebody else’s questions.
Your own questions, built in, changes included.
11/11Solved in one module
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In plain terms
A dynamic risk assessment is the ongoing assessment of risks as conditions become apparent or change. It means looking at what is happening around you, checking whether the existing precautions are still enough, and deciding what action is needed.
It works alongside the written risk assessment and the RAMS. The written assessment plans the job, and the reassessment on site keeps it safe as the day unfolds. Unibuild records both against the same job, so a decision made on site becomes part of the job’s safety record.
On site
The questions to ask when conditions change.
A dynamic risk assessment is a short, deliberate pause before the work carries on. These are the questions behind it, whatever the trade.
What has changed?
Name the change in plain words: the weather, the ground, the access, the people nearby, the equipment, or something found that nobody expected.
Who could be harmed now?
Look beyond the task. Other trades, members of the public, building occupants and passing traffic may now be closer to the hazard than they were this morning.
Are the existing controls still enough?
Read the controls in the RAMS against what is in front of you. A control written for dry ground, daylight or an empty building may not hold now.
Is the crew competent for the changed task?
Check that the people doing the work have the training and experience for what the job has become, not only for the job as it was planned.
What has to happen before work carries on?
Remove the hazard if you can. If not, add a control that works on this site today: a barrier, a different access, a second person or a change in sequence.
Should the work stop?
If the risk cannot be brought under control, stop, make the area safe and call the supervisor. Where asbestos is suspected, HSE tells workers to stop work and check before going further.
Who needs to know?
Tell the people affected and the supervisor. Record what changed, what was decided and what was done, so the next person to arrive starts from the same picture.
Does the written assessment need revising?
A change that will last belongs in the RAMS. Revise it, brief it and have it signed again, rather than repeating the same reassessment every morning.
Which assessment, when
Dynamic and static risk assessments, side by side.
A static risk assessment is written in advance; a dynamic one happens during the work. Each has its own job, and Unibuild holds them all against the same project.
| Assessment | What it is | When it happens | In Unibuild |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generic risk assessment | A written assessment of a task the firm does often, wherever it is done | Written in advance and reviewed periodically | Your own templates, imported free |
| Site-specific risk assessment | The generic assessment checked and adapted for one site and its conditions | Before work starts on that site | Site and job details fill in from the project |
| RAMS | The risk assessment issued with the method statement: sequence, plant, permits, PPE and people | Before the work starts, and again when the method changes | Reviewed, approved, released and signed on the phone |
| Dynamic risk assessment | The ongoing reassessment as conditions become apparent or change | During the work, whenever something changes | On the phone or in the office portal, with photographs |
| Point of work risk assessment | A short check of the task and its surroundings, at the place of work | Immediately before the task starts | Twenty questions answered on site before work starts |
| Permit to work | Formal authorisation for a defined high-risk activity, under set conditions, for a set period | Issued before the activity and closed out after it | Raised and closed out on the phone |
In the trades
Dynamic risk assessment examples from six trades.
Construction is one of more than thirty trades Unibuild serves, alongside electrical, mechanical, roofing, scaffolding and facilities maintenance. These are the moments a reassessment earns its keep.
The isolator is not
where the drawing says
An electrician finds the circuit fed from a board the drawings do not show. The isolation in the method statement no longer proves the circuit is dead.
- Stop before any conductor is touched
- Find and lock off the true supply
- Prove dead, then record the change
ElectricalSupply
The household is
at home
A heating engineer arrives to change a radiator valve. Children are moving through the work area and the dog is loose.
- Agree a clear work area with the occupier
- Keep tools and lifted floorboards guarded
- Record the agreement, then carry on
Heating and plumbingPeople
The wind picks up
after lunch
A roofing crew is laying a membrane on a flat roof when the wind rises to the point where sheets can no longer be handled safely.
- Stop handling sheet materials
- Secure everything loose on the roof
- Record when work resumed, and why
RoofingWeather
Two ties removed
by another trade
A scaffolder arrives to add a lift and finds two ties taken out by the window fitters. The scaffold no longer matches its design.
- Take the affected lifts out of use
- Reinstate the ties to the design
- Inspect before it goes back into use
ScaffoldingStructure
A leak above a
busy corridor
A maintenance engineer answers a call-out to water coming through an office ceiling. Staff are walking underneath, and the tiles are sodden.
- Cordon off the corridor below
- Isolate the water before opening up
- Record the cordon and the repair
Facilities maintenanceOccupants
A service the
drawings missed
An excavator driver uncovers an unmarked duct halfway along a trench. The service drawings showed nothing at that depth.
- Stop digging and keep people clear
- Locate and identify the service
- Hand dig near it, and record the change
GroundworksGround
Ask where last week’s reassessments are.
Not whether they happened, because they almost certainly did. Where they are written down, with the photographs, against the job they changed.
Book a demo →
30 minutes, on your own kind of job.
In Unibuild
A dynamic risk assessment app under your own name.
One set of safety records for the job, on the phone at the work and in the office portal.
In your firm’s own app
The dynamic risk assessment opens on the phone, at the work, in the same app operatives use to clock in and sign a RAMS. Your staff app is published on the App Store and Google Play under your company’s own name and icon. Your operatives download your app, not ours.
In the office portal, too
The same assessment is live in the office portal. The contracts manager and the health and safety lead read what changed on site without waiting for paper.
Against the same job as the RAMS
The reassessment is filed with the job and the RAMS it departed from. Photographs stay with it, and a changed method leaves a record that anybody checking the job can follow.
When the change will last
The RAMS is revised as a new version and goes through the AI RAMS review before it is released. Everyone working to it signs again, in the app or through a signing link in any browser.
Knowing who a change affects
The QR clock-in shows who is on each site, so the supervisor knows exactly who needs briefing, including agency and subcontract operatives.
With every other safety record
Dynamic risk assessments sit in one register with the RAMS, permits to work, toolbox talks and near miss reports, with the same audit trail. Records are kept for seven years, and every record exports at any time.
Asking your own questions
Unibuild is bespoke business software for UK trades and specialist contractors: a platform in daily production since 2016, shaped to the way each firm already works. Your own dynamic risk assessment questions are built in, and changes after go-live are inside the monthly fee.
Part of health and safety
Dynamic risk assessment is part of the health and safety module, with RAMS, permits, COSHH and near miss reporting. One monthly figure covers every module, with unlimited users.
Where the duty sits
Where the duty to reassess comes from.
The phrase grew up in the fire and rescue service. The duty behind it applies to every employer.
Review when things change
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require a suitable and sufficient risk assessment. Regulation 3 requires it to be reviewed when it may no longer be valid, or after a significant change.
Recording the significant findings
Employers with five or more employees must record the significant findings of their risk assessment. When a reassessment changes the controls, recording it keeps that record true.
Planning, managing and monitoring
Under CDM 2015 regulation 15(2), a contractor must plan, manage and monitor its work. It must be carried out without risks to health and safety, so far as is reasonably practicable.
Working alone
HSE expects employers to manage the risks before anybody works alone. A lone engineer’s reassessment on arrival is part of how those risks stay managed.
Where the phrase comes from
The term began in the UK fire and rescue service. HM Fire Service Inspectorate set it out in 1998, for the Home Office and the Scottish Office, in Dynamic Management of Risk at Operational Incidents. The guide explains how crews keep reassessing risk as an incident changes.
Great Britain and Northern Ireland
The regulations named here apply in Great Britain. Northern Ireland has its own equivalent legislation, and the same principle of reviewing an assessment when things change.
Published by Unibuild Technologies Limited · Updated . Safety references.
Questions
Asked about dynamic risk assessment.
How is a dynamic risk assessment recorded in Unibuild?
On the phone, where the work is, against the same job as the RAMS. Twenty questions are answered on site before work starts, so the record shows what was checked as well as who checked it. Photographs taken at the time are kept with it. The same record serves as a point of work risk assessment.
What record does it leave if somebody asks later?
What was checked, who checked it and when, with the photographs and the same audit trail as the RAMS. Dynamic risk assessments sit in one register with the RAMS, permits to work, toolbox talks and near miss reports for the job. Records are kept for seven years, and every record can be exported at any time.
How does the office find out what changed on site?
Dynamic risk assessment is live in the office portal as well as the app. What is recorded on site is filed against the job, so the contracts manager and the health and safety lead read it without waiting for paper.
What happens to the RAMS after a dynamic risk assessment?
If the change will last, the RAMS is revised as a new version and goes through the AI RAMS review before it is released. Everyone working to it signs again, in the app or through a link in any browser.
How does the supervisor know who to brief?
The QR clock-in shows who is on each site, live, including subcontract and agency operatives who scan the same poster. The supervisor briefs the change to the people actually there, and the reassessment is recorded against the same job.
Can lone workers use it?
Yes. A lone engineer records the dynamic risk assessment on their own phone on arrival, against the job. Where the firm uses one, a lone working permit is raised and closed out on the same phone.
Can a dynamic risk assessment be recorded with no signal?
Yes. The Unibuild app works on sites with no coverage, and what is recorded there syncs with the office the moment the phone is back in signal.
Can we use our own dynamic risk assessment questions?
Yes. Unibuild is built to each firm, so the dynamic risk assessment asks the questions your health and safety lead has written, in your own terms and for your own trades. Changes after go-live are included in the monthly fee.
Is there a dynamic risk assessment app?
Yes. Unibuild includes dynamic risk assessment in your firm’s own staff app for iPhone and Android, published under your company’s own name and icon. The same assessment is live in the office portal, recorded against the job with photographs kept alongside.
Is dynamic risk assessment included in the price?
Yes. It is part of the health and safety module, and one monthly figure per firm covers every module with unlimited users. There is no charge per assessment and none per person. Read how pricing works.
Safety references
The guidance behind the duty.
The product information on this page is published by Unibuild. The legal references below cover Great Britain and were checked on .
- MHSWR 1999 regulation 3: risk assessment and review
- HSE: managing risks, recording findings and reviewing controls
- CDM 2015 regulation 15: duties of contractors
- HSE: protecting lone workers
- HSE: asbestos, what workers should do
- HSE HSG47: avoiding danger from underground services
- HM Fire Service Inspectorate: Dynamic Management of Risk at Operational Incidents, 1998 (PDF)
For the written side, read RAMS that hold up or use the free RAMS review checklist.
The site modules
The rest of what happens on site.
Same platform, same login. These are the modules that plan the work, record it, and hold the evidence it was done properly.
One level down
The reassessment is one record.
The reassessment is one record.
These are the others around it.
Permits, RAMS, inspections and the reports that follow an incident.
RAMS that hold upThe difference between a document that exists and one that survives being read.
Health and safety
Permits to work, and the six a site actually issuesThe six permits a site actually issues, and who signs each one.
Health and safety
When an HSE inspector turns up on siteWhat an inspector asks for, and how a firm looks when the records are elsewhere.
Health and safety
RIDDOR, what has to be reported and by whenWhat has to be reported after an incident, and by when.
Health and safety
Why WhatsApp fails as a site recordWhy the group chat is not the evidence, however complete it feels at the time.
Choosing software
Document control, and the revision everybody was working toHow two live versions of one document end up on the same site.
Choosing software
Next step
See it recorded on one of your own jobs.
A 30-minute live demo. We set up one of your jobs and record a reassessment on the phone, then open it in the office.
All elevenSolved
- Reassessments never recorded
- Site and RAMS no longer match
- Records missing when needed
- Revisions left unsigned
- Reactive call-outs and lone engineers
- An office that hears too late
- Not knowing who to brief
- Forms with one blank box
- Photographs scattered across phones
- Paper pads in the van
- Generic forms
Ask for a quote
Tell us a little about the firm.
Tell us a little about the firm.
We do the rest.
Two minutes. A written figure by email, usually the same working day. Unlimited users, so everyone who records a reassessment is included.