Guidance relating to asbestos in NHS buildings
Asbestos remains an important health and safety issue across the NHS as many healthcare buildings contain asbestos-containing materials. While these materials can often be managed safely when left undisturbed, maintenance work, refurbishment projects, accidental damage and poor building condition can result in the release of asbestos fibres, which may cause asbestos related ill health.
Raising awareness among managers, staff, contractors and trade union representatives is therefore critical to ensuring asbestos risks are identified, communicated and managed effectively, helping to protect the health of workers and maintain safe healthcare environments.
Legal duty
Under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, employers and those responsible for managing premises have a duty to identify and manage asbestos-containing materials and to provide information on their presence and location to those who may disturb them during their work. The resources on this page are intended to support compliance with these legal duties and encourage effective communication and partnership working.
About these resources
They have been developed by the NHS Staff Council Health, Safety and Wellbeing Group, comprised of management and staff-side representatives, to support awareness and understanding of the safe management of asbestos in healthcare settings.
Purpose of the exemplar education awareness slides
The exemplar education awareness slides provide an editable template to support employers in providing information to staff who are not responsible for working on the fabric of buildings, but who do work in buildings that contain asbestos. It includes:
- how they will be informed of the specific locations of asbestos containing materials (ACMs) in the rooms or areas they use
- what is done to manage the risks from asbestos
- instructions on not damaging or disturbing the ACMs and what to do in the event of accidental damage.
The education awareness slide deck and accompanying notes pages on slides, should be read together as a complete learning resource. The notes pages contain important additional guidance, explanations and practical information that are not included on the slides themselves.
The slides are not intended to replace UKATA Asbestos Awareness.
