Standards — HSE Management Standards
Six areas, because that is what the framework has.
The HSE Management Standards are the recognised UK method for assessing the risk of work-related stress. An assessment that skips one of the six is not an assessment against the standards, whatever it is called.
01 — The six
What each one covers, and what gets examined.
The middle column is HSE's wording, quoted. The right-hand column is what an assessment actually looks at to reach a finding, which is the part nobody publishes.
| No. | Area | What it covers, in HSE's words | What gets examined |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Demands | This includes issues such as workload, work patterns and the work environment. | Hours and overtime data, rota and shift patterns, task volume by role, how work arrives and whether it can be refused. |
| 02 | Control | How much say the person has in the way they do their work. | Decision latitude by grade, scheduling autonomy, how far method is prescribed rather than chosen. |
| 03 | Support | This includes the encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues. | Supervision frequency, manager span of control, take-up of what is already provided, and whether support reaches the people carrying the load. |
| 04 | Relationships | This includes promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour. | Grievance and conflict records, exit interview themes, whether reporting routes exist and whether anyone uses them. |
| 05 | Role | Whether people understand their role within the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles. | Role clarity by team, overlapping accountabilities, how recently roles changed and whether anyone was told. |
| 06 | Change | How organisational change (large or small) is managed and communicated in the organisation. | Change frequency, consultation records, and absence and turnover in the months around change events. |
Framework and the six descriptions: HSE, Management Standards, checked 3 August 2026. The evidence column is this practice's, not HSE's.
02 — The common failure
A survey against six headings is not an assessment.
HSE publishes an indicator tool, and a great deal of what is sold as a Management Standards assessment is that questionnaire, scored, with the six averages plotted. That produces a number per area and no finding: it says people report low control without establishing whether control is in fact low, where, or why.
An assessment reaches a finding, which means the perception is read against records that already exist. If people report unsustainable demands and the rostering data shows a third of one team routinely working beyond contracted hours, that is a finding with evidence attached. If the same perception appears where the records show nothing unusual, that is a different finding, about communication or workload distribution, and it needs a different response.
The distinction matters most twelve months later, when somebody asks how a conclusion was reached and whoever answers was not in the room.
03 — Alongside the others
Where the other two standards fit.
ISO 45003
Groups the same hazards differently: work organisation, social factors, and work environment. Guidance, used alongside ISO 45001, and not certifiable in itself. It is the vocabulary a customer, parent company or auditor is more likely to use.
BS 30480
Addresses one specific and serious outcome inside the same territory: suicide and the workplace. Published by BSI in November 2025 and free to download. Where suicide risk is in scope, it is assessed alongside the six.
Six areas, assessed once, written down.
Independently, by somebody who sells no EAP, platform or workshop series, so no finding points conveniently at something to buy. The first conversation costs nothing.