WORKING AT HEIGHT
High Time For Safety
Working at height can be a perilous task, but it doesn’t need to be. Matthew Johnson, Managing Director of CAM Specialist Support looks at how to minimise risk and promote safe practices when working at height.
Whether you’re cleaning and maintaining the windows and high areas of office
buildings, shopping centres or sports
stadiums, there is no doubt that you need a working at height specialist with the correct equipment, skills and experience.
In short, cleaning the outside of high storey buildings is no job for an odd job man with a ladder and bucket.
These days, as with many other trades, technology for working at height has moved on considerably. New, safer and more technically advanced methods of window cleaning and other working at height operations have been developed since the Work at Height Regulations 2005 (amended by the Work at Height (Amendment) Regulations 2007) came into force.
One of the key legal requirements of the regulations is for competent people to plan, organise, supervise and carry out work at height. The regulations “apply to all work at height where there is a risk of a fall liable to cause personal injury.”
As CAM’s dedicated Training and Health and Safety Manager Tim Jones explained: “It is a common mistake to separate training from competence. Training is part of the proof of competence, along with knowledge, experience and any other qualities that enable.”
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Duty holders need to be assured that when selecting a specialist contractor to carry out cleaning and maintenance at height, their chosen contractor can demonstrate that all staff and managers are competent. Less experienced operatives who need the opportunity to learn new, on the job skills must be properly supervised.
Risk Assessments And
Emergency Planning A well planned, active risk assessment is one of the most crucial elements to safety when it comes to cleaning at height. Risk assessment – basically a careful examination of what could cause people harm – should always be carried out to ensure the safest way of working and any rescue plan should be site specific and detailed. RAs are a legal requirement under the Work at Height regulations 2005 – which has made operating at height much safer and more professional.
Even the most well-meaning companies can still leave themselves vulnerable to the risk of accident, injury or prosecution if their risk assessment process is weak, poorly planned or outdated.
By its very nature, a rescue plan is only called upon in an emergency so contractors must carry out regular practice sessions and refresher training to ensure that their operatives will react swiftly and appropriately should an emergency situation arise.
To remain meaningful, RAs must be updated regularly and they must be easy to understand. Danger can arise when companies simply dig out a generic assessment form that they’ve used for years, tick the boxes, change the date and then file it away again. For that reason, here at CAM we recently introduced a visual style of risk assessment across our 800 properties, including a multi-lingual system that reflects an increasingly multi- cultural workforce. Bright graphics, images and the creative use of colour have replaced old style text heavy documents with a simple traffic light system – red, amber and green – used to convey different levels of risk. Our aim is simple: to communicate essential information that can be easily absorbed.
www.tomorrowscleaning.com
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