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demonstrated they have achieved.”
All employers are under pressure tomaintain staffing levels and the time spent away on training courses is precious. The temptation to delay or postpone training has never been greater, but should an accident occur in themeantime, the competence of the operative will be one of the points high-up during any accident investigation progress.
To address this conflict for the employer and the workforce, between being onsite to complete necessary works and yet maintain qualification levels an option to reduce travelling time for trainees is offered by Superjet at several venues across the country. Furthermore, for those employers that need a larger number of operatives trained in a short time, Superjet can also run courses at suitable client venues using its specialistmobile training facility.
In terms of the recent national Covid crisis, Barry Lofthouse noted that: “During Covid the amount of workers out in the field was vastly reduced, even though the drainage and jetting industry continued to provide a valuable resource, adjustments had to bemade in how training courses were conducted.With Superjet being a popular provider of jetting courses across the UK, they were in a position to be able to continue to provide courses in a safe and protectedmanner. A reduction in numbers and alterations to classroom-based and practical sessions was necessary, without this affecting the quality of the courses.”
Of course, one of the first pointsmade in any confined space training course is that the best option is not to enter the confined space in the first place. The Confined Space Regulations (1997), which whilst covering the need for processes in termed of confined space entry does not really say overmuch about confined space entries, but the regulations do state‘No person at work shall enter a confined space to carry out work for any purpose unless it is not reasonably practicable to achieve that purpose without such entry’.
Therefore, the best option before looking at placing personnel into a confined space is to see if the range of equipment currently available for example the range of trenchless equipment now availablemay offer an alternativemeans of completing the job before requiring operatives to enter the confined space. Devices such as tank cleaning nozzles, robotic cutters, and allmanner of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) safety equipment are now available as well as remote inspection systems and rehabilitation and repair technologies.
Asmentioned earlier, the Confined Space Regulations date from 1997, the Code of Practice which accompanies these regulations enables the layman to turn this Legislation into a useful practical everyday guidance. This has apparently been updated once in 2014 it is likely it will be updated again. Currently there is also an‘OCCASIONAL GUIDANCE NOTE – The Classification &Management of Confined Space Entries, INDUSTRY GUIDANCE Edition 3.0’which was published in December 2019. These documents should provide a full guidance opportunity for both employers and employees to maintain their workforce and in turn their own safety when working within confined space environments.
12 | July 2023 |
www.draintraderltd.com
What is clear fromwhat statistics there are is that despite all the training, legislation, supervision and safety organisation input, confined spaces and working therein continue to kill and injure UK workers, not just in pipelines but also when working in chambers, tankers, tanks and other storage and facilities that are associated with the drainage and sewerage sector. This can be for a number of reasons including companies that continue to operate dangerous practices, either due to ignorance or deliberately in amisguided belief that they can savemoney, or by using operatives that do not have the enough of the necessary training, experience and/or awareness of their situation to note when theremay be a potentially dangerous occurrence, even where there been workers killed or injured in previous similar incidents.
The drainage and sewerage sector does carry inherent dangers with it as we are all well-aware. Todaymany of these can be avoided by using themodern and varied equipment and techniques now available, particularly in the trenchless (No-Dig) field. However, there will almost certainly always be circumstances where personnel have tomake that entry into a confined space. The industry as a wholemust ensure that they have the correct training, experience and knowledge of what is a confined space and the potential dangers therein tomake the right choices when it come to that entry requirement.
Finally, going back the personal view expressed earlier, all confined spaces whether classified as low-,medium- or high- risk or an entry of special significance should to this author’s mind be treated as potentially high-risk. Thismay sound like overkill to some. However, having personally experienced the sometimes disastrous results of workforce andmore importantlymanagement complacency when approaching entry into a confined space there are reasons to instigate the best procedures available to ensure workforce safety fromthe outset and not just hope that the results of the entry will be successful as planned.
Drain Trader would like to thank Barry fromJetchem Systems for stepping up with info and some fantastic pictures, tomake thismain feature possible. I know there weremany others who would have liked to have contributed, but just didn’t perhapsmanage to find the time. Hopefullywe’ll hear fromyou next time.
C M Y CM MY CY CMY K
NEXT MONTHSMAIN FEATURE:
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Contact the team atWise onWater to get involved
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