WINDOW CLEANING AND WORKING AT HEIGHT
Safety in the sky
David Saville, Managing Director of Principle Cleaning Services’ Vertical and Specialist Cleaning Division and Executive Member of the Federation of Window Cleaners (FWC), discusses safety when working at height.
Traditionally, over many years, window cleaning has been about service reliability and safety. More recently, we have not escaped the drive for collecting data but the traditional values have endured and not least the need to provide a safe working environment.
In our industry, where working at height is a necessity, we are governed by various pieces of legislation starting from the Health and Safety at Work Act – which is nearly 50 years old, having been passed in 1974.
The requirement to provide staff suitable for the task, who are instructed, supervised and properly trained, has been in place since those initial regulations. The need to risk assess under the Management Regulations, and work in accordance with an access hierarchy under the Work at Height Regulations, came subsequently.
Principle has led the industry in many areas in London and the approach to safety has been no exception. Like most disciplines, success comes most easily from teaching, developing and motivating staff and this creates a culture of improvement, which over time can lead to a safer environment. A career in safety in working at height is an attainable goal and a worthwhile role, and this is demonstrated by the safety team at Principle.
Martin Reges is the current HSEQ Vertical Lead at Principle. Martin joined Principle in 2016 as a window cleaner before promotion to supervisor where his initial interest and journey into safety began. This change in role gave Martin an opportunity to enhance and improve safe systems wherever possible, while gaining an invaluable insight and understanding of the industry first hand. After being in situ for 18 months, he was offered the position as a Vertical Manager at one of our client sites.
Mobilising such an iconic site was an exciting opportunity and it furthered Martin’s interest in safety even more, and he embarked on his NEBOSH General Certificate.
Working closely with our clients to improve safety systems and procedures while developing a robust and positive culture, was initially a daunting prospect but one that he enjoyed, and he was involved in resolving a number of challenging situations.
This was great experience for Martin. He commented: “Having ‘been on the tools’ and worked as a window cleaner and in operations, I felt that my grounding and understanding of the challenges which I faced every day
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on every shift, and those faced by my colleagues in the operational field, gave me a valuable background and, together with my health and safety knowledge, put me in the right place to move forward in my safety career.”
The understanding of the operational side of window cleaning and its physical and operational demands allowed Martin to look at the safety procedures from a different perspective than others may have.
Health and safety is not only about procedures: a positive culture in the division – which is always improving – is vital. Martin has introduced a number of initiatives including a bespoke internal audit focused on the vertical side of business. The audit assesses procedures to make sure they work for our window cleaners and for management.
Martin has made great strides in his career in window cleaning and is now a safety professional. He has been heavily involved in creating Principle’s excellent safety culture. In recent years, he has introduced a behavioural safety programme focusing on avoiding simple mistakes where, despite all of the requirements of the legislation having been met, an innocent mistake, switching off or error of judgement can result in a catastrophic incident.
Behavioural safety can influence culture by looking at ‘unconscious competence’ and is proving an invaluable tool for the continual improvement of culture.
www.principleclean.com
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