This suggests that some cleaning companies could do more to review and improve their systems, including training, to protect both themselves and their employees.
Effective practical training
Company directors clearly should have a keen interest in reducing regulatory risks, which threaten the financial future of their businesses, and their corporate and personal reputations. However, under the new sentencing guidelines, frontline operatives – even ones adversely affected by an untoward incident – can now be prosecuted for failing to safeguard their own health and safety.
Feedback from our authorised water jetting trainers suggests many such operatives are not at all aware of these risks.
Cleaning contractors should see the sentencing guidelines as an opportunity to review safety and operational competence throughout the organisation and, where gaps are identified, to fill them with effective training and staff guidance.
Being able to prove that effective high-pressure water jetting training has been delivered, that reasons for observing best practice have been regularly reinforced, and that members of operational teams at all levels are aware of their responsibilities and liabilities is now more important than ever.
Company culture is critical to making this happen. Larger fines increase reputational risk as well as financial risk. Cleaning and FM companies need to ensure water jetting training is supported and championed at all levels.
The right stuff
Commercial high-pressure water jetting systems are powerful enough to cause catastrophic, and often fatal, injuries. Some cleaning equipment delivers jets of water heated to boiling point, adding yet another dimension to the risk faced by operatives and all those around them.
Mind the gap(s)
This makes water jetting an operation that cleaning contractors and their customers should be particularly cautious about. When this fact is combined with an assessment of the regulatory risks if something were to go wrong, the alarm bells should be ringing loudly.
Yet, here at the WJA, we have concerns that some companies – cleaning contractors, facilities management providers, and end-use clients – may not be fully aware of the implications of the much higher health and safety penalties they now face.
There are signs of potentially critical decision-making gaps between senior directors and their operational teams. While a significant number of company directors are aware of the new sentencing guidelines, some colleagues who manage measures to mitigate the risks – mostly operational managers – are not so well briefed.
www.tomorrowscleaning.com
Training to the appropriate level, and for the right procedures, is an essential first step for cleaning contractors that use water jetting. All WJA training modules are accredited by City & Guilds. They are also based on our two Codes of Practices which are recognised as setting best practice industry standards for water jetting in the UK and internationally. Our aim is to deliver high pressure water jetting training in a way that continuously improves safety standards in our industry and safeguards the people who work in it.
A one day class-based Safety Awareness module introduces delegates to the principles of water jetting, types of water jetting equipment, key safety issues, and safety techniques – this course has to be repeated every three years to retain registration with the WJA.
There are also a range of further one-day practical ‘hands-on’ modules, covering: Tube and Pipe Cleaning, Hydrodemolition, Surface Preparation, and Drain and Sewer Cleaning. All delegates must pass a written assessment. Those that do are eligible to be registered on the WJA’s international operator database, receiving a certificate of competence and a photo ID card.
Companies that use water jetting can also join the WJA, and benefit from regular updates on best practice and legislation, plus collaboration with other members and industry bodies that have an interest in technical and service standards.
www.waterjetting.org TRAINING AND EDUCATION | 51
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