HEALTH & SAFETY IS YOUR
CONTRACTOR CHAIN YOUR
WEAKEST LINK?
Simon Olliff, Managing Director at Banyard Solutions, creators of e-permits, discusses the importance of technology in reducing safety risks to contractors working on site.
You are responsible for the health and safety of all those operating in and around your site. A contractor may not have ever visited your site before. Perhaps they have, but it was a year ago, and they can’t remember the layout. The site environment could be completely new to them. This means they are wholly unfamiliar with your specific processes and risks, your methods of working and other tasks going on around them that they need to be aware of. They haven’t got an employee handbook or listened to the toolbox talks you held last week on effective health and safety practices. They might be keen to finish this particular job quickly in order to fulfil other commitments later on in the week.
These factors combined could result in lack of oversight, increasing risks and the likelihood of an incident occurring. If this was to happen on one of your sites, you would face questions as to how you took your duty of care to the contractor seriously.
severe punishments.
In February 2017, HSE inspector Neil Fry said “This is a tragic case, which could have been entirely preventable; if the company had managed their contractors effectively then the worker would have returned home safely from work.” Fry was
36 | TOMORROW’S FM
discussing the failures of Go- Ahead London in May 2011, after a workman died following a fall from a ladder, trying to access the top of a fuel tank. The HSE investigation found that the company failed to implement and keep to their own procedures for managing contractors. Following the incident, Go-Ahead London undertook a review of its contractor management procedures to ensure it wouldn’t happen again. Are you getting contractor management right and ensuring all possible gaps have been closed?
WHAT DOES GOOD CONTRACTOR MANAGEMENT
If you didn’t, you could face
LOOK LIKE? Contractors may make up a significant element of your workforce, with specialisms that range from working at height, asbestos removal, to air conditioning maintenance. They may also be vulnerable, and pose risks. With construction output reported at a 17-month high in May by The Markit/ CIPS UK Construction PMI, use of contractors looks set to increase. The future for industry growth appears positive, and with potentially more sites, locations and contractors to manage than ever before, fundamental control procedures have never been more important.
Every element of the contractor journey to site to carry out works must be monitored and recorded. It involves:
• Ensuring the right people, with the fitting competencies, training qualifications and documented insurance/certifications are on site and have completed necessary inductions
• Making sure that all contractors are fully equipped to complete the job in the location specified and that this is supported with all necessary RAMS (risk assessments and method statements) documentation, proving that they can conduct the work safely
This process is daunting, and there is a considerable amount of preparation work involved. This is why control should be put firmly back with the contractor’s company or individual, making it compulsory
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