WORKING AT HEIGHT FORWARD PLANNING
According to the Office of National Statistics, construction enjoyed a record high in March after five consecutive months of growth. This will be evident to anyone who has recently visited their local city: walk along any main street, and you’ll be greeted
(seemingly at every corner) by scaffolding, cranes, and
barriers – all signs that cities are determined to rival London as hives of finance, research, and media activity.
This sector growth, however, comes with a caveat: keep safety measures under regular review. The latest fatal accident statistics from the Health & Safety Executive (2020/21), have shown that, for the first time in recent memory, the construction sector is the leading industry for deaths at work. Overall, there were 142 people killed at work, and the most common cause of death - accounting for 39 fatalities - was falls from height.
As a result of this data, the HSE will no doubt have renewed focus on working at height, particularly in the construction sector as the leading industry for workplace deaths. Furthermore, although legislation, such as the Work at Height Regulations 2005, has helped to raise awareness of the risks inherent in such work - particularly when it involves ladders and / or fragile roofs – a dormant lockdown period for construction sites across the UK may explain why construction has moved into top position for fatal accidents.
While it’s not possible to remove all the risks of working at height, one can reduce or mitigate them through proactive measures such as competency checks and training, ensuring equipment is safe, and following HSE guidance, such as INDG401. With most sites working to tight deadlines and stretched budgets, however, it’s likely that many will be using policies and procedures that are more than a year old - at least. They may even have forgotten the importance of regular review for all work at height procedures altogether. The HSE are always on the lookout for generic risk assessments. The older your safety procedures, therefore, the more likely you are to encounter risk, prosecution, and, ultimately, injury to your workers.
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Construction work is picking up post-Covid, but will this also mean an increase in the number of injuries and fatalities caused by working at height? Not necessarily, says Gateley Legal’s Chris Grainger, but only if your risk assessment is fit for purpose.
As well as impacting lives, accidents are expensive, delay project work and cause irreparable damage to a contractor or company’s reputation. There has also been a noticeable increase in the number of site visits from the HSE and Local Authorities recently, the result of which could be a Prohibition or Stop Notice for sites that fail to demonstrate a proactive approach to the health, safety and wellbeing of their workers.
All is not lost, however. As work resumes, now is a good time to review your policies and procedures to make sure they are relevant. This starts with the catch-all document for every aspect of your site – the risk assessment.
A LIVING DOCUMENT A risk assessment is a living document. This means that it needs to be reviewed, amended, and updated constantly. If you have identified that a certain type of ladder is not suitable for a job, then your risk assessment needs to be changed to reflect this, along with any actions you might take. Will you change the type of ladder that you use? Will you require a certain level of competency for that task? Will you take measures to secure any new ladders to the work area?
Your risk assessment also needs to include evidence of good practice, whether that’s method statements, training records or inspections. Crucially it needs to be site/task specific. These are particularly important right now, considering your work force may be out of practice, and certain types of personal protective equipment (PPE) or machinery may have deteriorated while in storage.
JUST THE JOB Risk assessments aren’t pretty documents that are whipped out only when the HSE visits. They need to be the cornerstone of everything you do and engaged with by everyone on your site.
For peace of mind, consider outsourcing your risk assessments to a specialist. As well as benefitting from dedicated expertise and support, you have an extra pair of eyes to spot things you may have missed. A specialist can also help to disseminate your risk assessment, by providing training to staff and visitors, where required. This ensures a greater level of awareness, consistency, and efficiency across your site, as well as more proactive engagement with the risk assessment by all stakeholders.
https://gateleyplc.com/services/risk-crisis-response/
www.tomorrowshs.com
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