HEALTH & SAFETY
‘Working at Height’ is defined in The Work at Height Regulations 2005 as ‘any work undertaken in any place above, at, or below, ground level, from which, if measures were not taken, a person could fall a distance liable to cause injury’.
elements should be considered in relation to a Work at height Emergency and Rescue Plan?
n Training Those who are involved in the execution of the Emergency and Rescue plan should be competent, and will need appropriate training in order to fulfil their role. Most times this will mean that those performing the work will also need to be trained, and will be ‘self-sufficient’ in terms of emergencies and rescue. There are plenty of training providers who can teach rooftop safety and casualty extraction courses, for example. For extreme circumstances where there is high-risk work being undertaken, or where the location requires it, it is not uncommon to see organisations contract in a dedicated specialist, highly trained, rescue service, much like you would see for Confined Spaces work. Whatever the level of risk, and whichever training you decide is suitable, it should be listed in the Emergency and Rescue Plan, and individuals should be checked for competency and currency, i.e. is their training still in date, before the work commences.
n Equipment It is important that the correct equipment is identified and procured in order to enable workers to carry out the Emergency and Rescue Plan if needed. This will require an assessment of the work being undertaken, and the location of the work, to ensure that the equipment selected will be suitable. Training will normally have a bearing on which equipment you go for, as the equipment procured will need to be something that
Regulation 4 of the WaHR 2005, ‘Organisation and planning’, states that ‘every employer shall ensure that all work at height is properly planned, appropriately supervised, and carried out in a manner which is as safe as is reasonably practicable’.
people are familiar with, and quite often the manufacturer’s instructions will dictate that this type of equipment requires formal training before its use, so it’s always worth asking a training provider for their advice when it comes to sourcing equipment. Once equipment has been sourced, then it will need to be properly inspected, maintained, and stored, in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.
n First aid The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require employers to provide adequate and appropriate equipment, facilities, and personnel (via training) to ensure that their employees receive immediate attention if they are injured or taken ill at work. What is ‘adequate and appropriate’ will depend on the circumstances – including the location and the nature of the work. This will require a risk assessment to determine the specific requirements for your organisation. The trap that many fall into here is that
they arrange a standard one- or three-day training course for everyone across the board, and hope that this will be sufficient (often it will be sufficient for office-type work). Remember that the training should be relevant to the location and nature of the work; we should be cognisant of what the foreseeable injuries may be, and then we can plan to deal with those injuries. In the context of work at height,
the foreseeable injuries may include (depending on the location and nature of the work) one or more of the following: n Suspension intolerance. n Hypothermia and Hyperthermia. n Radio Frequency (RF) burns (exposure to high RF fields and contact burns). n Unconsciousness and impact trauma.
n Fractures (closed or open) and dislocations.
n Open wounds and serious bleeding. n Spinal cord injury. n Impaling. n Electric shock.
Now, you may be thinking that a one-day or three-day standard first aid course does not necessarily cover all of those foreseeable injuries, and you would be right. So, what are the options? In fact there are plenty of specialist training providers who can provide bespoke first aid training, and there are even specific work at height first aid courses available. Your Emergency and Rescue Plan
should include fully comprehensive first aid arrangements that ensure that any injury can be dealt with in a timely and efficient manner. Remember, you cannot rely solely on the emergency services; this includes hoping that a paramedic or ambulance crew will put themselves at risk to go up onto a roof to treat someone – they may refuse if they think it is unsafe.
n Communication It seems like an obvious thing to ensure that we communicate correctly, but unfortunately, we don’t tend to be very good at this. There is always an assumption that if there is a problem, then it will get resolved. It is an assumption, however, that has a habit of catching us out. There should be measures in place to enable those performing the work to communicate to others (e.g. permit issuers and site security), and vice versa. From this communication we can then initiate rescue or evacuation procedures, or we can summon further help if required. The
August 2024 Health Estate Journal 47
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