NEWS - WORKING AT HEIGHT - 30.01.2006

It’s only a quick job

Here to stay

Working at height is an issue which simply isn’t going to go away. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have stated that they will be continuing to focus on it as one of their prime enforcement targets. The reason is that they’re continuing to find poor standards during their inspections and accidents are still occurring. A source at the HSE has informed us that the bigger projects and more in-depth works are getting better, but where they find most problems are in the smaller operations and in short-duration, out of the ordinary works.

When it all goes wrong

A 22-year-old worker sustained serious injuries, including a crushed vertebrae and fractured pelvis after he fell 3.5m from a makeshift platform erected between two racking units in a warehouse. He was working out of normal hours with three temporary workers. In court the company was fined a total of £40,000 with costs of £2,376 and also told to pay the injured man £5,000 in compensation. According to the HSE, the works hadn’t been planned or supervised properly, which justified the harsh fines.

What they’ll be looking for

The key thing will be that you have assessed the risks of the operation and from that assessment, have identified suitable and sufficient controls to reduce them. They won’t be looking for you to remove all the risks, as by the nature of the works there will always be a residual risk when working at height.

Tip. Don’t forget to consider those who aren’t directly involved in the works, as dropping something or putting ladders or steps in front of doors etc., are common causes of incidents. If you do carry out works out of hours, make sure you have sufficient supervision to ensure your systems are followed.

Evidence of systems

Your assessment process should be kept as simple as possible; the last thing you want is it taking an hour to do a risk assessment for works which are only going to take five minutes to complete. Consistency is also something you should try and achieve. Firstly, so that those who carry out the works are completely aware of what they should be doing and secondly, so that you have evidence, just in case there’s an accident and you need to prove you have systems to manage it. The best way of doing this is to have a standard check sheet for carrying out works (it only takes a few minutes to complete). The intention of the sheet is that by working through it, an experienced person can eliminate and manage hazards that could cause an accident. This covers the requirement for a risk assessment, and also states what controls need to be implemented to ensure the works can be completed safely.

Tip. Complete the check sheet so it covers a scenario. Create a number of pro-forma sheets for different types of works to save completing one from scratch every time. It can then be finished off and any additional controls added if the supervisor deems them necessary.

For a free working at height check sheet visit http://healthandsafety.indicator.co.uk (HS 04.09.04.