Falls from Height

Learn the strategies preventing falls from height. Falls from height continues to be the largest causes of major injuries and fatalities.  About 4000 working at height-related accidents occur each year at work and the most common cases are falls from ladders and through fragile services. Alarmingly, two thirds of all major injuries at work are caused by ‘low falls’ A low fall is a fall from a height below 2 metres.  A high fall is a fall from a height of more than 2 metres.

Top Tips for Preventing Falls from Height:

1. As with all work activities, a suitable and sufficient risk assessment is key to preventing falls from height. The planned activity and location should also be assessed immediately before work takes place, in case there have been any changes since the original assessment took place. The above case is a good example, in terms of missing panels that had not been put back following previous works.
2. All parties involved should be made aware of the findings of the risk assessment, so there needs to be procedures in place to ensure good communication of the hazards, control measures and any changes to the planned works.
3. In terms of control measures, eliminating the need to work at height is usually the best option. However, in reality, that isn’t always possible. Use suitable work equipment such as a working platform, or an existing safe area with a permanent guardrail, and make sure workers can reach it safely.
4. All works should be supervised, and the job undertaken by competent staff. Assessing someone’s competency would include looking at their experience, knowledge and skillset, as well as their qualifications.
5. Consider both personal and collective measures to minimise the distance and consequences of a fall, where some risk does remain, such as fall arrest equipment or safety nets.

Most falls from height can be prevented, by ensuring proper planning of the work and by selecting the right equipment for the job. When equipment is not suitable, it can lead to workers finding other ways to complete the job, which can have fatal consequences.

Working at heights training course

If you are still unsure and would like to look at refreshing your knowledge we offer an working at height e-learning course for you to sit whenever is convenient for you.

You can download HSE’s Working at Height Brief Guide Here

What is a risk assessment

A risk assessment is to enable you to identify sensible control and measures for risks within your workplace.

Risk Assessments are not meant to create huge amounts of work for anyone in the company but should be there to ensure the safety of you and your workforce. You are likely to already have a process in place to identify risks and how they should be dealt with. A risk assessment is just a document to have all the information in one place.

How to assess the risks in your place of work:

• Identify the hazards
• Decide who might be harmed and how
• Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions
• Record your significant findings
• Review your assessment and update if necessary

Many companies who are confident they understand the process and the risks involved can complete these themselves. You don’t have to be a H&S expert.

When thinking about your risk assessment, remember:

• A hazard is something that could cause harm, for example electricity, chemicals, working from ladders, an open drawer etc
• The risk is the probability, high or low, that somebody could be harmed by these and other hazards, together with an indication of how serious the harm could be

The process of identifying hazards and evaluating the risks can be delivered systematically using well-established templates and the knowledge of people with hands-on experience. 

We have several risk assessments available to buy. The cost of one of our risk and method statements is less than half an hour of your writing time.

They have taken us more than a day to write each one; however, we sell many, making them very affordable.

The documents arrive in word format to allow you to adjust them to suit your site and circumstances.

Why not see our layout below to see if it is something you could work with.

Risk assessments to buy

Covid 19 Risk Assessment & Method Statement

Infection Control Risk Assessment & Method Statement

Litter Picking and Sweeping Risk Assessment & Method Statement

Mobile Tower Scaffold Safe Operating Procedure

Review more risk and method statements

Top Tips for Manual Handing

Did you know Manual handling causes over a third of all workplace injuries?

Top Tips for Manual Handling. These injuries can include pain and injuries to arms, legs and joints, and repetitive strain injuries of all varieties.

Manual handling covers a wide variety of activities including lifting, pushing, pulling, lowering and carrying. If any of these tasks are not carried out correctly there is a risk of injury.

Here are the top tips to make sure you ensure you handle correctly:

• Keep your back straight and bend your knees.
• Lift with your legs and body weight.
• Use handles or lift aids where appropriate.
• Have a good grip on the load.
• Stand close to the load and face the direction you intend to move.
• Lift load as close to the center of your body as possible.
• Lift smoothly without Jerking.
• Avoid lifting, side bending and carrying loads with one hand.

If you need any help with Manual Handling why not visit our site:

Manual Handling Elearning

Manual Handling Training Presentation 

Manual Handling Risk Assessment

More top tips for manual handling can be discovered in our training programs.

Construction Site Safety Documents

Setting up a construction site and making sure that you have all the necessary documentation and details can be a laborious and time consuming task. Specialising in Construction and having experience on site we have been providing information to our clients for a number of years.

Based on the frequency we were asked to provide the details we decided to provide them as a product to help everyone who may need it.

Our Construction Site Safety Documents provide you with everything you need in one place allowing you to comply with the latest legislation.

The Safety Software includes

• 65 completed risk assessments
• 41 COSHH Assessments
• Construction Phase Health and Safety Plan (CDM 2015), which can be easily amended and edited for specific projects
• 70 Toolbox Talks
• Site inspection Check Sheets – Scaffold, Dumper, Excavator etc
• Permits to Work – Confined Space, Excavation, Hot Work, Asbestos, etc
• Site Setup Check Sheet
• Site Induction
• Site Rules
• Registers

STOP AND THINK

Our site management tools where designed to set up our own site many years ago. We put the files onto a laptop for our site managers. It saved us a fortune over the years both in time and money. The purchase of this site management toolkit is a great investment. Click on the link to buy.

Construction site safety documents and tools

 

SSIP Accreditation and CHAS

Have you recently been asked for an SSIP accreditation?

SSIP Accreditation and CHAS – SSIP (Safety Schemes in Procurement) is an umbrella group which sits above a number of accreditations you can get which assess your companies Health & Safety. There are a number of assessments you can go for and we have highlighted the most popular ones below:

• Acclaim
• Altius VA
• APS Corporate Membership
• ARB Approved Contractor
• Avetta (Formerly PICS Auditing)
• Builders Profile
• ConstructionLine
• BESA H&S Assessment
• BCSA
• CHAS
• CQMS Safety-Scheme
• DW H&S
• Eurosafe CDM Competent
• Exor H&S Qualified
• FASET
• Greenlight
• HSAS
• Laing O’Rourke
• MSL Safepartner
• NAS
• NASSH
• NHBC
• PQS
• Safemark Principal Safety (PASS)
• Safe-T-Cert
• Safe Contractor
• SMAS
• Worksafe
• OHSAS 18001 (schemes are listed on the site)

CHAS

The majority of our clients go for CHAS accreditation as this seems to be the popular one within the industry. CHAS have recently gone online with their submissions so customers can upload their documentation and then pay for the assessments once they are ready to submit.

This makes it easier for customers to see progress and communicate with their assessor.

If you are looking to get CHAS accreditation but are having trouble with the necessary documentation we can help with the preparation of these, we also provide a safety advisor service for companies with less than 5 employees so we can stay with you and help to implement the new documentation.

Impartial advise

Feel free to call us 0800 031 5404, and we can advise you on the best selection for your needs. We have completed thousands of applications and understand the market inside out. We don’t mind which company you select; the assessment process is the same, thanks to SSIP.

Who is Seguro

Seguro Health and Safety Management employs qualified health and safety consultants who complete the application to obtain accreditation from all the assessment companies. Seguro removes the pain of completing all the documentation and ensuring you comply. Feel free to contact us.

Learn more about CHAS

We have a series of articles where you can learn more about CHAS. The list of articles is below:

• What is CHAS
• CHAS accreditations
• CHAS registration
• Guide to CHAS
• CHAS renewal
• CHAS accreditation cost
• CHAS assessment criteria
• CHAS deem to satisfy
• CHAS Training Guidance
• Competent person and CHAS
• CHAS support

If you have any questions on what is CHAS accreditation please get in touch.

Working at heights course

Working in the construction industry can make it difficult to avoid working at heights on a daily basis our working at heights course addresses this issue. Although it may not be possible to avoid the risk you can ensure that you manage it by being aware of how to work safely.

Working at height safely is the responsibly of your employer as well as yourself. You should always be aware of the risks and ensure these are managed correctly. Every new job you are asked to work on will have been fully risk assessed and you should see a copy of this before you start. These risks have been measured on the sequence of events you are working too, if these change you need to be aware of what to look out for to ensure your safety.

1. Where possible try to use extendable tools or mechanical assistance to avoid you working at height.
2. Try to identify a safe place to work that is already in place, e.g  a concrete flat roof or guarded mezzanine floor.
3. Never work on a surface that is vulnerable such as glass roof. If this is not possible explore the use of machinery such as  an elevated work platform or a tower scaffold.
4. Try and minimise the distance of a possible fall, there are numerous ways to do this safely
5. For jobs requiring a small distance form the ground, Stepladders and Platform Ladders are a suitable option. These can only be used where the risk has been deemed as low.

Working at heights training course

If you are still unsure and would like to look at refreshing your knowledge we offer an e-learning course for you to sit whenever is convenient for you.

Constructionline is the largest pre-qualification database in the UK

Being a member of Constructionline can be beneficial for all sized companies you just need to know what you want to get out of it to make sure it can deliver an ROI for your company.  Constructionline is used by the big contractors and public bodies to pre qualify your business and your ability to carry out a project in terms of financials as well as operational process including Health & Safety.

Constructionline has  over 8,000 key decision makers from over 2,000 buying organisations. They  use Constructionline to select quality suppliers so constructionline can be a great tool to promote your services and gain new work opportunities.

1. Will being registered on Constructionline guarantee me to get work?

Constructionline’s primary objective is to streamline the tender process and cut down on duplicated work for everyone involved.  The aim is to reduce the amount of paperwork you face at the tender stage. Constructionline cannot guarantee that you will win contracts as a result of your membership. Although having your details available to over 8,000 buyers, being a member can act as a sales and marketing tool for your business. Constructionline is widely recognised within the construction industry and meeting their criteria can only be seen as a good thing.

2. Can I check which buyers have viewed my company details?

You can see a full history of your views, click on the Log In button in the top right hand corner of this page. Enter your user name and password. Select the Reports tab and the report you require. Enter the Date From and Date To dates and select Run Report. Either print the report or save it to your desktop.

3. Will buyers be interested in my company if I register as i am only a small contractor?

Alot more buyers are looking for small, local contractors to employ because they are keen to re-invest in the local communities. The Constructionline system itself enables buyers to put in fairly complex search criteria so they are able to specify what size of company they would prefer to use. Therefore, if you are a small company it would be a great asset to join Constructionline and already, over 50% of our contractors are suppliers with a turnover of less than £1 million and 29% have a turnover of less than £250,000.

4. How much does it cost to register with Constructionline?

Constructionline is free to procurers. Suppliers pay an annual fee based on their turnover. Fees start at £90 plus VAT and you can register for an unlimited number of work categories and work locations.

5.Why does Constructionline need to charge fees?

Sir Michael Latham’s report Constructing the Team recommended that the service be self-funding in order to give it the financial resources to develop and grow into a single register.

We hope this help you to make the business decision that is right for you.

If you need any help in submitting your Constructionline application let us know.

Looking for CHAS renewal forms?

CHAS adopt the same system for their renewals as they do for new registrations, all registrations are now online and you can register on CHAS website. When you go to the website you will be given the following options at the top of the right hand side of the screen:

• Renew
• Apply
• Login

If you click on renew you will be taken to a log in screen where you are required to add email address and password. There is a forgot password option if you have forgotten the details you used last year. If you don’t have the same email address you will need to call CHAS on 0208 545 3838 and they will help you.

Once you have logged in, you will be able to complete your CHAS renewal application online and once complete you can submit for assessment.

STOP THINK

There is a quick way to get your CHAS renewed. We renew over 1,000 CHAS application per year, we can do it for you CALL 0800 031 5404 during office hours or complete the form on this link telling us you are looking for a CHAS renewal.

CHAS renewal costs

CHAS offers three membership packages with different levels of accreditation:

CHAS Standard

The entry-level package includes a health and safety assessment and SSIP accreditation. CHAS membership fees

CHAS Advanced

The mid-range package includes all the Standard package benefits, plus helps you achieve SSIP and PAS 91 accreditation. CHAS membership fees

CHAS Elite

The highest level of accreditation includes all the benefits of the other packages, plus access to the Common Assessment Standard. CHAS membership fees

Learn more about CHAS

We have a series of articles where you can learn more about CHAS. The list of articles is below:

• What is CHAS
• CHAS accreditations
• CHAS registration
• Guide to CHAS
• CHAS accreditation cost
• SIPP accreditation and CHAS
• CHAS assessment criteria
• CHAS deem to satisfy
• CHAS Training Guidance
• Competent person and CHAS
• CHAS support

If you have any questions on what is CHAS accreditation please get in touch.