Consultancy
Organisations are required by law to produce a written Safety Policy and to make arrangements to ensure employees, visiting contractors and third parties (e.g. visitors and/or neighbours) are protected from unsafe conditions or unsafe acts (hazards) resulting from their undertakings. As the UK’s number one safety at height specialist HCL Safety regularly works in collaboration with organisations to help them meet their legal obligations by developing safe systems of work.
The hazards associated with persons working at height are not always obvious and it is for this reason that a risk assessment must be undertaken by a competent person, i.e. someone with sufficient knowledge, experience and ability. “Competent” is a much overused description; to help equip HCL Safety senior managers are encouraged to take NEBOSH courses and exams and become members of IOSH.
HCL Safety can carry out an individual risk assessment in relation to the totality of hazards in a particular workspace or to particular work activities or specific height safety equipment (for general information refer to HSE guidance leaflet INDG163(rev2)).
HCL Safety adopts the following structured hierarchical approach to protecting persons from hazards
- Eliminate / Substitute
- Changing work methods
- Changing work patterns
- Isolation / Segregation
- Engineering control measures
- Personal Protective Equipment
- “STOP!!”
As part of any arrangement, HCL Safety can help clients reduce the risk of an accident or incident by providing adequate information, instruction and training to employees working at height, a legal requirement for every organisation (HASWA 1974 S2(2)(c)).
Clients are legally required to provide method statements for work-related activities. Particularly hazardous operations require special precautions and therefore safe systems of work may require a permit-to-work system to be adopted as part of its overall systematic control of risk. Working closely with the client HCL Safety can use its expert at-height knowledge and experience to ensure that method statements and permits-to-work systems are both suitable and sufficient.
In many circumstances it is often necessary for engineering control measures to be implemented and / or personal protective equipment to be issued. HCL Safety has unrivalled experience, installing and maintaining over 2500 individual fall protection solutions per year, and is best placed to assist clients in determining the best-fit solution.