Construction Phase Plan

Know your responsibilities

As potential Contractors under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, you need to be aware of your responsibilities. The CDM Regulations require all construction projects to have a construction phase plan (CPP), you will need to ensure this is in place before any works commence.

You will need to produce a construction phase plan describing how you will manage the various safety aspects of the works. The Managing Director in conjunction with the Supervisor shall be responsible for the preparation and maintenance of secured contracts Health and Safety documentation. The Site Supervisor shall co-ordinate the activities of all operatives to ensure they comply with the construction phase plan including contract Health and Safety requirements and legislation, plus check on the provisions of information and training of all employees, where appropriate, as well as subcontractor’s health and safety, when appointed.

When/if acting as Principal Contractor the following protocol will be adopted:

• Develop and maintain a Construction Phase Plan as required by The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015
• Through on-site management ensure that every contractor complies with the rules set out in the health and safety plan.
• Ensure co-operation between all contractors;
• Taken steps to ensure that only authorised persons are allowed onto the construction site area.
• Ensure that the particulars of the F10 Notification are displayed in a prominent location on the site where they can be read by any person working on the project;
• Keep the up-to-date with any information required to go into the health and safety file;
• Oversee and ensure compliance with Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER).
• Monitor and ensure all work is carried out in accordance with approved/agreed Risk Assessments and Method Statements and ensure that staff and sub-contractors are appropriately qualified/certified to carry out the work;
• Undertake regular site inspection and feed forward to regular toolbox talks with contract staff and sub-contractors.
• Manage the interface between the construction and the site operations to ensure minimum disruption to operations.

If your looking for help with the Construction Phase Plan and purchasing templates get in touch

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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

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Top Tips for Manual Handing

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

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

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What documents are needed for CHAS?

CHAS is an assessment of your Health & Safety documentation, so you will need to provide evidence that this is carried out correctly. Depending on the size of your business depends on the information you need to provide. The details below are for 5 employees or less you will need more for 5+ employees.

Examples of documentation needed will include:

• Toolbox Talks attendance sheets
• COSHH assessments
• Risk Assessment and Method Statement for job specifics
• Sub contractor induction documentation
• Agreements to show evidence of your safety advisor.
• COVID 19 procedures and processes
• Evidence of training requirement for your industry this can include:
  • CSCS cards
  • Manual Handling
  • Working at heights
  • Asbestos awareness
  • Abrasive Wheel Training

This is not an exhaustive list as each industry will require different information. The assessment is based purely on the documentation you provide so you must be 100% confident with everything you submit.

If you are unsure if you have all the documentation in place there are consultants who can help you. If you would like some advice please get in touch.

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What is Safe Contractor?

Have you been asked for Safe Contractor?

Safe Contractor is a Health & Safety accreditation that is currently run by the government. The Scheme is to ensure companies meet a specific standard for Health & Safety. Safe Contractor is used by thousands of consultants, contractors and businesses every month, typically applying for work with public and private sector companies.

The Safe contractor scheme was developed and is managed by the Government Health and Safety and Procurement Professionals, with the support of the Health and Safety Executive, since 1999. The purpose of the scheme is to ensure that buyers who are signed up have the knowledge that suppliers that use in the scheme are competent and have been assessed.

Suppliers health and safety policy statement, their organisation and how it deals with health and safety and their specific health and safety arrangements will be assessed. As everyone is assessed using the same process buyers know that they are using suppliers who, work to an acceptable standard.

Safe Contractor and suppliers

• Avoids repeated applications
• Consistent Health & Safety assessment
• Access to local authority suppliers
• Saves time and money for all parties.

Safe Contractor and Buyers

• Safe Contractor membership allows access to health trusts, councils, emergency services, the voluntary sector, housing associations, private companies and government departments.
• To locate competent suppliers and contractors,
• Potentially saving time and money for all parties.
• Buyers are afforded peace of mind

What does Safe Contractor assess?

• Assesses health and Safety Management
• Assess compliance issues that apply to work undertaken by you.

If your looking to gain Safe Contractor you can go direct to their site and complete the application yourself, or if your looking for some help in completing the forms we can help you.

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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

If your think that this could help you why not take a look.

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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.

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5 Top tips for working at height

Working in the construction industry can make it difficult to avoid working at heights on a  daily basis. 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.

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.

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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.

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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.

If you need any help with your CHAS renewal once you have started the process, let us know and we will be happy to assist.

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