Working At Heights E-Learning

Working at heights within business remains one of the biggest causes of major injuries and fatalities. The most common causes include falls from ladders and through weak surfaces.

The definition of ‘Work at height’ is working anywhere, if there were no measures in place, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury (for example a fall off a ladder when you are working on a roof).

What do I have to do?

As an employer you have the responsibility of ensuring that all work carried out by your employees has been carefully planned looking at the risks involved. These should then be measured using a risk assessment to ensure that you are doing everything possible to manage the risk by adopting the avoid, prevent and minimise rule.

Where possible you should introduce equipment that minimise the risk you personnel ensuring everyone is kept as safe as possible.

Dos and don’ts of working at height

Do….

• Ensure that when working at height their is a safe route to and from ground level
• try to do as much of the work required from ground level
• ensure all equipment is suitable and maintained
• ensure extra precautions are taken when working near weak surfaces

Don’t…

• overload ladders refer to all mechanical information that is provided to ensure the machinery if fit for purpose
• overreach on ladders or stepladders
• rest a ladder against weak surfaces, eg glazing or plastic gutters
• use ladders or stepladders for strenuous or heavy tasks, only use them for light work of short duration (a maximum of 30 minutes at a time)

If you are looking for information on Working At Heights E-Learning and providing training for your staff we can help.

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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.

5 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.

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

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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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Howarth Timber, the UK’s biggest privately owned  timber organization, has been requested to pay more than £100,000 in fines and expenses after a worker died when he fell through a delicate rooftop at one of the organization’s sites.

The roofer Howarth employed to fix a leak has likewise been fined and gave a suspended jail sentence for his part in the occurrence.

Andrew Ward was working for roofer Paul Hardy, trading as Hardy Construction, at Howarth’s site in Bruce Grove, Tottenham, London on 22 May 2012. He died after falling more than eight meters through a fragile cement roof.

Howarth had hired Hardy to fix the roof but failed to check he was competent and did not conduct his own risk assessment for the job.

Hardy failed to plan the work properly and had no risk assessment or method statement. There was no safe access to the roof. The scaffold tower he provided had been erected incorrectly and he failed to provide a safe working platform.

Paul Hardy, of Grosvenor Road Belvedere, Kent, admitted breaching Section 3(2) of the Health and Safety Work Act. On 18^th May at Southwark Crown Court, he was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for 12 months, fined £3000 and told to pay costs of £11,756.

Howarth Timber Building supplies was fined £93,750 and ordered to pay full costs of £12,580 after it admitted breaching Section 3(1) of the Act.

“The work here should  ideally have been undertaken without the need to directly access the roof, for example by using mobile elevated working platform or, if that was not possible , with safety measures to minimise the risk of falling such as netting, crawling boards and fall arrest harnesses,” said HSE Inspector Chris Tilley.

Safety is very important to us so we are offering a FREE Working at Height Risk Assessment for you to download instantly & use in your business today.

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In May 2015 the HSE reported on 44 cases involving companies that were found negligent resulting in average fines of £10k per company.

The latest case being a property company in Lancashire who have been fined £14,400 plus full HSE prosecution costs of £1,276 and a victim surcharge of £200. They failed to protect their employee whilst working at height.

45% of deaths (19 of 42) in Britain on Construction Sites last year were as a result of falls from height and 581 workers suffered major injuries (35% of the total).

We are making a conscious effort to make sure all companies big or small are aware of the risks involved in working at heights.

If you need an up to date Risk Assessment and Method Statement we are offering a free download.

The HSE offer comprehensive guidance and information free of charge to download  http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/index.htm so that all companies have the resources available to them to ensure they comply.

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