Health and Safety is important in all aspects of the working environment. The construction industry in particular has suffered from a bad reputation for its health and safety record, and although huge improvements have been made in recent years, the Health and Safety Executive, (HSE), continues its strong drive to bring more companies into line with current legislation and recognised industry best practice.  The foundation of the construction industry is based on the numerous small building companies that exist, and it is these businesses that can make an enormous contribution to the overall standard of health and safety by implementing proven safe working practices on site.

As of the 12th September there were some very significant changes in terms of incident reporting at the HSE. We Quote “Only fatal and major injuries and incidents will be able to be reported by phone to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), with all other work-related injuries and incidents reportable under RIDDOR (see notes to editors) to be reported via one of a suite of seven online forms available on HSE's website.”

If you are a small builder, the Health and Safety Executive’s website will keep you up to date and informed about all the aspects of safe working practices advising you:

• The steps that you need to take
• The information that you must be aware of
• How to manage hazards and risks relating to  your workforce, your client, and the general public
•  How to ensure your workforce are aware of, and prepared to champion safe practice
• Interacting with the owner of the premises
• How to seek out any further information to enhance best practice

The Steps You Need to Take

As a small builder responsible for small and medium sized commercial projects, (including repair and refurbishment work over a period of up to 30 working days), and private commissions  in private homes, (including  extensions, repairs and refurbishments),  legislation states that you must:

• Mitigate for Risks and hazards : Be aware of all potential hazards and risks that can arise during the scope of works that you and your workforce carry out,  and mitigate accordingly to ensure that any such works are executed is a safe manner.
• Empowering your workforce with knowledge:  Your workforce have a duty of care to themselves, their fellow workers, the client and the public. Management must ensure that the all operatives are completely au-fait with all aspects of health and safety that impact in these areas, in order that best practice can be observed at all times.
• Working closely with your client to promote health and safety on site:  Any business client that you work with is legally obliged to facilitate best practice in matters of mitigating hazard or risk, so you must work closely with them to promote the safe welfare of all persons on site. You must also work and liaise closely with any home owner to promote safe practice.

The Information You Must Be Aware of

The great majority of fatalities in the construction industry arena occur on small building projects which often take place in existing homes and work place environments. You must:

• Only undertake projects where you have sufficient training to complete all aspects of the scope of works in a safe manner.  Your site manager is totally responsible for all aspects of health and safety on site but ultimate responsibility rests with the owner of the business. You must be totally aware.
• Every member of the workforce on site must be fully trained in all aspects of the work that he or she will undertake. It is the site manager’s responsibility to ensure that only operatives with appropriate training are used.
• Most fatalities occur in relation to: ladder accidents; collapse of, and falls from scaffolding; collapse of, and falls from temporary work platforms; working on roofs and near roof edging.

How to manage building hazards and risks relating to your worksite, workforce, your client, and the general public

Under the auspices of the CDM (Construction Design and Management) regulations, the small builder is recognised as the contractor, and as a contractor you are responsible for:

• All Matters of Planning: It is your sole responsibility to ensure that you formulate all of your plans and scopes of work in a manner that promotes the health and safety of all persons on site by using best practice techniques, that you oversee them at all times, and that your regulate them continuously.
• The Specifying of Lead Times:  When you employ sub-contractors, it is your duty to advise them of the least amount of time they will be afforded for the purposes of carrying out planning and preparation work.  This is to help to ensure that any such sub-contractors are themselves totally aware of their own duty of care and that this is built in to their scopes of works.
• Limiting Access to Site: One of the most common forms of accident involves unauthorised members of the public who gain unauthorised access to site. It is therefore of prime importance that access is not only limited to authorised personnel only,  but that non-authorised persons are prevented from gaining access.
• Providing Welfare Back-up:  Whilst the likelihood of accidents occurring is managed in an appropriate way, you must also that a welfare facility is always present on site in order to deal with any unforeseen accidents that may occur. This is to concur with accepted industry best practice.
• The welfare facility must also take into account the possibility of members of the public having an accident on site. Best health and safety rules dictate restricted access, removal of hazards from falling objects, tools left unattended, and unprotected electricity feeds or unmanaged plant, but industry best practice also requires the provision of a fall-back welfare facility as an extra safety precaution.

How to ensure your workforce are aware of, and prepared to champion safe practice

Interacting with the owner of the premises or building site is vital. It is a legal requirement that all commercial property owners must establish that the building company will plan and execute any works in a safe manner. However this does not in any way lessen the responsibility of the building contractor. In the case of private dwelling owners, they are not legally obliged to discharge any duties regarding health and safety. It is therefore of key importance that the building contractor fully exercises their duty of care to ensure that any residents are not endangered in any way during the scope of the works.

It is incumbent on any small building company to ensure that all employees that carry out physical work on building sites are not only fully trained, but are also fully informed regarding health and safety issues. Best practice dictates that no one should be allowed on a building site without first attending a health and safety induction. The induction must cover:

• Hazards and hazard avoidance procedures
• Site rules and regulations
• Emergency procedures and contingencies

How to seek out any further information to enhance best practice

There are a number of publications that are available to inform and provide supplemental information on health and safety matters on building sites. These include:

• Managing a small building site
• Manual handing procedures and risk assessments
• Roof top working
• Traffic management
• Welfare

For further information and tips on matters relating to small building companies implementing safe working practices, please revisit FairTrades regularly. We will try point you in the right direction so that you know where to look for more in-depth details.