Working at Height
There are many accidents and incidents that occur when people work at height. These accidents and incidents year on year account for the largest percentage of recorded accidents at work. Despite this being the case for many years and there are many reasons why this happens. They can be largely broken down into the following categories, bad management, bad planning, incompetence and in certain cases sheer bravado.
How many small businesses, particularly sole traders have the “I can do” attitude? Workers are up a ladder, standing on a chair or some other unsuitable surface because they want to fix something quickly.
This happens within various other organisations too when the job is “not dangerous”, so there is no risk assessment and no checks made that the ladder, step-stool, chair or anything else is suitable and safe. Little or no protective equipment is used and in many cases this can best be described as an accident waiting to happen. Many people simply underestimate the height at which you can have an accident that can cause injury.
More people die as a result of a falling from height incident than from any other recorded incidents of death in the workplace. Something needs to be done! We should be wary of those who say that they have been “doing this for years”. We should not exploit foreign workers who presume that they will lose their jobs if they do not do what they are told. But most importantly we must plan the jobs we do at height, we must assess the risks and we must train people to work at height and get the numbers of accidents and incidents down!
We suggest that anyone wanting to improve their competence of working at height or those businesses that employ people to work at height take the following online training course found at this link: https://westminstercompliance.co.uk/e-learning/working-at-height/
For those who need numbers of staff trained we also offer face to face training. If you have a questions or need to contact us please email info@westminstercompliance.co.uk or call 0203 411 7888
About Us
Westminster Compliance was established to provide a more personal, proactive health and safety consultancy that would keep businesses working and compliant with ever-changing legislation.
Our presentations and training are interesting and fun because we want our clients to buy into health and safety, and definitely not to see it as a boring, unnecessary nuisance. We know that our best service is provided to small and medium sized organisations and have developed a system that works in most industries.
We stick with straightforward language, keeping away from jargon, and do not make ridiculous promises. Most importantly, we realise that we are working with human beings.
