The HSE reported that, in the period of 2016/17-2020/21, falls from height accounted for 25% of all worker deaths - with 50% of falls in 2021 occurring in the construction sector.
Regardless of the height you’re working at, falling from any height can easily cause serious injury or even death. It’s your responsibility as an employer or dutyholder to do as much as is reasonably practicable to reduce risk and protect your employees from harm. The foundation of this is through conducting a working at height risk assessment.
Although you may already have a height safety plan in place, ultimately, you might not be asking yourself all the right questions during the work at height risk assessment process to maximise the strength of fall protection systems and other height safety equipment.
But what should you consider at the start of each job to ensure a detailed working at height risk assessment?
We’ve compiled 10 key questions that you should ask prior to beginning your risk assessment to guarantee that you keep yourself and your team as safe as possible when working from height.
We’ve created a PDF version of this risk assessment checklist for you to keep and share with colleagues or industry friends.
By understanding what tasks will be completed during the work you or your employees are carrying out, you can break down what height safety measures you need to put in place to ensure the safety of your team.
To do this, you need to understand where the risks actually lie in your line of work. For example, this could be through working on or around:
A potentially weak or fragile surface above ground level or at floor level;
Any holes or openings in the ground or floor;
Any area where a member of your team could slip or fall, such as a ledge or edge.
In understanding the potential risks that working at height can pose via a risk assessment, you can then create a working at height protection plan that will help control these risks.
Your first port of call should be asking yourself; does this task really need to be carried out by your team at height, or is there a way to conduct the work from the floor?
By carrying out tasks at a height where it can be avoided, you are maximising your potential for risk. Not only will this cost your team a lot in downtime through preventing accidents, but this will also be costly in terms of finances. By minimising the risk and working on the ground where possible, not only will you be helping avoid accidents but you will be saving hours in lost work if something was to occur.
While some work at height will be unavoidable, consider doing as much manual work on the ground as possible, such as:
Building a frame on the ground, then lifting it into place
Doing any cutting or manual work on the ground so it can be fitted and secured in place when at height
Similarly, modern technology could help you elevate some issues if your task at hand is observation-based. For example, Thames Water has utilised drone technology in order to complete rigorous external checks of their scaffolds, cranes, digesters, and buildings - saving them £95,000 in equipment and rigs a year and removing risk.
If you’re unable to eliminate working at height completely, you need a protection plan in place to keep your employees safe. Examples include but are not limited to:
The 3 points of contact
While using a ladder, the user should have three points of contact with the ladder at all times.
This can be with their limbs or with their body, as long as three points of contact are used for stability throughout the task taking place.
Fall prevention
Fall prevention equipment helps to prevent a fall from occurring in the first place.
Examples include guard rails, scaffolding, or mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs).
Fall arrest
Fall arrest systems are equipment that helps protect the user if a fall does occur.
Examples of fall arrest systems include personal harnesses, anchorage, or a deceleration device.
Top tip: It’s preferable to prevent a fall via collective protection such as guardrails than to reduce the outcome of a fall through personal protection such as harnesses or anchors - but both should be used.
We’ve already considered how much safer eliminating working at height is for you and your team, but if you are using a fall system, you need to consider how physically safe your system is as part of your working at height risk assessment. Sure, we know the risks of a potential fall, but if an accident was to occur, would your equipment work as it should?
While it might feel easy to nod at that question, by not keeping every element of your fall protection system stored properly, regularly cleaned, and continually inspected for any flaws, you could be risking the safety of your team.
To make sure all of your PPE for working at height is in good working order, we recommend thoroughly checking all of your team's safety equipment every 6 months.
You can put as many regulations in place as possible, but if people don’t follow them, they are redundant.
In order to guarantee your protective systems are being used correctly, it’s more than advised to have a capable and well-trained supervisor overlooking these tasks to ensure they are completed safely and efficiently at all times.
Not only will it help ensure that your team is being as safe as possible, but if there is an accident, they will be on hand to get your team the appropriate help.
No one wants accidents to happen. Not planning for them doesn’t show a lack of trust in your system but does illustrate a complete lack of foresight if one were to occur. If someone did fall while working at height, not having an accident plan in place could be the difference between life and death for a member of your team.
So, if your fall protection system does fail:
Have you trained your team to know what to do in an emergency situation?
Do you have someone on-site who is trained in emergency first aid?
Have you recently run through safety drills?
You should have said yes to all of these questions.
If the answer is no, it’s of vital importance to know what to do if someone does fall while working at height, or if any other emergency situation arises while on site. Take these risk assessment points on board for peace of mind that you have done everything in your power to protect your workers.
Let’s be honest - not everyone in your team will be in the best physical shape. Some members of your team might be heavier on their feet than others, or of older age, leaving them more frail or unstable.
When assigning members of your team to a task ask yourself if they are deemed competent to perform the task at hand as part of your working at height risk assessment - the HSE defines competency as having "sufficient skills, knowledge, and experience".
Remember: health doesn’t just include physical health, it includes mental health too. This is crucial to consider as increased stress at work could put them at risk of potentially trying to cut corners by not following the safety plan to a T.
While it’s crucial to consider the ability and health of a user, it’s also key to debate if they are competent enough to carry out the task in the first place in terms of training.
To ensure everyone in your team is competent and able to work safely at height on a construction site, it’s vital that everyone is appropriately trained. By continually training your staff every year and refreshing them on safety protocols, you will be preventing risks in your workplace.
If someone is not yet qualified, they must be supervised by a trained, competent person while undertaking training. While you may need more people assigned to a particular task, or you’re working on a tight deadline, allowing slip-ups to occur could make severe accidents happen.
...And don’t just say ‘fine’.
Before you or your team members use any equipment, it’s vital that you ensure your PPE is physically in good shape and will not fail or malfunction if an accident in the workplace occurs. Ultimately, if you do need to work from a height, your PPE is what will save you and your team from serious injury - so, maintenance and inspection should be a core component of your working at height risk assessment.
There are specific storage methods to ensure your safety harnesses and other PPE are kept in the best condition. If there is any exterior damage that compromises the integrity of your equipment, do not use it. Any damage, whether it is from storage, the result of an incident, or general wear and tear, can compromise how well your PPE works when you need it most.
Are you completing your 6-month checks?
By doing these checks, you’re ensuring that your safety equipment is fit for purpose and each member of staff is keeping their equipment properly maintained.
After each check, it’s important to properly hang your safety harnesses in a cool, dry place out of direct sunlight and away from any heat source.
This could damage the quality of your equipment.
Even though safety harnesses have an average lifespan of 5 years, that number is based on regular use.
If your equipment is used more rarely and is stored correctly, it may last longer than 5 years.
By going through this working at height risk assessment checklist at the beginning of each new project, you’ll be considering the safety of your team on a deeper level and will be guaranteeing that you have done everything you can to properly protect your team if an accident does occur.
Ready to strengthen your safety plan? Click the button below to access a copy of the checklist that you can take with you to use on-site.
Ready to rank your safety plan? Click the button below to access a copy of the checklist that you can take with you to use on-site.
We’d advise that you use this Working at Height risk assessment checklist at the start of each new task.
