Working at height

Overview

Falls from height remain the single biggest cause of workplace deaths. The Work at Height Regulations 2005 place legal duties on employers, supervisors and operatives involved in organising and carrying out any work at height where there is a risk of a fall liable to cause personal injury. This course explains the Regulations and how they should be implemented when planning, managing and undertaking work at height.

Training objectives

This course will help ensure that participants understand:

  • What is ‘work at height’
  • What you must do as an Employer, Manager or Operative
  • How to carry out works at height safely
  • When and how to do a risk assessment
  • What kind of access and protective equipment should be used when working at height

Audience

The Regulations apply to anyone working at height, whether it is carrying out construction or maintenance or simply using a stepladder to load and unload storage shelves. This course is therefore relevant to anyone either carrying out work at height themselves or organising for it to be done on their premises.

Format

An inter-active one-day course, with practical exercises. We recommend that the number of participants be limited to 16 in order to maximise the opportunity for interaction and facilitated discussion and to allow participants to explore practical examples relevant to their own situations.

The expert trainer

Martin is a Senior Health and Safety Consultant at one of the UK’s leading health and safety consultancies. With a background of over 15 years in the management, design and construction of civil engineering and building projects, Martin has practical experience of providing a variety of health and safety services, including fulfilling the role of Planning Supervisor, undertaking workplace inspections and audits and providing advice and expertise to clients in the construction and manufacturing sectors. Martin is retained by a number of construction contractors to regularly audit their construction sites and assist in the ongoing improvement of their site management systems through procedural development and training.

Drawing on this background, and with the benefit of the wider range of experience that his switch to consulting inevitably generated, Martin has assisted both public and private sector clients by designing and delivering a range of health and safety training courses nationally, to high acclaim:

‘Encouraged to answer questions and voice my findings because our tutor gave us 110% support and made us feel at ease at all times.’

‘Excellent course, excellent tutor.’

‘Good – friendly atmosphere, good use of humour, thank you, you made it fun.’

‘The speaker was very confident and very well informed.’

Course outline

  1. Introduction
    • Course overview
    • Aims and objectives
    • Working at height statistics
  2. The legal framework and working at height
    • The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974
    • The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulation 1999
    • Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992
    • The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994
    • The Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996
  3. Overview of the Work at Height Regulations 2005
    • What is work at height?
    • What do the Regulations cover?
    • Do the rules apply to you?
  4. What you must do to comply with the Regulations
    • Overriding principle of risk avoidance
    • Risk assessment
    • Hierarchy of controls
    • Planning the work
    • Avoiding working at height
    • Supervision
    • Planning emergencies and rescues
    • Taking account of risk assessments
    • Weather considerations
    • Competence and training
    • Safe place of work
    • Selection and inspection of equipment, temporary structures and safety features
    • Fragile surfaces
    • Falling objects
  5. The Regulations in practice (exploring the Schedules)
    • Existing places of work and means of access
    • Collective fall protection (guard rails and toe boards)
    • Working platforms
    • Collective fall arrest (safety nets)
    • Personal fall protection
    • Ladders and stepladders
    • Inspections
    • After assembly or installation
    • To ensure safety and identify any deterioration
    • Inspection reports
  6. Workshop exercises
    • Practical exercises using the Work at Height Regulations as reference
  7. Questions, discussion and review