Construction Phase Plan – Safety appointments
During the pre-construction phase and before work beings, a Construction Phase Plan must be drawn up. According to the CDM (construction design and management) regulations 2015, this must include a health and safety arrangement as well as site rules and regulations. During this stage the necessary people should also be hired to ensure the safe running of the site.
This post looks into the safety appointments during the construction phase plan stage. The construction phase is where health and safety planning is most important as it can be highly dangerous. The safety appointments involve the people who are responsible for health and safety management and what they can do to ensure the site is as safe as possible.
Firstly who is responsible for health and safety on a construction site? To meet the requirements of health and safety law, all construction sites require a safety officer who must be classed as a competent person. A competent person is someone who is sufficiently qualified and has the necessary training and experience to be able to control the site's safety. This all depends on the site in terms of how difficult it would be to run safely. For example how many people are working there or the quantity of dangerous machinery on site would affect how dangerous it was and therefore the competence required of the safety officer. The safety officer should begin by conducting a risk assessment of the site and implementing the necessary safety precautions that the site requires based on this. Ensuring sufficient safety signposting is also important, whether this be to keep pedestrians off site or to ensure the workforce is aware of safety hazards.
Some ways in which a safety officer can ensure the safety of a workforce include evaluating the capability of the workforce to operate safely. Before any worker can begin working on site they should take part in a site safety introduction course specific to the site. This would include pointing out all potential hazards on site and bringing to the worker's attention precautionary measures. Health and safety committees are also used by safety officers to review safety issues on site and implement changes to the safety regime on the site should there be issues with it. Another job that the safety officer has is to ensure that the site has all the necessary safety equipment and that all workers use them as required.
Finally, safety appointments should be constantly updating. In order to ensure maximum safety onsite the safety officer should monitor the performance of the workforce and make the necessary changes to keep the site as efficient and safe as it can be.
Bibliography
UK Gov Legislation (no date) Construction phase plan and health and safety file. Available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/51/regulation/12/made (Accessed: 5 February 2017).
Consulting and involving your workers (2015) Available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/involvement/index.htm (Accessed: 5 February 2017).