Urgent - H&S Help Needed! (1 Viewer)

realplayer_ed

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Scaffolding Forum,

I am a 3rd year student at the University of Reading, with a family history and many family members involved in scaffolding in South-West/East London, and the son of a scaffolder of 25 years.

I am writing a Dissertation for my final degree on the Health & Safety aspects of the UK scaffolding industry. The objective of the dissertation is to outline the major problems in H&S and how H&S is regulated in the industry.

I'm not here as someone to probe and judge the members of this forum.

If anyone could give me feedback/pictures/statements/idea's/literature etc.. on the following things, detailed or not, this would be a great help and would contribute toward my dissertation.

- Health & Safety Inspections (do they even happen?are they frequent?)
- Health & Safety Manager's (does your gang closely follow safety guidelines?)
- Health & Safety Equipment (Is there enough? new technologies?)
- Personal Views (Personal incidents/accidents/fatalities)

I would really appreciate any help at all.

Feel free to send emails, any questions welcome

Cheers.

Eddy (realplayer_ed@hotmail.co.uk)
 
Hi Eddy

Your really opening a can of worms with your dissertaion choice!!:D

In recent times the H&S in our industry has gone through some drastic changes with the introduction of SG4:05 (Safety Guidance) and TG20:08 (Technical Guidance)

Firstly I would suggest you visit the NASC (National Access & Scaffolding Confederation) website as they have a load of downloadable information that you will find invaluable.

In regard to your specific questions:

H&S Inspections:
Do you mean scaffold structural inspections or general site/operative inspection? If you mean scaffold inspections then the scaffold must be inspected every 7 days, after major adaption or adverse weather by the user of the scaffold.
H&S Managers:
If you are asking do scaffold operatives comply with all the H&S legislation and guideline within our industry then I am going to have to say NO, the reasoning behind this is vast and would require lengthy discussion, maybe some of the Scaffolders here will give you some pointers. Personally I feel the recent H&S imposed upon our industry has been overkill due to (as in many other industries) the claim culture that is prevelant in our society at the moment and not falls from height as all the H&S people will have you believe.

H&S Equipment
As mentioned before, your timing could'nt be better, we are now entering the realms of "Pre-Guardrail" which all NASC members are to comply with by the end of 2010. This basically encompasses having a rail in place prior to operatives fixing the lift, this will be acheieved by using a pre-rail system i.e. Turner Access Plus Guard or a "Step Up" system which allows you to put the rail in from nothing more than hop ups basically.

As you can see I make a lot of reference to the NASC, the organisation and their members are there to set the industry standard. This doesnt mean that their members actually DO set the standards as I have seen some very poor scaffolds put up by members in the Sheffield area (I have an axe to grind with the NASC which is currently being resolved, so I wont go into much detail) but it is recognised by the HSE and MCG (Major Contractors Group) and most other Safety organisations as such.

Please be aware that we as a company are not members but usually were the NASC lead the Industry will follow (Eventually!!)

Hope this helps, if you have any thing else just PM me and I will try my best to give you some info, I'm sure there will be others on here that can help

Good luck with your dissertation!!

---------- Post added at 10:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:39 AM ----------
 
Last edited:
The post above is a very good one in my opinion. I would add that based on the fact I have recently done my part 1 course, the folder of information I took away with me is filled with the information you might find handy. If you spoke to your local construction college they might spare you the photocopied sheets which make up this folder.
 
If your in your 3rd year yuo will surley know the basics,will learn a lot more when you are hands on,a good pair of ear plugs will help........Good luck with your course mate.:eek:
 
Scaffolding Forum,



- Health & Safety Inspections (do they even happen?are they frequent?)
- Health & Safety Manager's (does your gang closely follow safety guidelines?)
- Health & Safety Equipment (Is there enough? new technologies?)
- Personal Views (Personal incidents/accidents/fatalities)

I would really appreciate any help at all.

Feel free to send emails, any questions welcome

Cheers.

Eddy (realplayer_ed@hotmail.co.uk)

H&S inspections, fall into a few categories, First is the HSE one's, they have no axe to grind and are simply trying to make sure everyone goes home safe each night, out of 21 years i've had 3 HSE inspections, not many is it!

Second are the H&S inspectors working for a main contractor (e.g. in a power station/refinery and so on) these guys seem to try to find things wrong simply to justify their own jobs, in fact i've known them to watch from behind vessels and so on trying to catch someone unhooked.

lastly you get your own company H&S man or your manager/supervisor, who inspect you mainly to make sure your not gonna cost the company a fortune by dying on them(kidding boss lol).

Do scaffolders follow procedures and guidlines?
It depends where they are, if they're in a highly populated area or factory/plant then yes they do, if they're on a newbuild in the middle of nowhere then you struggle to get the buggers wearing safety boots never mind a harness.

H&S equipment.
Until you can ensure that it is worn by everyone whenever they should wear it AND that they follow the correct procedures for its use then all the safety equipment in the world isn't going to stop us losing more scaffs.

Personal incidents.
Seen too many to close calls to count, some silly ones come back to me though, like the guy stripping round an exchanger(or bundle) who decided that it was quicker and easier hooking onto an inertia block at shoulder height rather than use his twin tail lanyard like everyone else. he was working away about 20 ft from the block with the line at about 5 degrees and about 12 ft above the feckin concrete and thought he was safe the total eejit.

dunno if thats the sort of stuff your looking for lad but good luck with the course
 
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