Health and Safety for Building and Construction

The building and construction business is one of the sectors most often mentioned concerning health and safety procedures. It’s no coincidence that statistics show that accidents are more likely to happen in the building and construction business: manual labour, handling heavy equipment and power tools, working with water, gas and electricity supplies and the need to work in unfamiliar surroundings or high above the ground all contribute to the challenge of getting health and safety right.

Construction Design and Management or CDM regulations, updated frequently (the latest revision was in 2007), lay out the requirements for building and construction companies to comply with health and safety procedures, as well as taking out the right insurance. The drive is on to reduce risks and accidents at work and the regulations are in consequence both detailed and thorough.

The changes from 2007 were designed to improve the health and safety overall, but also to ensure that the right people are employed for the right job to manage risk on the construction sites, and to focus on planning and management risk.

These regulations define the roles that must be taken for overseeing health and safety within a construction project. This includes steps laid out for risk management and how contractors to a project must also observe defined conditions for their workers.

According to the size of the construction project, there may be several levels of responsibility defined: large building initiatives often have separate individuals or groups acting as principal contractors, subcontractors and CDM coordinators.
 
While the challenges of being fully health and safety compliant, and thus avoiding both accidents at work and possible fines for non-compliance, can be considerable, the potential benefits can have a major positive impact as well. From ProActive Health & Safety’s point of view, better health and safety that is communicated efficiently and effectively to both construction workers and managers means better building projects.

When your employees understand that you think their well-being is important, they are more motivated to do the high quality work that your customers expect. Better work and higher customer satisfaction means better business.

ProActive Health & Safety consultants working within your organisation will make sure construction sites adhere to the regulations. They will assess the situation and identify any shortfalls or corrections that need to be made. Manager and worker training sessions will be arranged as required. Our experience shows that a brief, practical training where we ensure that the message has been well understood can pay big dividends down the line.

If accidents do occur, our consultants are trained to quickly and efficiently assess the cause, the impact and the best solution, by speaking with you, the employees concerned and any other relevant parties. We’ll also show you how such accidents can be avoided in the future. One of the immediate, positive contributions that we want to make to your bottom line is to demonstrably reduce accident rates and therefore insurance claims, so that you also start to save on the cost of your insurance premiums.

We are flexible on how and when we work for you. Many of our customers use our consultants as full time managers on your building and construction sites.  Outsourcing like this can be a cost effective method for you. 

ProActive Health & Safety consultants will advise you regarding paperwork needed for the health and safety regulations, as well as on the regulations themselves. Our consultants can then work on a part time basis as needed by your company.  This ensures that businesses of any size can get the coverage that they need.

Our consultants will determine what must be done for specific projects, and make sure that your team is aware of relevant regulations.  The total legal obligations that must be observed will be determined by the nature and the size of the project. Our first actions for you will include items such as site inspections, creating safety plans, and maintaining the health and safety file, using our skills, experience and reference materials as required.
 
If you have construction projects underway today or planned for the near future, then let us know. By phoning 0161 935 8282, you’ll get immediate access to health and safety expertise that is specific to the building and construction industry, and that can help make the difference to your company and your customers.