Working at Height - Hierarchy of Control Measures

Whilst we always endeavour not to have accidents, they still remain all too common in all industries, with working at height being among the most common cause.

Last year (2020/21) 35 people were fatally injured in falls from working at height. The HSE approach to investigating accidents involving falls from height is to “forensically scrutinise the risk assessment and supporting documentation and will use failures against the company concerned”.

Base Solutions offer competent advice and guidance on working at height and will offer suitable guidance and support to guard against persons falling using the hierarchy of control as shown below.

Having the correct processes and documentation in place is one thing but you also need to ensure that persons are adequately trained and comply with requirements, the old adage of “it will only take a minute” is still all too common.

We have attended and investigated our fair share of accidents and incidents involving falls, failure of equipment and persons failing to comply with stated requirements, only today we failed a hop up as the tread on the platform was not visible because of wet plaster, this is a major slip hazard which could result in a serious injury or worse, take it from someone who was off work for two years with a serious spinal injury after falling three feet. Unfortunately, the root cause often comes down to a management failure, which could potentially end up with prison sentences.

Don’t wait for an accident to happen, take time now to look at your risk assessments, procedures, equipment registers, training records, behaviours and management controls. You might be saving a life, preventing an injury and keeping yourself out of prison.