Health and Safety Management

Why H&S in construction projects?

http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/resources/turning-concern-into-acti
on.htm
 Construction Health, Safety & Welfare
• Workforce of 2.2 million people
• 5% of UK workforce but 10% of reported major injuries and 27% of fatalities.

absence/sick leave – recruitment – insurance – legal costs – reputation

v
productivity – staff retention – profits
Why H&S in construction projects
is so difficult and challenging?
• Implications of H&S
• Key issues:
– Legal requirement
– Policy and procedure
– Training
– Cost
• New challenges:
– Covid
– Mental health
Mental health in Built Environment

Symptoms: insomnia, depression, stress, anxiety, panic attack,

exhaustion, absent mindedness, withdrawal from social situations

Causes
•Work-life balance: long hours at work, long distance travel, work
interfering with family life
•Work load: technology overload, unachievable deadlines,
uncontrollable workload
•Job conditions: managing adamant clients, lack of job enjoyment,
lack of job security, male dominated environment
•Poor working relationship: lack of teamwork and team spirit,
inconsiderate management style
Hazard & Risk

• Eliminate
• Reduce

• Inform
• Control
Principles of Prevention
Construction Health, Safety & Welfare
• Health & Safety at Work Act 1974
– Protect people from injury or ill-health
– Enforced by HSE (Health and Safety Executive)

• Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2015

– Management arrangements
• Coordination
• Cooperation
• Communication

• European Temporary Mobile Construction Sites Directive (TMCSD)

CDM 2015: Construction (Design and
Management) Regulations 2015
• Improve health and safety Clients
in the industry
• Have the right people for
Workers Designers
the right job at the right
time to manage the risks
on site Duty Holders
• Focus on effective planning
and manage the risk Principal
Contractors
Designers

Principle
Contractors
Principles Behind CDM 2015 Regulatory Package

• Increase UK compliance with the original TMCSD and ‘Better

Regulation’ principles
• Increase applicability/simplicity of regulatory package
• Increase control over small works
• Increase opportunities for worker protection
• Increase integration of H&S within projects
• Increase accountability for those who create / introduce risks –
client, designer & contractor
• Increase enforceability against duty holders
• Reduce bureaucracy around health and safety coordination on
construction projects
CDM 2015: Explicit duties for everyone

• Ensure appointees have skills, knowledge, experience &

organisational capability;
• Cooperate with others on the project/site and on adjacent
projects/sites;
• Report significant risks to whoever is in control;
• Take account of principles of prevention;
• Provide info promptly and in a comprehensible format.
CDM 2015: Client Duties

■ Clients - are ■ Make suitable arrangements for managing a project,

organisations or including ensuring that:
individuals for whom - other duty holders are appointed;
a construction
project is carried - sufficient time and resources are allocated;
out. - relevant information is prepared and provided to
other duty holders;
- the principal designer and principal contractor
carry out their duties;
- welfare facilities are provided.
CDM 2015: Domestic Clients

■ Domestic clients - are ■ Domestic clients are in scope of CDM 2015, but their duties as
people who have a client are normally transferred to:
construction work - the contractor, on a single contractor project; or;
carried out on their own
home, or the home of a - the principal contractor, on a project involving more than
family member that is one contractor.
not done as part of a ■ However, the domestic client can choose to have a written
business, whether for agreement with the principal designer to carry out the client
profit or not. duties.
CDM 2015: Designer Definitions

• A designer is someone who undertakes/controls the preparation or

modification of designs (drawings, design details, specifications
etc.)
• The principal designer is the designer appointed (when there will
be more than one contractor) to control the ongoing pre-
construction activities throughout the project
• The principal designer is a designer on the project, or someone in
control of the design of the project
Who are the designers?

• Designers / Specialist designers

• Client
• FM Managers
• QS and Building Surveyors
• D&B Contractors / Contractors / Subcontractors
CDM 2015: Designer’s Duties

■ Designers – are those, who as ■ When preparing or modifying designs, to

part of a business, prepare or eliminate, reduce or control foreseeable
modify designs for a building, risks that may arise during:
product or system relating to - construction; and
construction work.
- the maintenance and use of a
building once it is built.
■ Provide information to other members of
the project team to help them fulfil their
duties.
CDM 2015: Designer’s Duties

■ Principal designers – are ■ Plan, manage, monitor and coordinate health

designers appointed by and safety in the pre-construction phase of a
the client in projects project. This includes:
involving more than one - identifying, eliminating or controlling
contractor. They can be an foreseeable risks;
organisation or an
individual with sufficient - ensuring designers carry out their duties;
knowledge, experience ■ Prepare and provide relevant information to
and ability to carry out other duty holders;
the role. ■ Liaise with the principal contractor to help in
the planning, management, monitoring and
coordination of the construction phase.
CDM 2015: Contractors

Contractors – are those who ■ Plan, manage and monitor construction work under their
do the actual construction control so it is carried out without risks to health or safety;
work and can be either an ■ For projects involving more than one contractor, coordinate
individual or a company their activities with others in the project team – and comply
with directions of principal designer or principal contractor;
■ For single-contractor projects, prepare a construction phase
plan.
 CDM 2015: Principal contractors

Principal contractors – are ■ Plan, manage, monitor and coordinate the construction phase of a
contractors appointed by the project. This includes:
client to coordinate the - liaising with the client and principal designer;
construction phase of a project
where it involves more than - preparing the construction phase plan;
one contractor. - organising cooperation/coordination between contractors.
■ Ensure:
- suitable site inductions are provided;
- Reasonable steps are taken to prevent unauthorised access;
- workers are consulted and engaged in securing their health
and safety; and
- welfare facilities are provided.
CDM 2015: Workers

■ Workers – are the They must:

people who work for or ■ be consulted about matters which affect their health,
under the control of safety and welfare;
contractors on a
construction site ■ take care of their own health and safety and others who
may be affected by their actions;
■ report anything they see which is likely to endanger either
their own or others’ health and safety;
■ cooperate with their employer, fellow workers, contractors
and other duty holders.
CSCS card

https://www.cscs.uk.com/applying-for-cards/
H&S practice
• Pre-Construction H&S Info
• H&S plan
• H&S induction: tool-box talk
• PPE: personal protection equipment
• Near Miss report
• Poster and signage
• Company schemes
– Balfour Beatty
– Wilmott Dixon: Score sheet
Safety issues - Site organisation

Administration
– Notifications: to HSE
• Longer than 30 working days and with more than 20 workers working simultaneously
• Exceeding 500 person days
– Risk assessments: general and specific
– Construction Phase H&S Plan
– Thorough examination reports: all lifting equipment
– Inspection reports: Excavations, scaffolds, ladders and fall arrest
systems etc.
– Method statements: demolition or dismantling
– Injuries and dangerous occurrences
Safety issues - Site organisation

Traffic management
– Keeping pedestrians and vehicles apart
– Minimising vehicle movements
– People on site
– Turning vehicles
– Visibility
– Signs and instructions
Safety issues - Site organisation

Protecting the public

– Managing site access: Site boundaries, Authorisation
– Hazards causing risk to the public: Falling objects, Delivery and
other site vehicles, Scaffolding and other access equipment,
Storing and stacking materials, Openings and excavations
– Other hazards include: slips, trips and falls within pedestrian
areas; plant machinery and equipment; hazardous substances;
electricity and other energy sources; dust, noise and vibration;
and road works
Safety issues - Site organisation

Materials storage and waste management

– Storage areas 
– Pedestrian routes 
– Flammable materials 
– Storage at height 
– Tidiness 
– Deliveries
– Skips and wheeled bins
Safety issues - Site organisation

Welfare
– Toilets
– Washing facilities
– Drinking water
– Changing rooms and lockers
– Facilities for rest
Safety issues - Working at height

• Assessing work at height: Assess the risks, take precautions, and issue
clear method statements
• Roof work: Plan safe access, and prevent falls from edges and openings
• Fragile surfaces: avoid, control, communicate, co-operate
• Ladders: position, condition and safe use
• Tower scaffolds: Erection and dismantling, Stability, Precautions and
inspection, Using and moving
Safety issues - Structural stability

• Structural stability in alterations demolition and dismantling

• Structural stability during excavations
Safety issues - Electricity

• Electrical systems in buildings

• Overhead power lines
• Underground cables
Safety issues - Fire

• General site fire safety

• Process fire hazards
Safety issues - Mobile plant and vehicles

• Excavators
• Telescopic handlers
• Mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs)
• Dumper trucks
Safety issues - Demolition

• Falls from height

• Injury from falling materials
• Uncontrolled collapse
• Risks from connected services
• Traffic management
• Hazardous materials
• Noise and vibration
• Fire
Health issues
• Asbestos
• Carbon Monoxide
• Manual handling and musculoskeletal disorders (MSD)
• Dermatitis: wet cement; epoxy resins and hardeners; acrylic sealants;
bitumen or asphalt; solvents used in paints, glues or other surface coatings;
petrol, diesel, oils and greases; degreasers, descalers and detergents
• Respiratory disease
• Noise
• Work related stress: having too much work to do in the time available;
travelling or commuting; being responsible for the safety of others at work;
working long hours; and having a dangerous job
• Hand-arm vibration
Let’s work together so nobody ‘has a
bad day’
H&S test

1. Who should attend a site induction? 2. How would you expect to find out
a. Everyone going to the site about site health and safety rules
when you first arrive on site?
b. Cleaners
a. By reading your employers health
c. Architects
and safety polices
d. Construction-related workers
b. In a letter sent to your home
c. By asking others on a site
d. During site induction
3. The work of another contractor is 4. Who is responsible for reporting
affecting your safety. What should any unsafe conditions on a work
you do? site?
a. Speak to the contractor who is a. The site manager only
doing the job b. The client
b. Go home c. Health and safety executive
c. Speak to your supervisor inspectors
d. Speak to your contractor’s d. Everyone on site
supervisor
5. It is your employer’s legal 6. During a site induction, which of
responsibility to discuss matters of the following two topics must be
health and safety with you because? covered?
a. It will mean that you will never have to Please select all correct answers.
attend any other health and safety training
a. Where the cheapest car park is.
b. You do not have any responsibility for
b. The site rules
health and safety.
c. Holiday dates.
c. they must inform you of things that will
protect your health and safety d. The site emergency number
d. Have done so, your employer will not e. Information on local amenities
have any legal responsibility for your
health and safety
7. Which of the following should be 8. During site induction, you do not
included in a method statement? understand something the presenter
Select 3 answers. says, what should you do?
a. The materials, tools and equipment a. Guess what the presenter was trying to
needed tell you
b. The people involved and the level of b. Wait until the end and ask someone to
competency and training required explain
c. The directions to the site c. Ask the presenter to explain the point
again
d. The risks you can take
d. Attend another site induction
e. The order and correct way the work
should be done
9. You are about to start a job, how will 10. What is the most important reason
you know if it needs a permit to work? for keeping your work area clean and
a. You don’t need to know, permits to tidy?
work only affect managers a. To recycle waste and help the
b. The health and safety executive (HSE) environment
will tell you b. So that the waste skips can be emptied
c. Other workers will tell you more often
d. You will not be allowed to start the c. To prevent slips, trips and falls
work until the permit to works has been d. So that you don’t have a big clean up
issued at the end of the week
11. Someone has collapsed with pains 12.  Now that work is moving along
to their stomach, but there isn’t a first onsite, you feel the original induction
aider about, what should you do? rules have become dated, what should
a. Give them some pain killers you do?
b. Get them to sit down a. Ask your friends/ co-workers what they
think
c. Get them into the recovery position
b. Nothing as you are not responsible for
d. Get somebody to call the emergency
the health and safety
services
c. Have a word with your supervisor about
your concerns
d. Make up your own safety regulations as
you go
13. You have to lift a heavy load, what 14. You find a ladder and it is damaged,
must your employer do? what should you do?
a. Make sure your supervisor is there to a. Use the ladder but avoid the damaged
advise while you lift part
b. Do a risk assessment of the task b. Do not use the ladder and report the
c. Nothing, it is part of your job to lift damage to others
loads c. Do not use the ladder and report the
d. Watch you while you lift the load damage at the end of your shift
d. Try and mend the damage
Answers

1. a 8. c
2. d 9. d
3. c 10. c
4. d 11. d
5. c 12. c
6. b,d 13. b
7. a,b,e 14. b
Coursework ideas
• The challenges in implementing CDM2015
• Motivation / teamwork / communication in H&S management
• Design out H&S hazards
• H&S management with migrant labours
• H&S training
• How BIM can be used in H&S management