Tetra Height Safety Services are the UK’s premier supplier of ladder safety systems. They supply complete working at height solutions for companies who carry out low risk or short duration work from ladders.

Their specialist and experienced trainers (which will include Seaham Safety Services Ltd) have been at the forefront of developing ladder safety systems and appropriate training in relation to access solutions since 1999, providing unrivalled service, technical experience and support. To date Tetra have supplied in excess of 30,000 ladder safety systems.

Tetra’s package of services, including fall protection equipment, training and consultancy are in constant demand where collective systems (scaffold, MEWPS etc.) have been deemed unsuitable following a risk assessment.

You can view the Tetra training courses online at http://www.workingatheight-safety.co.uk/training/ in addition, Seaham Safety Services Ltd will be including the relevant training courses on our website so watch this space!

If you are interested please contact Jackie on 0844 225 0575 for more information.

Read details of some recent HSE prosecutions and enforcement action in the construction sector and find sources of relevant advice.

Work at height

1 December 2011 – Two construction companies have been fined a total of £60,000 following the death of a worker who fell from a cherry picker on a dual carriageway in Liverpool.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2011/coi-nw-02ameymouchel.htm?ebul=gd-cons/dec11&cr=7

5 December 2011 - A Pembroke Dock construction company was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay costs of £2,376.25 after a labourer suffered serious injuries after falling seven metres from a balcony on a construction site.  The company director was fined £4,000, with costs of £2,376.25 and disqualified from acting as a company director, managing or in any way controlling a company for at least two years.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2011/coi-w-preseliconstruction.htm?ebul=gd-cons/dec11&cr=8

14 December 2011 - Three contractors from Essex have been fined a total of £53,000 after a roofer fell five metres, sustaining life threatening injuries that confined him to a wheelchair.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2011/coi-e-4811.htm?ebul=gd-cons/dec11&cr=9

Further information

Assessing all work at height – http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/safetytopics/assess.htm?ebul=gd-cons/dec11&cr=10

Roof work – http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/safetytopics/roofwork.htm?ebul=gd-cons/dec11&cr=11

HSE is reminding construction managers to secure their sites to reduce the risks of accidents during the Christmas shut-down.

In past years, many members of the public have been killed and injured in construction-related incidents across Great Britain. These incidents have included material being blown off site, scaffolding collapsing or children gaining access to poorly protected sites.

Before closing sites for the holiday, contractors should carry out checks to ensure loose material is secure and scaffolding is properly supported. It should be checked particularly after bad weather. http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/safetytopics/scaffoldinginfo.htm?ebul=gd-cons/dec11&cr=1

Children often see poorly guarded sites as playgrounds, so contractors should do all they can to help prevent them gaining access in the first place. They should also ensure that potentially dangerous areas such as deep excavations are secure.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/safetytopics/publicprotection.htm?ebul=gd-cons/dec11&cr=2

Should the site be closed for a significant period, it may be sensible to arrange for regular checks to take place to ensure that the site remains safe and secure.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/safetytopics/index.htm?ebul=gd-cons/dec11&cr=3

Seaham Safety Services Ltd are proud and indeed privileged to have been selected to sponsor and participate in the above event.

The event was attended by 30 delegates from various industries i.e. construction, civil engineering and housing associations.

Principal HSE Inspector Rob Hirst was the first speaker; he gave the HSE’s perspective of the recent situation and informed the delegates of the latest statistics relating to falls from height. Rob went on to re-iterate the need to comply with the Work at Height Regulations 2005, particularly the hierarchy of controls that should be adopted in order to create a safe working environment.

Gordon MacPherson MD of Seaham Safety Services Ltd then went on to discuss the hierarchy of controls for working at height and gave some practical solutions for managing and selecting equipment for work at height.

There were three practical demonstrations after the discussions; these were a rescue scenario with the use of a rescue kit for those needing to be rescued whilst suspended in a harness, the Tetra Ladder Safety system provided by our partners Tetra Consulting Ltd., along with a scaffolding Advanced Guard system that is the brainchild of Advanced Guard Ltd. The demonstrations proved to be exceptionally interesting and provided the delegates with some practical options for planning and carrying out work at height.

Health and Safety Category C0-Sponsor

We are proud to announce that we are a co-sponsor for the Constructing Excellence in the North East Awards Health and Safety category. This category looks for the project or organisation where health and safety has been driven forward to go beyond what is required within the duties as stated in CDM2007. In order to be successful in this award the judges will be looking for evidence that best practice has been utilised in producing a scheme where buildability, future maintenance and final demolition have been fully considered and where both health and safety have been key drivers.

Information about the awards….

Held every year in May, the Constructing Excellence in the North East Awards are a celebration of everything the North East construction industry has to be proud of.

Over the last eight years the Awards have grown to become one of the highlights of the business year, with over 500 people regularly turning out to witness the best of construction in our region.

Winners are selected across 14 categories including Innovation, Integration, Value, Sustainability, Heritage and Student of the Year and go on to compete in the National Constructing Excellence Awards, held every year in the Autumn. For 2012 we are delighted to announce we have added two new categories to the Awards – Contractor of the Year and Consultancy Practice of the Year.

The Twenty Twelve Awards will be held on Friday 11^th May at the Newcastle Marriott Gosforth Park Hotel and we will launch for applications at the beginning of January 2012.

The closing date for all applications to be received in our office is on Friday 24^th February 2012 at 17.00.

Tickets are individually priced at £85+VAT CENE Members / £95+VAT Non Members, tables of 10 and 12 are available upon request.

Visit http://www.cene.org.uk/awards/ for further information to apply or to book a table.

Myth

Every possible risk needs a safety sign

The reality

Using too many signs just guarantees no one will read any of them.

Safety signs are useful when there’s a significant risk which can’t be avoided or controlled in any other way. But that doesn’t mean you should add a sign for every possible risk, however trivial.

Where there are serious risks in your workplace, don’t just rely on signs – take practical steps to deal with them. If you do need a sign, make sure it has the right symbol and is clearly visible.

Source: HSE Myth of the month Campaign

We are proud to notify you that we have achieved approval to deliver the NEBOSH National Construction Certificate. We are currently offering this course at our Seaham office initially and will be rolling the course out nationwide in early January to ensure that we give the best possible service to our clients.

Who is it for?

NEBOSH’s Certificate-level qualifications give a good foundation in health and safety for managers, supervisors and staff with health and safety among their day to day responsibilities.

These qualifications are widely taken as a first step towards a career in health and safety and are accepted by IOSH – the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health – in meeting the academic requirements for Technician Membership of IOSH (Tech IOSH).

If you would like more information regarding the various certificate-level qualifications available please click here.

These courses are classroom based and certification is awarded on successful completion of practical and theoretical examinations. Alternatively we also offer City & Guilds NVQ level 3 and 5 in Occupational Health and Safety Practice which is a work place based qualification where achievement is determined by producing a portfolio of practical and theoretical evidence.

How can I register for this course?

If you would like to register on one of our NEBOSH courses please contact us on 0844 225 0575 or info@s-safety.co.uk

What has changed

Recent changes to incident reporting arrangements now mean that only fatal and major injuries and incidents will be able to be reported by phone to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) using the Incident Contact Centre on 0845 300 9923 (opening hours Monday to Friday 8.30 am to 5 pm).

All other work-related injuries and incidents reportable under RIDDOR must be reported via one of a suite of seven online forms available on HSE’s website.

• Report of an injury
• Report of a dangerous occurrence
• Report of an injury offshore
• Report of a dangerous occurrence offshore
• Report of a case of disease
• Report of flammable gas incident
• Report of a dangerous gas fitting

Information on RIDDOR can be found at www.riddor.gov.uk. Employers should also be aware that a consultation to amend reporting requirements ended on 9th May 2011 and is likely to result in a further change to reporting requirements: reporting after an employee is absent from work for seven days following an incident rather than the current threshold of three days.

Out of hours contact

The circumstances where the HSE must be contacted out of hours are:

• following a work-related death, or where there is strong likelihood of death following an incident at or connected with work;
• following a serious accident at a workplace, to gather details of physical evidence that would be lost if you waited until normal working hours;
• following a major incident at a workplace where the severity of the incident, or the degree of public concern, requires an immediate public statement from either HSE or Government ministers.

If you feel that your incident fits these descriptions, or if you are not sure, then ring the duty officer on 0151 922 9235.

The duty officer will take your message and will ask you for a phone number to allow us to contact you. They will pass your details to an appropriate HSE officer, who may wish to contact you further. If the Duty Officer number is unobtainable please ring 0151 922 1221 (Duty Press Officer).

If you wish to report diseases, dangerous occurrences or work-related accidents resulting in work-related injury other than that mentioned above, the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) site provides more information.

We are sponsoring a work at height seminar held by the Constructing Excellence in the North East (CENE) and the HSE on the 17th November at our head office in Seaham between 8:30am and 11:00am.

Managing work at height follows a hierarchy of controls – avoid, prevent & arrest – which begins with the question – can the work be done safely from the ground?

The session is interactive and will look at the legislation, procedures and solutions to the risks of working at height.

Rob Hirst, Principal Inspector for the HSE will give a brief introduction about the legislation and then case studies of actual events whilst working at height.

Gordon MacPherson, Managing Director for Seaham Safety Services will discuss the hierarchy of controls and solutions to working at height.

There will be a number of demonstrations available such as:

• Gotcha (a rescue demonstration from height)
• Advanced Guard
• Tetra Ladder Safe Equipment
• And more!

To register for this event please contact Leanne at CENE on 0191 374 0233 or leanne@cene.org.uk

Cost: £20 VAT CENE Members / £40 VAT Non Members (Cancellation policy is within 48 hours notice)