FOCUS HEALTH & SAFETY
SAFETY CHAIN
Many facilities managers –
particularly those working
on large building and construction
projects - will appreciate the
challenges that subcontracting can
present. Ensuring health and safety
compliance throughout the supply
chain is just one of them.
Health and safety issues - and
guidance surrounding the best way to
avoid incidents - change regularly. It
can be di icult enough to ensure that
your own workforce is safe, but when
it comes to subcontractors - who may
have to comply with di erent policies
and processes on every project they
work on - it can become incredibly
complex.
Marry this with the increasing
pressure of saving both time and
money on site and the temptation
can be to look for ways to cut costs;
the latest statistics for construction
output from the IHS Markit / CIPS UK
Construction Purchasing Managers’
Index(1) don’t make for easy reading,
showing Brexit and material
shortages are having a real impact on
confidence.
Health and safety compliance – both
for your direct and subcontracted
workforce – should be strictly
protected, however. Not managing
health and safety diligently
throughout the supply chain can
have a hugely detrimental impact
on a business – not just in terms of
bottom line, but in terms of reputation
management.
Any reputable business will work
hard to ensure that their safety
standards are high, and that the
health and wellbeing of their sta
is protected. But the reality is that
accidents and illnesses still occur in
the workplace every day – according
to the HSE, in 2016/17, 137 people
were killed at work, while over
609,000 workers su ered non-fatal
injuries as a result of work activity.
Therefore, it is crucial to ensure
that everyone is informed when
it comes to health and
44 SEPTEMBER 2019
safety best practice and follow the
regulations set out by construction
standard CDM 2015(2), so that
subcontractors are just as well
protected as your own employees.
How can organisations provide a safe,
healthy workplace for everyone that
is working on their projects - including
subcontractors? And, how can
they ensure that the suppliers they
subcontract are fully verified and have
the most relevant and recent health
and safety accreditations?
Fundamentally, it is your
responsibility to provide a safe,
healthy workplace for everyone
that’s working on your project. There
are several ways you can ensure
that everyone understands, and are
equipped to meet your high standards
for health and safety:
Review your existing processes
When it comes to health and safety,
legislation is constantly changing
and workers are facing new issues
all the time. That’s why it’s a
good idea to review your health
and safety policy and processes
regularly, to ensure that they are
fit to meet today’s workplace
challenges.
The HSE provides detailed
contractor guidance on the steps
to follow when planning and
executing any project – particularly
a construction project, which is
a high-risk sector. Contractors
must be fully aware of their
obligations to ensure they operate
compliantly.(3)
It’s also wise to seek external
support, as health and safety
experts may pick up on areas
for improvement that you might
otherwise miss. Gaining Acclaim
accreditation(4) is a great way to
get external reassurance around
a company’s processes, as
one of their qualified
assessors
carries
out a review to ensure that their
health and safety documentation is
in place as part of the accreditation
process.
Set your standards from the start
We know that when you’re looking
for a suitable supplier, there are
many elements that you need
to take into consideration, from
their previous experience to
their environmental policy. You
should also check their health and
safety policies and track record
thoroughly, to ensure that their
standards are aligned with your
own.
For example, Safety Schemes
in Procurement (SSIP)(5) is the de
facto standard for the construction
sector and contains a standard
set of criteria to which suppliers
and contractors must adhere.
Many of our members work with
Acclaim to review supplier policies
and working practices as part
of the SSIP standard. Acclaim is
accredited to award ‘Deemed to
Satisfy’ certificates, demonstrating
that suppliers are qualified and
ready to work in the sector.
Because safety is so important to
our buyers, we include verification
of health and safety policies and
practices for all Gold and Platinum
members, making it quick and
easy for buyers to identify them
on the Constructionline platform.
This helps reduce the time spent in
prequalifying suppliers, speeding
up procurement processes.
Don’t let standards slip
When a project is underway,
there can be so many
di erent commercial,
operational and
time
pressures on your team, that health
and safety can slip down their list
of priorities. That’s why it’s a good
idea to implement a health and
safety management system on
each project you undertake – and it
doesn’t have to be complex.
A simple ‘plan, do, check, act’
system can make a real di erence to
health and safety on-site. To follow
this system, you need to plan what
controls are needed to maintain
health and safety, do what it says in
the plan, periodically check whether
your controls are e ective, and act if
checks reveal your current processes
aren’t working. You should also build
health and safety milestones into your
overall project plan, which involves
stopping and reviewing how well
health and safety standards are being
observed at critical phases of your
project.
It can be a di icult and timeconsuming
process to ensure that
your health and safety procedures
are in line with best practice, and are
observed by everyone working on
your projects – both direct employees
and subcontractors. However, not
doing so in line with established
guidance has the potential to have a
far wider financial and reputational
impact on your business, and in
today’s uncertain world, it really isn’t
a risk worth taking.
Mike Wood, Product & Technology Director at Constructionline
explains the ways in which health and safety standards can be
better managed throughout the supply chain
REFERENCE NOTES
(1) https://bit.ly/2NosDao
(2) http://www.hse.gov.uk/
construction/cdm/2015/index.
htm
(3) http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/
priced/l153.pdf
(4) https://www.constructionline.
co.uk/products-services/acclaimaccreditation/
(5) https://ssip.org.uk/
/l153.pdf
/index.htm
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