The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has partnered with the Access Industry Forum (AIF) to release a series of new and informative work at height toolbox talks to shine a spotlight on height safety. These new resources, supported by the HBF and distributed across developers’ sites, will focus on key areas of work at height identified by the HBF Health and Safety Committee.
With over one million businesses and 10 million workers estimated to carry out work at height every year, these toolbox talks will ultimately improve the health, safety, and wellbeing of everyone working in the construction and built environment. The series focuses on ladder safety, which continues to be one of the biggest and constant health and safety issues facing the home building industry, contributing to a third of reported accidents onsite. The toolbox talks covered key information and useful references relating to the safe use, selection and securing of ladders, with supplementary guidance for managers and supervisors to deliver the talks. The next in the series of toolkits will focus on platform decking and provide employees and managers with guidance on using and securing decking. These toolkits have been designed with AIF member FASET (Fall Arrest Safety Equipment Training) and are due to be launched in early 2022.
Sara Cartin, Operations Manager at HBF, said, “HBF are proud to be working with the Access Industry Forum in advocating the importance of safely working from height. Our Health and Safety Committee subgroup, led by Nathan Preston, has been instrumental in identifying the key areas of improvements and contributing to solutions to reduce injuries within the home building and wider construction industry. We are committed to making continued improvements in health, safety and wellbeing to ensure everyone feels safe in their working environments.”
AIF Director, Tony Seddon, said, “We’re delighted to work with the HBF to create and deliver these practical, easy-to-understand toolbox talks across a range of important work at height topics. When people think of work at height, they automatically think of scaffolders – but everyday employees including bricklayers, roofers and dry liners will work from height and are at risk of falling too. Safe working starts with good planning and these toolkits will help organisations understand the correct preparations that could ultimately save lives.”
Jason Carlton, Head of Strategic Engagement at the Ladder Association, added, “We’re delighted with the success of the ladder safety toolkits, the first in the series of topics from the AIF and HBF. Here at the Ladder Association, we urge all businesses to put ladder safety and training at the top of their height safety agenda, and we hope these toolkits can help reduce the number of injuries and dangerous occurrences on site when using ladders.”
The work at height toolkits can be used by organisations of any size at no cost and are available to download from the HBF website, www.hbf.co.uk/policy/health-safety/shared-knowledge/.