Hi lads, has anyone got an editable risk assessment and method statement for waterfed pole cleaning . Seem to have lost mine on my hard drive, or even point me I the right direction to buy one. Thanks in advance.
R
I'll point you in the right direction;
https://www.hse.gov.uk/risk/In most cases a Risk And Method Statement (RAMS) is asked for by businesses who have a health and safety policy in place.
Each job has its own particular risks although there will be a few that relate to most. So each job has to be looked at and evaluated for potential risks and then a written action on how you will manage those risks. Risk management is about your welfare as well as those around about you.
For example;
Lets say I have a business clean in a local high street on an old Victorian building with 3 floors and deeply recessed windows.
My first assessment was that the only way to do this was wfp.
Secondly, I assess how busy the area is with regard to foot traffic and my hoses creating a trip hazard. When would be the quietest time of the day to do the job to minimise this risk?
Thirdly, how would the changing seasons effect this job.
Then we give each action a risk score from 1 to 5; 1 being minimal risk with 5 being an unacceptable risk. So hoses creating a trip hazard are a manageable risk. In view of that we would settle on a score of 3. We could reduce that risk by putting out warning signs and doing the job when there is very little foot traffic. (If the job was done during a busy time of the day the risk would score a 5. If it was done when there is no one around, that risk would be a 1.)
I could also use my son as a banksman to warn me and others around and warn those of the danger of falling objects from height and/or the hoses being a trip hazard.
If the street was a busy one then we might have to consider closing off the pavement for the duration of the clean, but that would have to involve the local council which is an area I wouldn't venture into.
I could reduce those risks by cleaning the job early in the morning or late evening. In winter its either a Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon job. I could do the job on my own. During the clean I might have to stand back for 5 or 6 pedestrians and let them pass. When doing properties such as these I verbally apologise to each person for creating an inconvenience and ask them to please not trip over my hoses.
Another solution would be for me to use a backpack on the fronts which would reduce the risk of hoses becoming a trip hazard.
In winter I have to decide if freezing water across the pavement is going to become a slip hazard or not. If the weather is really bad then it would be better to leave the clean until the next day or the next weekend. In winter I would liberally spread the pavement with salt.
The best way we would settle on doing this job would all be written down in our Method statement and presented to the customer.
On numerous occasions I have rewritten a RAMS because there were other factors I didn't see when doing the same assessment.
For example; I might have noticed the electric power cables running to the building on my initial assessment. Even although I noticed them before I didn't realise that they were
bare current carrying cables. They most certainly could provide a risk of an electrical shock if I collapse the pole to the left rather than to my right. This might mean that the risk to clean one window is now too high for me to do safely.
I remember a request to clean a property. When I arrived I immediately realised that this was a job way out of our scope of expertise. I thanked them for asking me but explained why I wasn't the man for this job. The only way I could see forward was using a Spiderlift and I'm not going down that route. What I saw the value of the job was and compared it to the cost of the equipment needed to carry it out, the chasm was too wide.
Many years later those windows are still dirty.
