Safety management
Construction companies use a wide range of safety practices as part of their safety management programmes, with an increasing emphasis on creating a safety culture throughout the organisation.
Some of the practices that can be employed on projects to manage safety include:
- Involving workers in the safety process, through toolbox talks, safety briefings, site inductions, offering safety incentives, and so on.
- Analysis of potential site safety hazards during the preconstruction phase.
- Adopting the principles of prevention: avoid risks where possible; evaluate those risks that cannot be avoided; put in place measures that control them at source.
- Encouraging an open-door policy for workers to report accidents, injuries, hazards and near misses.
- Conducting thorough near miss and incident investigations to ensure effective action is taken.
- Employing specific personnel assigned to manage safety.
- Designating health and safety duties to on-site staff, such as a first aider.
- Conducting regular project safety audits.
- Developing a site-specific health and safety plan.
- Site specific training programmes for workers and subcontractors.
- Proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE).
Safety management is a very broad subject. Some of the articles on Designing Buildings Wiki that provide an introduction to the practices, principles and regulations involved include:
- As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP).
- Briefback.
- CDM.
- Construction health risks.
- Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH).
- Emergency plan.
- Environmental health.
- Health and safety.
- Health and safety at Work etc act 1974.
- Health and safety consultant.
- Health and Safety Executive.
- Health and safety file.
- Health and safety inspector.
- Health and safety policy.
- Incident reporting system.
- Injuries on construction sites.
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
- Manual handling assessment chart.
- Method statement.
- Near miss.
- Personal protective equipment.
- Pre-construction information.
- Principal contractor.
- Principal designer.
- Project risk.
- Reporting accidents and injuries on construction sites.
- Risk assessment.
- Risk management.
- Risk of rats in construction.
- Safety.
- Safety audit.
- Safety briefing.
- Site induction.
- Site inspection.
- Site safety.
- Toolbox talk.
- What is a hazard?
- Work at height regulations.
- Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992.
For a full list, see Health and Safety / CDM.
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