Safety Steps - Access Industry Forum

Safety Steps

Working at height guidance

Compiled by work at height organisations dedicated to keeping people who need to work at height, Safety Steps are enabling documents. They provide essential messages that can be used – in whole or part – by those who aim to produce any type of output for the five target audiences.
With the possible exception of information for designers, Safety Steps are not designed to be deployed directly to these target audiences (*though the Safety Steps for Supervisors and Operatives are written in the first person, so that the content can be more easily adapted for other use in further outputs and communication channels).

How you might use Safety Steps

From toolbox talks to checklists, providing a structure for training material content to informing flowcharts, Safety Steps, have a wide range of uses

Flowcharts/ infographics
Training materials
Poster campaigns
Toolbox talks
Rules and guidelines

Scope of Safety Steps

Safety Steps covers general information on work at height rather than task-specific aspects. So, for example, the messages don’t provide information about specific situations such as the use of scaffolding or mobile work platforms, or working on roofs. However the general information provided underpins any, more specific, work at height information. the content can be more easily adapted for other use in further outputs and communication channels).

 

Safety Steps

General guidance - start here!

The general guidance should be your starting point

General Safety Steps is a concise summary of the general principles of safe working at height, for easy reference.
We recommend you start by downloading this general safety steps guidance and then select specific safety steps as required.
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Essential messages for designers

Designer

Eliminate work at height if possible

  • Key issues to consider
  • Skills and knowledge
  • Low-risk maintenace
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Key information for clients

Client

Work at height should be planned

  • Examples of information
  • Points to consider
  • Areas to control
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Managing work at height

Manager

Co-ordinate / communicate with client and others

  • Plan work at height
  • Manage sub-contractors
  • Inspect Equipment
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Supervising work at height

Supervisor

Make sure all working at height is safe

  • Assess and record risks
  • Monitor work at height
  • Inspect equipment
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Working at height

Operative

Make sure you work safely at height

  • Aware of responsibilities
  • Safe work at height
  • Training and Inspection
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Construction Industry Advisory Committee

About CONIAC

The Construction Industry Advisory Committee (CONIAC) advises HSE and relevant stakeholders of emerging health and safety developments and risks in the construction industry, and sets a direction and plan for their promotion and mitigation.

Aligned to delivering Help Great Britain Work Well, CONIAC is organised under the six themes of acting togeter, tackling ill health, managing risk well, supporting small employers, keeping pace with change and sharing our success.

Learn more »

Construction Industry Advisory Committee

Managing Risk Well Working Group

CONIAC’s Managing Risk Well Working Group (MRWWG) created a sub-group to focus on working at height

Drawn from industry bodies, trade associations and representatives of working at height trades, the sub-group was tasked with considering a framework for safe working at height. The Safety Steps range of documentation is the first output from the sub-group

Got feedback?

If you’ve read or used the Safety Steps documents, we’d love to know what you thought. Whether you have a suggestion for improvement or just want to make a comment, please do share your feedback using our short form. We’re keen to make these documents as useful as possible for you and your feedback helps us get there. All feedback will be read and considered by the Access Industry Forum and CONIAC’s Managing Risk Well Working Group.

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Disclaimer and copyright notice

Safety Steps have been produced by the Work at Height sub-group of the CONIAC ‘Managing Risk Well’ group.

You are free to reproduce and use, subject to the following conditions of use:

  1. Safety Steps is free to use for any purpose that aims to improve or maintain safety when working at height.
  2. The material is ©CONIAC and any significant use should acknowledge CONIAC as the source.
  3. Any material changes in content or ordering to (as opposed to extracts from) the content of Safety Steps are not authorised by the authors and must not be attributed to the authors or the Access Industry Forum.
  4. Any queries about the possible use of Safety Steps should be referred to the authors using the ‘Feedback button’ on the Safety Steps page.
  5. Any commercial use should also refer readers to the AIF webpage where Safety Steps is freely available.
  6. The Access Industy Forum is the document host and provides Safety Steps for download without accepting liability for the technical accuracy of the content, any person downloading Safety Steps accepts the information is provided as general guidance for working at height.
  7. Safety Steps are not designed to be used to inform individual, site-specific requirements.