Dr Shaun Lundy from 4site Consulting provides some essential advice on employing safe contractors.
All blocks require maintaining and sometimes that work is essential in ensuring everyone’s health and safety and welfare. In this article, however, I want to discuss the health and safety obligations you have when appointing contractors. A comment I often hear is, surely health and safety is the responsibility of the contractor right? Wrong! Both you and the contractor have responsibilities in health and safety law. Let’s look at your responsibilities when appointing contractors to maintain your blocks.
Identify the Job
The first step is to be clear about what you want the contractor to do. You should provide the contractor with as much information as possible and make sure they understand the performance you expect of them. Contractors need to know the timeframe for any work so they can plan resources accordingly, also any areas of risk they need to be aware of such as asbestos materials, work at height restrictions or other work going on at the same time.
You will also need to consider whether the work is routine maintenance or construction work in which case the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM) will apply. Basically where the activity involves construction processes, requires construction skills and uses construction materials, it is most likely to fall within the term construction work and CDM will apply. General maintenance adjustments, tree-work, cleaning, lift maintenance, testing of services and minor repairs are not considered construction work and therefore CDM would not apply. More advice on CDM can be found on the HSE website.
Selecting the Right Contractor
Regardless of whether the work falls under CDM or not a key responsibility is to be satisfied that the contractor you select is capable and competent to do the job safely and without unacceptable risks to health. This is sometimes referred to as contractor vetting or reasonable enquiry into competence. Do they have the right combination of skills, experience and knowledge? The degree of competence required will depend on the level of risk and complexity of the work as will the level of enquiries you make.
The HSE provide advice of the types of questions to could ask potential contractors, including:
- What arrangements will you have for managing the work? E.g., who will be responsible, how will the work be supervised, what checks do you make on equipment and materials etc?
- Will you be using subcontractors and if so how will you check they are competent? The level of competence for subcontractors will depend on the risk and the complexity of the work.
- What is your recent health and safety performance? For example, how many accidents and cases of ill health have you had, has HSE taken any action taken against you?
- Do you have a written health and safety policy? (This is only a requirement if five or more people are employed.)
- Can you provide existing risk assessments done for similar jobs? Again, written risk assessments are only required in law if five or more people are employed.
- What qualifications, skills and experience do you have in this type of work?
- What health and safety information and training do you provide for your workers?
- If required, do you have Employers’ Liability Compulsory Insurance?
Sometimes contractors may have already been through a scheme that provides an independent assessment of their competence, which can provide reassurance and avoid the need to duplicate this effort. Alternatively you may wish to use the services of an independent health and safety consultancy to do these checks, review risk assessments and method statement, and help plan the works on your behalf. Your decision on how to approach selecting your contractors will depend on you existing resources and knowledge of health & safety requirements. If in doubt, get some advice from a competent health and safety consultancy with experience of the property management industry. They can advise on the best approach to take without creating an unnecessary burden on you or your contractors and also whether CDM applies and how to comply.
Information, Instruction and Training
You will need to ensure that the contractor has information on any risks they may face in the block such as asbestos and the measures in place to deal with those risks. They may also need to know the emergency procedures and fire arrangements for the block so they can take the correct action in the event of an emergency. Any information you provide should be in a format that is easily understood by the contractor. In some circumstances where the work is more complex or there are multiple jobs occurring, onsite training and instruction may be needed.
Cooperation and Coordination
It is important that you and the contractor cooperate and coordinate on any matters that may affect your, the residents or the contractors health, safety and welfare during the work. This may involve regular communications either by meeting in person or by phone if that’s more practical. Contractors will also need to know how to raise concerns about the work to avoid, for example, unsafe conditions leading to accidents further down the line and this should be agreed before any work commences.
Keep residents informed
It is a good idea to tell residents when and where contractors will be working especially if they could be affected by the work. Planning when the work takes place can avoid such issues as noise or school home time. You should advise residents of the actions that are being taken to control or reduce the risk to them and what actions, if any, they will need to take. Depending on the complexity of the work it can be good idea to monitor the contractor to ensure they comply with their risk assessment and method statement, it is also advisable to record that you have done this.
Remember Cheapest isn’t Always the Best
It can be a mistake to go with the cheapest bidder. A cheap contractor may not resource the work sufficiently, take short cuts and possibly create significant health and safety risks either during the work or by leaving the building in an unsafe condition. A sensible approach to selecting the right contractor will ensure the work is done to an acceptable standard, safely and without any risk to health.
