Whether you have regular planned maintenance, or maintenance works are needed in response to an emergency, you will need to consider any risks to health and safety and ensure that you are providing a safe working environment for contractors.
Employing Safe Contractors – What is My Duty?
In accordance with the Health and Safety at work Act 1974, if you are employing contractors you will need to “ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, [their] health, safety and welfare at work.”
As a Managing Agent or owner, you have a responsibility to ensure that your contractors’ work place, i.e., the buildings that you manage or own, are safe to work in and that contractors are made aware of anything that may pose a risk to their health and safety.
For example, you should be ensuring that any contractors carrying out maintenance works on your building(s) are informed of other health and safety procedures, such as the emergency procedures and fire evacuation plans for the building. One of the ways in which you can do this, is by displaying a ‘Smart Safety’ QR in the communal areas of your block for contractors to scan and access this information (please get in touch for more details on this).
Asbestos and Maintenance
Another potential risk that contractors face when carrying out maintenance works on residential blocks is the risk of exposure to asbestos. If a building was built before the year 2000, then it may contain asbestos and contractors will need to know the location and condition of any Asbestos Containing Materials before works commence.
If you are the responsible person for a building, it is your responsibility to ensure contractors have access to Asbestos Surveys and the Asbestos Register. Of course, it is also their responsibility to ensure they are checking this before they begin.
The Asbestos Register must be viewed and acknowledged by all contractors before any work starts to ensure they are aware of any Asbestos present. If you are sending contractors the Asbestos Register by email, you should ask that they reply to the email to confirm they have received this and crucially understood the contents in relation to the works they are doing.
Contractor Vetting
Before considering all of this, it is important that you are ensuring that the contractors you are using are safe!
You may be wondering how you can tell if a contractor or company has safe working practices?
In order to do so, you can ‘vet’ your contractors, for example, to ensure they have:
- Sufficient insurances
- Sufficient health and safety training for staff
- Health and safety certifications (such as ISO accreditations)A program in place for equipment maintenance and inspections
- A program in place for effectively assessing subcontractors
- And many more!
This is something we have discussed previously, and there are many services you can use to vet contractors on your behalf including Safe4site.
If you would like any further information or have any questions, please get in touch with the team at 4site Consulting today.
