Managing Contractors: Ensuring Safety and Compliance
This blog is based on Judicium’s Health and Safety ‘Sofa Session’ from the 26th of February, with our resident expert Loretta Igbe, CMIOSH. This session focused on: Legal Requirements and the Importance of Health and Safety in school projects; pre-contract planning and risk management; and on-site safety and continuous monitoring.
Poll 1
Legal Requirements and the Importance of Health and Safety in School/Trust Projects
It is the school or trust’s legal responsibility to ensure the health and safety of contactors working on the school’s premises is suitably managed. Outsourcing the work does not mean the risks have been outsourced too. The school or trust has a duty to ensure the health and safety of people who may be affected by their undertakings.
Primary Legislation
Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974: the school or trust not only has duties to employees and pupils, but also owes a duty to people who may be affected by work activities on site, including the general public, temporary/agency staff, volunteers, visitors and contractors.
Construction and Design Management Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015): The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations, known as the CDM regulations, are a set of health and safety regulations that apply specifically to all construction and maintenance projects. Therefore, maintenance works such as installing/repairing heating systems and refurbishment, i.e. replacing doors, are covered.
The CDM regulations place duties on virtually everyone involved in construction work, particularly on key members of the project team such as the client, designers and contractors. Usually, the school or trust would be the client and must ensure the contractors are competent and have gone through a selection process to ensure they’re suitable.
Some construction project works under CDM require notification to the HSE, such as when the work will last longer than 30 days and have more than 20 workers working at the same time. Also, if the work exceeds 500 person days.
NB: A person day is one person's working day. To illustrate this, if the project lasts for 25 days and there are 20 people, then this is 500 person-days).
Case Study
A private school operator had to pay more than £100,000 when a worker was injured cutting down a tree. In April 2013, a worker suffered life-altering injuries while felling a mature sycamore tree on the school's premises to facilitate building works. The individual was using a chainsaw when a partially cut branch fell onto his ladder, causing him to fall and sustain permanent spinal injuries, leaving him confined to a wheelchair.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed that the school operator, Alpha Schools, had failed to engage competent contractors for the initial arboriculture work. Also, the contracted firm, P&X Complete Cleaning Services, had not conducted a risk assessment, lacked a safe system of work, and did not implement necessary safety measures such as securing the ladder or using ropes. Additionally, the work area was not adequately segregated, posing risks to nearby individuals.
As a result, Alpha Schools was fined £35,000 and ordered to pay £25,000 in costs after pleading guilty to breaching Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act. They also agreed to pay £50,000 to the injured worker. Paolo Mule, the boss of P&X Complete Cleaning Services, received an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after admitting to breaching health and safety regulations.
This incident underscores the critical importance of schools diligently vetting and managing contractors to ensure safety on their premises.
Poll 2
Pre-Contract Planning and Risk Management of Contractors On Site
Pre-contract Planning
Selecting a contractor and due diligence:- Schools and trusts should have a managing contractors’ policy
- It should detail the procedures for the selection of contractors
- Schools and trusts should vet contractors properly before work begins
- Never assume they know what they’re doing!
- Previous experiences
- Accreditations and certifications
- E.g., for a gas boiler service, use a contractor that has a gas safe registration
- For electrical work such as a five-yearly electrical installation condition report (EICR), use an NICEIC (National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting) accredited contractor
- Recommendations and reviews
- Ensure the job is clearly defined and well-planned.
Selecting a competent contractors leads to improved management, safety, and quality of work for the school or trust.
Risk Management of Contractors On Site
Risk assessments and method statements (RAMS) should be obtained from all your contractors, as these demonstrate that they have adequately assessed the work and how they will conduct it.
For routine works, such as cleaning carried out by an external contractor, these will typically be provided annually and do not need to be obtained/reviewed for each attendance. However, for non-routine works, such as installing a new heating system, specific RAMs for the job will be needed.
A liability insurance certificate should also be obtained to ensure they have the appropriate insurance.
A permit to work should be completed for hazardous work (e.g. works that involve hot works, confined spaces, etc).
It is designed to ensure all necessary precautions are in place before potentially hazardous work begins. Permits are issued right before the
Site-specific Health and Safety Measures
Contractor induction: Contractors are usually unfamiliar with your site and need to be aware of your expectations on-site.
This should be stated in your managing contractor policy and in your contractor rules. These rules can be signed by the contractor as their agreement to work in line with school or trust procedures.
Site-specific health and safety measures schools and trusts should consider include:- Establish effective communication.
- Clear definitions and effective communication must be established between the contractor and the school/trust.
- For instance, if a job requires restricting access to the car park, the contractor needs to inform the school about the restriction and its duration. This way, the school can make appropriate arrangements during this period and notify the staff and anyone else affected by the car park closure.
- Signing in procedures, including signing the school’s asbestos register (if applicable).
- This will confirm the contractor is aware of the asbestos and where it is located on site.
- Restricted areas.
- Times and dates contractors will be on site.
- Access to school or site(s).
- Expectations of the contractors to ensure the site is left clean.
Local arrangements (welfare facilities, First Aid): The school should ensure contractors are aware of the health and safety arrangements.
This includes information such as where to obtain assistance from a first aider and first aid equipment. Also, information regarding welfare facilities, such as toilets available for contractors to use.
Emergency arrangements: Contractors should be informed of the school's evacuation plans. They should be included in any planned or unplanned evacuations.
Contractors need to be provided with the fire evacuation plan, informed of where the assembly point is and how to evacuate.
They should also know how to report any accidents or incidents, as these must be included in the school or trust’s reporting procedures.
NB: Judicium offers CPD accredited training for managing contractors, which can be tailored for your school or trust. This can be in person or virtual depending on your requirements.
Poll 3
On-Site Safety and Continuous Monitoring
The school or trust is responsible for contractors while they are on-site and must ensure supervision is in place. Often, schools will ensure supervision when the children are on site for safeguarding purposes. However, supervision is also required when pupils are not on site.
Supervision includes ensuring the contractors are working in accordance with their own risk assessment and method statement. Therefore, those supervising the contractors must be aware of what has been agreed between the school or trust and the contractor. This could be the headteacher, site manager, or school business manager.
Supervision does not mean having to watch over the contractors all the time, but they should be regularly supervised. The level of supervision required will be specific to the contractor and/or work. For instance, new contractors completing high-risk work will need a high level of supervision, but a well-established contractor, such as a cleaning contractor the school or trust has been using for many years still needs to be supervised, but not at all times.
All staff should be empowered to raise any concerns directly with contractors or report to those responsible for health and safety in the school or trust if they see a contractor's unsafe behaviour.
Top Tips
- It is the school or trust’s legal responsibility to ensure contractors working on its premises are adequately managed and their work is carried out safely.
- Contractor selection is important to ensure the selected contractor is competent. It is not simply a tick-box exercise. Reviewing documents and checking competency is key.
- Effective communication between the school or trust and contractors is essential.
Helpful Links:
Judicium Education’s Health and Safety Advisory Service is designed to support schools, firstly, in ensuring a safe working and learning environment, secondly, in complying with the legal requirements imposed on them as employers under the various Health & Safety laws and regulations. For more information, please visit here.
If you require any support in any of these steps, or would like to talk to someone surrounding some support for your school please do not hesitate to call us on 0207 336 8403 or email enquiries@judicium.com.
The Health and Safety Service is also providing accredited training courses, including eLearning with specific modules ranging from courses designed for premises managers and SLT to all staff offerings and fire warden training: https://www.judiciumeducation.co.uk/elearning
We also offer live, exclusive training options: https://www.judiciumeducation.co.uk/training
To review Judicium’s forthcoming sofa sessions please click here.
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