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Safety First (1)
September 2007
The 31st December deadline is looming for the mandatory carrying of a CSCS card by everyone working or visiting a major house builder’s site.
Meanwhile the HSE have reported a 28% increase in fatalities in house building in the last year and some key questions are being asked. Having attended the recent House Building Fatalities Forum in London with the Secretary of State Peter Hain it is clear that conclusive evidence is hard to find. However some common themes have emerged.
- Behaviour remains a key yet elusive issue and one which will be covered at the next Scottish House Builders Health & Safety Forum on the 7th November.
- Sharing best practise continues to challenge our industry. In the past a reluctance to share knowledge was often viewed as protecting a competitive advantage. However in Scotland we have seen a dramatic change in attitude through the House Builders Forum. The new challenge is persuading people to use the often simple, proven methods of improving standards.
- Raising levels of competence should on paper be the easiest of the major issues to deal with. Surrounded by information, training courses and resources, we are awash with opportunity and yet disappointingly our industry remains on the whole poorly qualified.
Perhaps most concerning of all is the difficulty in getting companies and individuals to adopt CSCS as a minimum standard. Setting a minimum standard involving the completion of a 40 question touch screen multiple choice test every 5 years will do little to raise standards, but it is a start. What companies should not do is continue to accept this as their minimum standard.
At Forster we set a minimum standard of annual training and assessment for every site employee over 14 years ago. We believe that you can tell the difference, the statistics certainly do.
John Forster is the Chairman of Forster. He is also Chairman of the Scottish House Builders Health & Safety Forum.
