Posted By Peter Vintner Paul What happened to vetting your contractors prior to including them on your tender lists. You suggest that some of your contractors require jack and jill pictoral idiot guidance. This almost suggests that you are planning to secure the employment of Jack and Jill. Had they submitted relevent evidence of competence to carry out tasks for which they are employed there would be no need to produce such guidance. Roofers should be aware of falls from heights and the necessary control measures, painters should know what chemicals and paints they are using and the control measures, strimmers and grass cutters should know what PPE control measures are required etc. etc. If there are safety performance problems with selected contractors with respect to health and safety then instead of blaming or jivying contractors to do the right thing you must look at the procedures you adopt in their selection and act accordingly. Afterall a local governments liability is normally a public purse payout.

Posted By Harry This is an interesting topic - I would like to know if this sort of thing works? Seriously - do we as professionals think that using pictures and providing idiot guides is going to increase safety, or the awareness of safety issues? Just one example - a well known building contractor hands out little books just like discussed in this thread to its operatives and all subcontractors - I know for a fact that the vast majority are never read. Is it a waste of time and money? Harry

Posted By Jim Walker Hang on chaps! Whilst you are all perfectly correct I doubt Paul has final say on who is hired. Lets help him to IMPROVE the situation rather than get involved in slagging off his employer. Paul and anyone else even with a perfect contractor control system, There is a little HSE book called "....essential H&S toolkit........" (INDG344) which in my opinion is the best value document HSE has ever published. Well worth giving to every visiting construction worker, even if you DO have all angles covered.

Posted By Ken Lucas Paul Real problem area this, always feels like you are pushing water uphill. However, I know this is not always practical but one good method that I found helped achieve an improved contractor performance and standard more than anything else I did, was to run periodic (quarterly) contractor specific safety team meetings. It was a three man whip and the Contract Company CEO HAD (or his deputy) to attend. These meetings where chaired by a person seperate from our OS&H team, usually Head of Commercial, with us attending. They enabled (given time) for us to unify standards, procedures and systems, identfying "best practice" and also a good benchmarking process - we never had a problem with "naming and shaming" with relation to accidents/incidents - on the contrary they became only too willing to "shop" each other. Sometimes a difficult issue, painful initially and very poilitical - but eh! we got what we wanted, improved contractor performance, accountability and responsibility and it even focused our own employees minds, eventually we stopped hutring people so often - and thats what we ALL wanted and achieved. Ken

Posted By sylvia Interesting. Been there and done it - and it's not easy! How about training the surveyors / client officers who "supervise" these contracts? If they have the knowledge (and a source of reference - you!) they are far better placed to oversee H&S standards, if the contractors are saying yes, we will follow rules etc. Make sure you have enough copies of the HSE books, yellow construction code, roofwork, protecting public etc. - I believe that using HSE material is the best way for educating contractors generally, as (a) it's from the enforcer's mouth and (b) is "neutral" in the sense of competition - you are not "helping" unduely or influencing in a distorted way. The Absolutely Essential Toolkit (INDG344) is free from HSE Books (in single copies) and a superb start. (well done HSE!). Tender documents offer the opportunity to set out your H&S expectations, so can identify the main legislation and list "helpful guides" such as the contruction code (yellow book), plus free leaflets as above, but are also full of other junk, so won't get read! I would steer clear of preparing your own detailed instructions, unless the hazards created by the contractor can threaten your site/employees/public big-time (ie. if you are ICI!). Then, you would have a more extended duty. Generally, you're trying to steer a line between "good neighbour" support - (handholding) especially if the contractors are the only ones in the field, and not quite up to scratch! - and allowing contractors to determine for themselves what's under their own control. You may often find yourself acting almoost as unpaid consultant to some contractors - keep as neutral as possible and use their method statements as much as you can - yes, you'll have to help them understand what they are, but once they get the idea, they are preferrable to you dictating rules. Prioritise on the interface risks - where others can be affected - rather than those which affect only the contractors workers only (PPE/MH).