Posted By karina brady1 We are trying to implement a policy within our company that all our subcontractors working on sites must have a written safety statement and safety policy and method statement/risk assessments for the works being carried out. The subcontractor fitting the gutters argues that he only has 2 employees and dosent have to have this. As construction is regarded as a high risk work activity, I feel that all subctractors regardless of size should have these measures in place. Are we being unreasonable in our requests?

Posted By MT You might find these two HSE info sheets helpful: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg368.pdf http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg268.pdf I wouldn't say you are being at all unreasonable in what you are asking for, given the level of responsibility you also have for the works being carried out.

Posted By karina brady1 Sorry about the spelling there!

Posted By Ron Hunter Can I suggest that you work together with these smaller contractors to support them in achieving what you require? Providing them with example templates, references and resources, bringing together like trades etc for brief workshops and seminars etc could well pay dividends. Have you considered applying CHAS standards to your contractor assessments ( which are effectively being written in to the 'new' CDM ACoP)?

Posted By karina brady1 Thanks for that? Its a good idea to help the subcontractors with their method statements and point them in the right direction. I have a blank template which I can give them. I think one of the problems the subcontractor has is that they think this will cost them a great deal of money as some subcontractors have had this paper work professionally done up for them and where charged a fortune for it. However a small number of subbies can be rude and ignorant and very hard to talk to so you may not really feel like helping them.

Posted By Philip McAleenan Karina, the following two documents from the HSA in Ireland may prove useful for your sub-contractors, Steps to preparing a safety statement, http://www.hsa.ie/files/...406160940546%20steps.pdf Sample format for a safety statement, http://www.hsa.ie/files/...040618013837formatss.pdf Regards, Philip

Posted By karina brady1 Crim, That's a good point, if I helped a contractor to do a method statement or risk assessment and an accident happened later would it come back on me if the risk assessment/method statement was found to be inadequate.

Posted By karina brady1 Philip, Thanks for that, there is a lot of good information on the HSA ireland website now.

Posted By Robert J Martin My neighbour is a one man band and he has taken the time to put together his method statements as a result he receives contract work for council builings etc. My advice is that if they don't have a risk assessment or method statement in place then don't employe them. At the end of the day you have a duty of care for contractors on site and if anything happens and they don't have the correct tools, training or safety equipment in place. Then the HSE will come looking for you There are plenty of businesses out their with the right safety precautions in place. Next time you tender for contractors include this in you specifications

Posted By Glyn Atkinson I have to ensure that several one man band type operators buy into our site safety system. I do this by walking the job in advance - if they want the work, and it IS lucrative repetitive work, they will spare the time to do this. I talk through their activities, including any interaction with our staff in the prototype areas, and ask them what they consider to be a safe working method. As they speak, I make simple notes of their description. I then give them the notes back and ask them to check for details, adding any safety risk aspects that they may have missed for their risk assessments. I then request that they re-write the method statement and simple risk assessment as a word document on their letterhead paperwork, accompanying their public liability policy details. This is usually quite sufficient for limited risk in an enclosed environment, and is also good for them to use as a template for other work opportunities. The type of worker involved here is a casual decorator and tiler within a closed workshop situation, so quite easy to handle.

Posted By Pete48 Karina, there is a very handy little booklet on this site www.cipbooks.com called "RA in construction.Sample forms." Mine cost me about four pounds and it has paid its way a million times in the circumstances you outline. When we ran our campaign to improve subbies paperwork evidence, we found this very useful. Handed out a few, FOC, to our more loyal subbies. note to mods, no connection with CIP just passing on info, hope that is OK.