Health & Safety Risks In Construction

Question: Task 1: Literature Review and Research: Review your chosen case study company, with respect to the details of the company processed, their activities in relation to HS and their current Health and Safety Policy Statement / Management System. Review the requirements of OHSAS 18001 and associated legislation which affects your chosen company. Review possible methods for undertaking Initial Status Reviews Task 2: Using a technique of your choice undertake an Initial Status Review (ISR) of the current management of Health and safety within the company. Task 3: Evaluate the current company Health and Safety Policy Statement,making and discussing recommendations for change. Task 4: Based on your ISR results, outline a project plan for the company to address certification to OHSAS1 18001. Task 5: Critically reflect and evaluate the use of initial status reviews,within the framework of developing a health and safety management system. Task 6: Produce a detailed report (~3000 words), covering the above. Answer: Introduction: One of the important aspects of any heavy scale industries is health and safety measures. Health and Safety management practices must be incorporated within these industries so that the risks of accidents and hazards are avoided within the company. Recently, the customers, clients, suppliers and even the share holders are alarmingly concerned about the health and safety management within the organization. The importance of the Health and Safety Management is being recognized by most of the companies as they stress more on the other activities of the company. (Hse.gov.uk, 2015) Thus, the companies are increasingly implementing stress and initiating policies to identify the problems and manage the risk associated with the work. The Health and Safety Management System is considered to be a formal outline that is required to manage the healthy and safety standards of a company. The standards are of national as well as international type like the OHSAS 18001:2007 Occupational Health and S afety Management system, although there are sector specific standards for maintaining health and safety in the company. The industry that is considered for the assignment is the Construction Industry in the United Kingdom which is Wright Constructions. Through the assignment we would advice the company to adopt and acquire the OHSAS 18001. The present health and safety management practices of the company are assessed using the Initial Status Review. (Health and safety a priority?., 2015 Objectives: The key objectives of the assignment are discussed below: Assessment of the current health and safety management practices of Wright Constructions. Carrying out an Initial Status Review by using a questionnaire. Evaluation of Wright Constructions Health and Safety Policy Statement and suggest recommendations. Analyzing the results of the ISR. Information about acquiring the OHSAS 18001 requirements for Wright Constructions. Company overview: Wright Constructions is one of the renowned construction companies that have commenced successful completion of construction development projects which included construction of buildings, works of civil engineering in the public as well as the private sector. Safety is the key element of the construction industry which is never compromised by the Wright Constructions. The company has set the standards of safety quite high and achievable through different procedures and measures. The company has also implemented the Health, Safety and Environment Policy in order to improve the working condition and minimize the risks to the employees. Literature review: Initial status review: The base of any business or organization is to recognize the requirement of implementing health and safety norm within the management practice. The need for such practices is important as it helps to prevent the chances of employee injury, accidents, other health hazards, environmental hazards and safety violation. The construction companies generally abide by the OHSAS 18001:2007 standards and Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. The requirements which must be incorporated by the construction workers in order to protect themselves from any accidents are included in the regulations. (Lingard, 2013) The first method to understand the Occupational Health and Safety Management system is to analyze the recent practices of the company in terms of maintaining health and safety norms. The Initial Status Review (ISR) of Wright Constructions health and safety management practices should be commenced in order to review the current safety status of the organization. The ISR is aimed at identifying the current health and management practices of an organization with some stipulated measures. The assessment is believed to reveal the safety standards of the company. Wright Constructions maintains and abides by the Health, Safety and Environment Policy which imply that the company is concerned about the safety measures and implements certain procedures to maintain the safety norms and standards. It should be noted that the policies and procedures implemented by Wright Constructions may not be appropriate, sophisticated, efficient or effective in reality. Thus, there can always be the need to i mplement a review that will help to understand the current stature of the company. This is why the ISR is conducted through a set of questionnaires. The ISR of questionnaires is an easy, simple and time-saving method to analyze the current status of the company (Lingard, 2013). The ISR helps to answer some of the relevant questions like; Whether the company is implementing the occupational health and safety standards; What other requirements must be incorporated to enhance the occupational health and safety measures; What external sources of information are required; Which of the measures and policies must be introduced or improved within a construction industry; Methodology: The workplace of the Wright Constructions is on the field sites and different outdoor locations. This involves higher health risks like working in the heights which increases the fatalities and injuries, injuries can also be caused due to the moving objects at the site, injuries can also be caused by falling, tripping or slipping, nose is another hazard that can cause deafening of the workers, Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome or blue finger which is disease of joints and nerves occur due to prolonged use of heavy and vibrating tools, risks related to collapse is also present, presence of airborne fibers and materials can cause certain respiratory diseases and lastly, the construction also requires electricity work which again increases the risk of accidents. (Alcumus Group, 2014) To understand that all these problems are dealt away by the Wright Constructions, an assessment is required which is carried through the ISR. ISR is conducted by implementing some self assessment questionnaire wh ich mainly had three choices for answer such as Yes, No and Partly. In response to the questions a set of scores were assigned to the answer choices. The option Yes contains 1 point, No contains 0 points and the last option Partly contains 0.5 points. The scores thus obtained from the analysis would help to understand the current scenario of the health and safety management practices of the Wright Constructions. The ISR questionnaire is divided into five categories like Policy Developing, Team organization, Planning and implementation, Measuring Performance and Auditing the performance. The ISR is conducted at the working site of the Wright Constructions involving 15 workers. The questionnaires were made available to the workers through paper and the responses so obtained are discussed in the results section. (Lingard, 2013) The ISR questionnaire for the Wright Constructions is included in the Appendix 1. Results: Isr findings: The ISR was conducted with 10 workers of Wright Constructions. The questionnaire is divided into five categories each containing two questions having close ended answers. The results so obtained are: Policy Developing- The implementation of the Health and Safety Managements, policies are required that would encourage the company to achieve objectives and benefit the construction projects. The effectiveness of the policy must be ensured by the policy makers of the Wright Constructions. (Finneran and Gibb, 2013) The responses that were yielded from the survey on whether the company has any written policy statement on health and safety were unanimous and the score was 10/10. The next question of this section yielded different response. Does the policy abide by the Health and Safety standards? Likert scale range Number of respondents Frequency percentage YES 3 30 NO 5 50 PARTLY 2 20 The total score obtained from the response is 4/10 which is a weak score. The chart shows that around 50% of the workers think that the company does not maintain the standards of the Health and Safety. Team Organization- the policies can be effectively and efficiently implemented if there is a structure to execute the management practices. The team members must work by maintaining the health and safety standards. (Wilkins, 2011) The third question was answered positively by the respondents and the score thus obtained is 10/10. The next response to the question reveals that there is a lack of team work within the organization. Does the health and safety norms being achieved by a team? Likert scale range Number of respondents Frequency percentage YES 3 30 NO 2 20 PARTLY 5 50 The score calculated from here is 5.5/10 which is mediocre score. The chart shows that 50% of the workers could not correctly respond to the question as they were uncertain about the team work within the company. Planning and implementation- the method of implementation is relevant to the effectiveness of the policies. With proper methods of implementation the policies and procedures can be directed towards solving the risks related to the construction sector. (Biggs and Biggs, 2013) The questions regarding the risk assessment and implementation of the policy shows that the respondents do not quite believe that such measures are implemented to mitigate accidents at the construction sites. Have the risks at the construction sites been assessed and measures implemented? Likert scale range Number of respondents Frequency percentage YES 2 20 NO 6 60 PARTLY 2 20 The total score here is 3/10 which is a very weak score. The response is a strong negative one which can be concluded that the Wright Constructions do not assess or identify the risks at the construction sites. About 60% of the respondents answered No to the above question. The sixth question has acquired a unanimous Yes as the respondents believe that each and everyone in the Wright Constructions actively participate in the practices. The score is 10/10. Measuring the performance- The performance of the Wright Constructions are measured in order to understand the current position of the company in terms of health and safety norms. Observation of the performance is done through two ways: Active monitoring and Reactive Monitoring. The results of both the questions in this section are important. Do your company report and record all the accidents at the construction sites? Likert scale range Number of respondents Frequency percentage YES 1 10 NO 8 80 PARTLY 1 10 The total score here is 1.5/10 which is a very weak score and the negative response is quite strong in this question. The chart shows that the respondents are strongly believe that Wright Constructions do not record neither report accidents at the sites of constructions. About 80% of the respondents answered No to this question. Is there any observation of health and safety standards? Likert scale range Number of respondents Frequency percentage YES 4 40 NO 5 50 PARTLY 1 10 The score here is 4.5/10 There is somewhat confusion in the response as 40% believe that the company monitors HS standards and 50% believe they do not. Auditing the performance- the auditing of the performance is a pre planned process. Through the auditing performance reviews are commenced which is useful for the performance standards and analyzing the achievements of the health and safety standards by the Wright Constructions. The policy review is also included in this section which is done over a period of twelve months. The reliability and validity of the policies are judged through the auditing of the performance. Through this, 3the decision whether to continue with the policies or to transform them is judged. (Elias et al., 2011) Do you review the procedure for health and safety? Likert scale range Number of respondents Frequency percentage YES 3 30 NO 5 50 PARTLY 2 20 The score here is 4/10. There is also disagreement in the review of the procedure of HS as 50% of the respondents have answered No. Policy review and recommendations: The Health and Safety Policy Statement of Wright Constructions is attached in the Appendix 2. The evaluation of the policy is discussed below; Safety Management: The objective of the Wright Constructions is the maintenance of an accident free, safe and healthy work environment. The company also plays the role to make sure that none of its activities hurt or harm the individuals, clients, workers and the environment as a whole. (Sherratt, 2014)The construction process is commenced within a safe, secured and environmentally sound manner. Wright Constructions have realized that its ethical responsibility is to abide by the policies and procedures so that the Health and Safety Management are carried out efficiently. It is the duty of the company to assess the construction site and measure the risks and hazards associated with the work process. If any risk is identified then the company must restrict the work unless the risk has been resolved. (Lingard, Cooke and Blismas, 2012) Corporate Social Responsibility: Every company has a corporate social responsibility policy that helps to influence the entire community with the health and safety practices of the company. Wright Constructions also maintains the Corporate Social Responsibility that impacts in an augmenting way to the society and trails the path of sustainability in health, education, social service and cultural issues. (Mohd Kamar et al., 2014) Development with the people: As already discussed that the highest risk of accidents is associated with the construction companies, the need to train the workers in order to minimize the chance of accidents at the construction site is required. Wright Constructions collaborates with others and engage in knowledge sharing so that best health and safety practices are incorporated in order o benefit the company. It is also the duty of the company to initiate certain training programs so that the workers are trained and are able to avoid accidents and even prevent them. (Construction Division: Plan of Work 2014/2015: For public information, 2015) Occupational, Health Safety (OHS): The standards that is required for the implementation of the Health and Safety Policy is the Occupational Health Safety standards. Through OHS standards, the company will be able to cope with the accidents and hazards related to the construction company. The OHSAS 18001 is a standard that sets norms for the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment System. (OHSAS 18001 Certification Procedures, 2014) There are requirements of the OHSAS 18001 standard for any company to acquire the certificate of standards: OHSAS 18001 Standards Manual Occupational Health and Safety Policy Measures associated with H and Safety legal requirements. Objectives and programs of the HS management Ample resources that would help to support the Safety Management System Safety Legislation Compliance. Methods of internal audit. Procedures for safety control and emergency action. Monitoring the performance of HS. Management review of the OHSAS 18001 standards. There are also various types of legislation that is required to implement the OHSAS 18001 standard at the European Level which is given below: (Strmgren and Jnsson, 2015) License issued to the company National Legislation European Legislation Semi-Legislation Recommendations: Based on the results that are extracted from the ISR, the policies and recommendations can be formulated and implemented by Wright Constructions in their Health and Safety Policy Statement. The recommendations are as follows: The Wright Constructions can implement the Accident, RIDDOR, Incident and Near Miss Policy which will help the company to measure and analyzing the accidents and arranging first aid procedures. This policy will also help to identify the occurrence of the accident and reduce it thereafter. Alcohol and Substance Abuse Policy must also be incorporated within the statement of policy so that the company can encourage the employees and help them to overcome the addiction. The company with this policy will be encouraging the sensible habits of drinking and induce a lifestyle which is drug free. (Construction Division: Plan of Work 2014/2015: For public information, 2015) Another policy that can be introduced by Wright Constructions is the Contractors (Selection and On-site Control Policy which includes the selection of the construction site, the usage of proper equipments, the methods of work employed and the capability of the workers which are abided by the legal requirements. Another policy that can help to reduce hazards is the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Policy. Through this policy the hazardous substances that are harmful as well as used regularly in the workplace would be removed. This policy puts forward a guideline to improve the environment by ventilation or exhaust extraction. There are two important policies that must be included which are the Electricity at Work Policy and the Fire Safety Policy. The Electricity at Work Policy (New.surreycc.gov.uk, 2015) put forwards norms that if employees are not trained then they must be participate in work that are related to installing or repairing sockets, plugs and tools or other electrical installations. The fire safety policy indicates that the company will maintain a fire risk assessment. This policy also identifies the fire hazards and mitigates the risk of fire. (Csb.gov.hk, 2015) Conclusion: The assignment is based on the present status of the health and safety management practices of Wright Constructions which is a leading construction company in the UK. The evaluation of the Health and Safety management practices of Wright Constructions reveal that the policy statement should incorporate several other policies that would help the company to avoid accidents and maintain a safe and secured work environment. Based on the ISR report which was conducted through a questionnaire set which was surveyed with the help of 10 workers at the construction site reveal that though there is a written health and policy statement of the company but most of the aspects do not comply with the policy statements and the standards. In this regard it is recommended that the company acquire the OHSAS 18001:2007 standards that will benefit the company to reduce and mitigate the risks at the construction sites. The requirements to achieve the OHSAS certification are informed for the company to ac quire it. (Strmgren and Jnsson, 2015) References: Alcumus Group, (2014).Top 10 Health Safety Risks In Construction - Alcumus Group. [online] Available at: https://www.alcumusgroup.com/top-10-health-safety-risks-in-construction/ [Accessed 14 Apr. 2015]. Biggs, H. and Biggs, S. (2013). Interlocked projects in safety competency and safety effectiveness indicators in the construction sector.Safety Science, 52, pp.37-42. 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