It has been reported that one in four London construction sites has failed to meet the required safety standards for work on a construction site, which is where undertaking a
SSSTS course can help.
The Health and Safety Executive is the National regulator for workplace health and safety. They been visiting construction sites nationally to try and crack down on unsafe working in construction. The construction industry is in the top three industries of the most workplace injuries every year. For this reason, the HSE have been working to promote safe working and educate where things could be improved.
The HSE visited more than four hundred sites in London as part of its test during a month long inspection initiative. The sites visited were carrying out refurbishment or repair work in the London Borough. Visits were unannounced to ensure that all companies were managing high-risk activities correctly. This includes working with certain chemicals, equipment and working at height.
It was found in total that ninety three sites failed to meet the minimum legal standards for health and safety. In fact, some sites were deemed to be unsafe to work on, and work was halted until the standards had been raised. In all the HSE were forced to serve over one hundred prohibition notices and twenty two improvement notices.
Over the course of 2011 and 2012, forty nine people were killed working in the construction industry, of this number, four were working on construction sites in London. There were also four hundred and seventy one workers injured on top of this number in the City. It is vital that everyone going to work, is working in a safe environment. The point of this initiative is to ensure that all working in the industry are abiding to the same standards, keeping workplace injury to a minimum.
The SSSTS course is intended for employees with supervisory duties. The course is endorsed by the UK Contractors Group as the minimum standard training for all supervisors working on UKCG sites. The course educates delegates about health and safety laws, ensuring they understand what is required of them on the construction site.
The course teaches delegates how to carry out their own risk assessments on site which can help to prevent injury. The delegate will also leave with the understanding of running and monitoring sites effectively. One of the big problems with construction sites, especially the larger ones, is communication. This course teaches delegates how they can communicate risks on site.
For more information about the study, please see the Health and Safety Executive.