Minimising the risk of falls from height starts with the principal designer, but there are plenty of other opportunities for us to make it safer for those working high up. Our safety webinar considered the risk factors and ways to reduce them
Green, blue, brown, PV-topped, stepped ... anything but pitched: roofs are becoming more diverse in their design, construction and functions. That has increased the access needs around an area that is already hazardous; falls from height are associated with almost one in five deaths in UK construction, according to the Health & Safety Executive. Falling from height isn’t a risk only for those constructing and maintaining roofs; similar risks apply to those working on many other areas of buildings and substructures.
Minimising those risk starts with a building’s design, and specifically the work of the principal designer (PD). The latter’s role and responsibilities are well defined, with PAS 8671 most recently setting out competence requirements for PDs in line with the Building Safety Act. ‘We as principal designers need to capture to some extent how you design the project to relate to working at height,’ explained AHMM’s Paul Bussey – architect, CDM and BSA PD consultant, and a member of RIBA’s expert advisory group on fire safety. In July, Bussey gave the lowdown on PD duties at the webinar, ‘Addressing onsite safety using fall protection systems’, organised by RIBAJ in association with Latchways’ fall protection equipment systems maker MSA Safety.
Part of the design process
One essential reference document for designers is BS 8560, which covers integrating working at height in the design process. While explaining the guidance, Bussey highlighted the need for a balanced approach to safety. ‘As designers, we’ve got to think about not only how [a building] is constructed, but how it’s maintained and used. All these factors have to be considered together, so you can’t necessarily go for the most safe solution.’
Both Bussey and fellow speaker Dieter Bentley-Gockmann, director of EPR Architects and author of the RIBA’s Health and Safety Guide and Principal Designer’s Guide, referenced the hierarchy of risk control. Bentley-Gockmann put it simply as: ‘How do we eliminate the risk? But if we can’t do that, how do we mitigate it, make sure it’s managed – or what information do we need to provide to others that enable them to control those risks?’
Design risk management is among the factors RIBA members will be routinely tested on from next year. Whether they work on city mega-towers or rural bungalows, members will have to take the same RIBA Health and Safety Test, which, Bentley-Gockmann said, ‘gives our RIBA members the opportunity to demonstrate competence’.
Options for eliminating, mitigating and managing risk of falls from height are varied, ranging from facade cleaning robots to mansafe systems. When it comes to the latter, Bussey said, ‘We’ve got to consider other things perhaps first, but they’re certainly very usable in the industry’.
‘The situation dictates the right solution for the particular element that needs to be accessed,’ said Sneha Hollis, an architectural CDM adviser at AHMM and member of the Designers’ Initiative on Health and Safety (DIOHAS). But decisions need to be made early in the design process, she explained, ‘so that these solutions are installed at the right time and discussed during design team meetings, CDM reviews or any other discussions related to roof design or in terms of accessibility.’
Need for early consideration was also stressed by Stuart Pierpoint, specification sales manager for the UK and Netherlands at MSA Safety. For fall protection, he explained, that would typically mean looking at the area requiring access, frequency of access, number of people needing access and their levels of training and competence. He also stressed the importance of understanding the difference between fall arrest and fall restraint equipment, with the former being the popular term, but the latter providing greater protection, as the lanyard prevents the worker reaching the fall hazard.
Resulting solutions could include both collective measures, such as edge protection, and personal safety measures like a mansafe system. ‘We can think about these as a combined, joined-up solution’, Pierpoint said.
Designer and builder
Designers specifying anchor points for mansafe systems should consider BS EN 795, the standard setting out their technical requirements, Pierpoint advised. But he cautioned, ‘Current test standards only require anchors to be tested on concrete structures. We need to ensure all products are tested on the material onto which they are to be installed.’
While architects design-in safety, it is the contractor that builds. ‘There’s often confusion between what needs to be done at design stage and what the contractor does when it’s building,’ said Bussey. Bentley-Gockmann added, by way of clarification: ‘Once an element reaches construction, responsibility passes from the design team to the construction team.’ But he continued, ‘That responsibility still continues to be shared to a certain extent, and that relies on good communication.’
AHMM has developed icons showing scissor lifts and other equipment, which it routinely adds to drawings. ‘We use them to ensure better communication in terms of our drawings’, said Hollis. This communication, along with early decision-making, are part of an approach she calls ‘responsible design’.
‘The expectation that design stops the day construction starts is a fallacy,’ emphasised Bentley-Gockmann. ‘It’s a simple message but an important takeaway for architects.’