Established in 2004, the Access Industry Forum (AIF for short) is the not-for-profit forum that represents the ten principal trade associations and federations involved in work at height. Our members include ATLAS, EPF, FASET, IPAF, IRATA, The Ladder Association, NASC, PASMA, SAEMA and WAHSA. That’s a lot of abbreviations I know! Each member organisation represents a different sector of the access industry and are the ‘go-to’ authorities in their respective fields. On a day-to-day basis each member generally operates individually, but when it comes to advancing safety, best practice and competency when working at height, we all come together with a common goal – we strive for a future where everyone who works at height comes back down safely. We all have a part to play to make that happen.

We actively support the work of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Working at Height that brings together MPs and Peers with government, industry leaders, trade associations, SMEs and contractors. The aim is to raise awareness of the risks of working at height, understand why accidents happen and propose effective, sensible measures to make work at height safer.  We’re committed to supporting the APPG throughout 2022 and I’d encourage you to do the same. Take a look at their website for further information and details of upcoming meetings (being held virtually for now), as you’re welcome to attend.

Of course we are also proud supporters of The No Falls Foundation, with many AIF members having already joined their Supporter Scheme. If you’re looking for a worthy cause to support this year, look no further, and help them continue their important work in the sector.

That’s a bit about the AIF, how can we help you?

1. Think of the AIF as your first port of call for any work at height queries. As a central point of contact for all ten associations, we can point you in the right direction to get the information you need, please just ask!
   
   
2. We also offer free guidance that you can download from our website. One resource I recommend you look it is ‘Safety Steps’, created by the Managing Risk Well group, a safety body within CONIAC, with input from the AIF. ‘Safety Steps’ is a series of guidance documents for different duty holders from client to designer, manager through to operatives. It starts with a range of questions to consider and provides prompts to help you evaluate the risks and issues when working at height can’t be avoided. They are available from our website.
   
   
3. This year, we’re excited to be launching a series of webinars hosted by our members. Expect topics such as Managing Work at Height, Training & Competency and Temporary Works. While we’re still finalising the exact dates for these, make sure you’re following us on social media as I’ll be posting updates there first. You can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Working at height takes place all day, every day, and everywhere. Whatever sector you’re in, however big or small your business, and whatever method you’re using to work at height, we have a network of members who can help – feel free to contact the AIF or any one of our members when you need specific advice.

For more information, visit our website:  https://accessindustryforum.org.uk/

I don’t know what the attraction is between men – particularly men of the senior persuasion – and their ladders. I know it has something to do with getting a job done quickly and proving that they still have the mojo to do it. Calling on someone more expert, or God forbid, younger, is not on their radar.

In one way, I understand, because I would very much like to be able to do everything I did when I was 50, or even 60. For example, I used to do laundry all morning, clean in the afternoon, and write into the wee hours after making dinner and cleaning up afterwards. Today? Pick one of those activities and give me two days.

But would I climb on a ladder these days? Fuggedaboudit. Fortunately, I am immune to the prevailing syndrome that causes men to climb ladders. It’s called Testosterone Poisoning. It is strictly a male disease.

Over the years, several male friends have fallen victim to this particular malady soon after their retirement.

The well-known owner of our local radio station waited a whole week after his retirement party before climbing to the top of his extension ladder. Roy was 6’8”, and probably thought nothing of stretching his enormous reach another few feet – or 20. He fell from the roofline of his tall house. It didn’t kill him, but it slowed him down for a long time, and changed his new carefree days…forever.

Another neighbor waited until soon after his retirement to climb onto his porch roof to clear winter debris. When he fell – first on the iron handrail, then landing on the brick steps – he only broke a wrist. And his dignity.

Last year, another friend fell from his roofline just by stretching too far – a common occurrence in the world of ladder statistics. Armed with a chainsaw, he watched helplessly as the heavy branch he had cut at the roofline fell through his ladder. The force of the large branch plunged him over the edge of a ravine. Falling almost 30 feet, he lay unconscious for hours before being discovered by his wife. His concussion required rehab, his hip required rebuilding, and it changed his life…forever.

All of these men are smart – even brilliant – in their professional pursuits. But not on a ladder. Men have a compulsive need to climb, and I have discovered the one word that gets them in trouble: Roofline.

Ladder + roofline + male over 65 = catastrophe.

Last year the catastrophe fell too close to home. Our Dean is a dear friend, dating back to his years on the job with my Dear Richard as New York State Troopers. And he is also the computer genius who keeps us running electronically. Dean doesn’t buy computers – he builds his own. I confess that a few columns wouldn’t have arrived in this space without his perseverance. He is our guru, and without him we couldn’t survive computerdom.

But for all his genius, Dean connected his ladder to a roofline, and changed his life…forever.

A year ago, he climbed onto his one-story roof – or almost did – for a quick repair. He stood his ladder on the small sidewalk beside his Florida house. Everything was fine until he reached the top of the ladder. As his stepped forward to plant one foot on the roof, the ladder leaned heavily into his new soft vinyl gutter – and the bottom skidded away from the house on the cement below. As Dean described his soaring dive from the roofline, “It was a triple gainer with a twist.” Unfortunately, the twist was his leg going through the ladder before they both tumbled onto the hard cement.

The surgery to rebuild his lower leg, crushed ankle, and divided heel was extensive. For the first few months, he thought the 16 long steel pins sticking a half foot out of his ankle and leg were individual. Turns out they were 8 long pins that crossed inside to pull everything back together. A large bolt, an “external fixator” also stuck out of his shin for many months. He lived in a wheelchair and slept in a recliner. Computerless. Months later, he worked his way back to his keyboard. Today, he is finally able to walk, but no day is without pain.

Sadly, the formula proved again. Ladder + roofline + male over 65 = catastrophe. Disaster. Life-changer.

So, dear male readers, PLEASE do not even think of combining yourself with a ladder and a roofline. I cannot imagine a better way to spend your retirement check than on someone younger and stronger to save your neck.

You should safely enjoy your golden years…your personal forever.

I think that one thing many people do not yet fully appreciate is that the No Falls Foundation addresses all falls from height. As such this means it covers all aspects of falls and not just those in the workplace. This is particularly important as there are far more falls from height in domestic (accidents at home) situations than occur at work.

It’s difficult to be certain on the number of domestic falls from height as there is no clear co-ordinated way in which they are reported in the UK. There’s no legal requirement (such as RIDDOR in work situations) for reporting, though estimates might be made from information such as the Labour Force Survey. If you search online for domestic falls from height statistics, you inevitably find lots of information for work related accidents and for domestic falls on the level by the elderly.

I’ve heard various estimates for domestic falls from height, and these vary from 10 times greater than work related falls, up to 40 times greater.

HSE accident statistics for fatal falls are generally regarded as pretty accurate. In 2020/21 there were 35 fatal falls from height incidents. However, HSE acknowledge that it only receives around 50% of RIDDOR reports for specified (aka major) and >7-day injuries. They base this on information derived from the Labour Force Survey.

If this is accurate then, extrapolating from HSE data, that means somewhere between 105,000 and 420,000 domestic falls from height injuries a year. Not all will result in a hospital visit but I imagine many do, so that is an incredible burden on the NHS, let alone the cost to those suffering the injury and their families. How many of us take out insurance that covers us in such a way that when we injure ourselves at home it won’t adversely affect our earnings, our mortgage and our other bill payments. And how many consider the emotional impact an injury to us might have on our friends and family.   

Many people I know or have met down the years simply take the attitude that it’ll never happen to me, yet these accidents statistics for people undertaking tasks at home, at height really do suggest we need to change that way of thinking.

How many of us simply reach for the ladder/stepladder and just get on with things, often in the way we always have?  

Rather than just getting on with it, take some time to think things through. It makes far more sense to make sure you plan any work at height activity to get it right in the first place. And that starts with questioning two things:

1. Is it necessary to do the task at height, or might it be possible to do it in another way? For example, I use a telescopic pole pruner to prune large shrubs/hedges, trees, rather than working from a stepladder.
2. Am I capable of doing the task at height or should I be getting in a professional to do it for me? In many instances we do not own the right equipment to undertake a task safely. For example, if I have any problems with the roof on my house, I call in a roofing specialist.

But how can you make a properly informed decision on this? In the same way that it is difficult to find statistics online for domestic falls from height, so too it is hard to find advice and guidance aimed specifically at domestic tasks. However, although you are not ‘at work’ when you undertake tasks at home it makes a huge amount of sense to read and follow guidance that is aimed at work situations.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has a huge amount of very helpful advice and guidance on its website as do the various members of the Access Industry Forum, the organisation for the main trade bodies representing industries associated with work at height. The latter also provide links to their members, so you should be able to find one locally.

So many of the jobs we undertake around the house and garden (painting and decorating, minor repairs, pruning, etc) are done at height and pose the very real risk of a fall and injury. So why not check how the professionals are supposed to do it and follow that? A little bit of planning, before you start the task, can make a huge difference in undertaking it safely.   

Two illustrations as to just how important the issue is. First, almost everyone in safety knows that Piper Alpha claimed the lives of 167 men but fewer know that, over the years more off-shore workers have been killed in falls than in all the process safety issues combined. (There are lots of stairs and they are often wet).  Second, statistically, gravity is just about the most dangerous thing on the planet. (It’s very difficult to name a famous person who has made the papers for having a serious accident where the expression ‘fall’ doesn’t feature. Think Christopher Reeve, Rick Mayall, Rod Hull … )

Systems.

I talked to an HSE inspector who’d been asked to look into a fatal fall at a nightclub. The man was drunk but also truculent and they wanted his view on how likely a fall was. They were concerned that an annoyed bouncer might have pushed the man down the stairs. What he found was that the stairs were badly lit, steep, slippery even before slopped beer, had steps of differing sizes promoting the odd ‘air’ step and the handrails were so small as to be merely decorative. ‘In truth I’m surprised this is the first serious fall’ was his verdict … and of course it wasn’t at all. Indeed, there had been another fatal fall just the year before though his “entirely accidental’ one seen by others.

In short, getting the basics right is always step one and in this example the club were about as far from a ‘culture of care’ for their customers as it’s possible to get.

Learning.

The learning points in the above case study are self-evident but often they’re more subtle. A job organised so that items have to be carried up and down stairs. Harnesses that are difficult to use or long reported leaks that make surfaces slippery. In my book ‘A Definitive Guide to Behavioural Safety’ I make the case that at its best BBS encompasses the essence of Carol Dweck’s famous learning mind-set. What can / does go wrong? Why? What do we need to do about it?

Transformational Leadership.

Is, in essence, all about communicating clearly, coaching not telling, praising not criticising and knowing that we’re all leading by example all the time whether we want to be or not – so we may as well do it well. Impactful signs reminding people to “hold the handrail” don’t hurt but they help far less than making the handrail easy to hold. ‘Catching a person doing something safe’ and praising them is proven to be about 10 to 20 times as effective at promoting behaviour change as criticising them. However, I’d argue, neither is as effective as the senior management always holding the handrail on the stairs or the foreman always clipping on. It also makes any censure fairer and nothing undermines trust faster than a perception of unfairness. (Trust is perhaps the key metric for an organisations empowerment level).  

Finally, good coaching is about treating people like adults and using data to illustrate a point. So, for example, you could say to someone on an off-shore rig. “Did you know that the chance of falling if you’re not holding the handrail is about 100,000 to 1 so if you’re lucky you can work an entire career never holding the handrail and never falling … but … these stairs on this platform are used about a million times a year so if none of us hold the handrail we’ll have about 10 accidents a year give or take, if 90% hold the handrails then an accident once a year give or take … but if 99% hold the handrail then we’ll only have one incident every ten years or so … and whilst we’re talking did you know that more people have been killed in falls off shore than in all the process safety accidents combined? …’

In short, the most effective cultural and behavioural techniques and principles apply as much to trips and falls as to any other safety issue. Indeed, with gravity just about the number one accident risk factor there is … arguably even more so!

The article on competence in the last Saving Lives mentioned training as one aspect in gaining such competence. So where do you go, what do you look for and what constitutes good training?

First, let’s put training in some context. The Health & Safety at Work Act requires an employer to provide such training, as is necessary, to ensure the health and safety at work of his employees. It’s safe to say that this includes both training in the tasks, roles and activities to be undertaken, as well as in understanding safe systems of work and management procedures to be followed.

In essence, training should include both the industry role/task and health and safety. How can you fully understand your industry training if you are not also given explanation and (health and safety) training in why things need to be undertaken in specific ways. If you are not given the reasons/context why you need to work in a specific manner, then it’s less likely you will understand and keep to that safe system.   

HSE guidance is clear that, as with competence, a proportionate approach is needed. For example, a low-risk business would not need lengthy technical training. Elsewhere however, some workers may have particular training needs, and this might include new recruits and induction training; young persons, who may understand risk less; those where there are specific legal requirements (eg operating fork lift trucks); etc. Your risk assessment should identify these, and any training needs associated with specific risks (danger areas in the workplace; fire & emergency procedures etc).

As part of a proportionate approach, it’s quite possible to deliver some training in-house, though you will still need to show that those providing the training are competent to do so and how they ensure a consistent approach to that training (do they follow a set syllabus or course). This is especially important if you have more than one person delivering your training.

And remember, training is very much not about ‘bums on seats’, it’s about people being able to understand and put what they have learned into practice and to do so safely. So, you also need to have a management system in place to check this when workers return from the training.

Training can be in various guises and some organisations might even call it learning and development (L&D). People might learn by a variety of methods (e-learning, coaching etc) rather than just by attending formal training courses. Whatever method is chosen, you still must be able to demonstrate a consistent approach to ensure all receive the same quality of L&D that is required and your management approach in checking that it has embedded and is being properly used.

For many organisations it is simpler and easier to bring in / buy in (send workers away to) training. What you will need to do, as an employer, is make some checks to ensure that whoever you approach to deliver that training is genuinely able to deliver a consistent and quality product. Some routes may be easier to follow than others, and you may find it simpler to approach FE colleges, qualification awarding bodies, trade unions or trade associations. And don’t just accept what courses are ‘on the shelf’, discuss with those providers what the course covers and whether it meets the needs you have identified for your employees. They might well help you identify things you hadn’t considered, or even be able to tailor training to your needs.

Where work at height is concerned, you could do worse than approach Access Industry Forum member bodies, who can provide technical training, awareness training and management training (if managers/supervisors are not trained then you will likely find it difficult to check your employees are following the training they have received, so how can you then be sure you haven’t just wasted your money).    

I’ve already mentioned ‘bums on seats’ training. Many of you may well have experienced such courses. You simply turn up, sit in a classroom, have someone talk at you (probably deliver death by powerpoint) and pick up your certificate of attendance on the way out. And it is (or at least should be) just a certificate of attendance. Without any kind of assessment or check on whether attendees have learned and can apply that training, how can it really be anything else?

That’s one of the main reasons why you need to choose your training provider carefully. Choosing a provider and course that includes assessment/checks/tests (just like a driving test) gives you at least some help in demonstrating your employee had a level of competence when they completed the training. But, as mentioned in the previous article on competence, that’s not the end of the matter for an employer. You must still monitor that your employee continues to demonstrate that competence during their work for you.

Further very helpful guidance is available in HSE leaflet INDG345 Health and safety training – A brief guide or on the HSE website.