Site Safety Equipment

Site safety is often managed by the overall site operator. They are required to ensure that all safety precautions are being taken, and proper safe working practices are being followed. It is their responsibility to ensure that the site is compliant with guidance set out by the Health And Safety Executive, who is the government body tasked with regulating health & safety in workplaces in the UK.

A lot of improvements to site safety can be easily implemented, and often are not expensive. Simple things like wearing the proper PPE, being properly trained on how to use that PPE, and being trained on how to carry out the task you are doing in a safe manner. For example if you are a labourer on site, you should know how to carry out manual handling. Ensuring that all safety equipment is properly signposted and easy to find is another easy win.

Comprehensive risk assessments are a very quick and easy way to ensure that risks associated with a task on site are identified and minimised and ideally removed.

Everyone, including you! Your employer is ultimately on the hook if they tell you to do something in the wrong way, or do not give you adequate training or protective equipment.

It is however down to every person on site to work safely, including simple things like not leaving tools laying around where they could pose a trip risk to another worker.

You are also responsible for your own safety, like ensuring you follow training and instruction on how to properly use PPE.

Within construction sites there are many environments and operations that can be potentially dangerous, such as welding, using power tools, working around heavy equipment and working at height.

Every year many workers are injured or even killed because they are not following the proper practices and work guidance.

An incident at work can not only have a short term impact, such as the financial impact of not being able to work for a few days, it could be far more serious such as a loved one not returning home from work.

The simple answer is that some tasks simply cannot be done safely without the proper equipment to protect the team around you, the general public and even yourself.

For example you cannot exclude people from a worksite without a clearly defined boundary that separates the general public from work zones.