Decide what you need to do to manage contractors’ work. The measures you put in place should be consistent with the level of risk, i.e. the greater the risk, the more you need to do.
Consider:
- who will be responsible for the work and what do you expect them to do?
- who will supervise the work and how?
- how will the work be done and what precautions will be taken?
- what equipment should or should not be worked on / used?
- what personal protective equipment is to be used and who will provide it?
- what are the working procedures, including any permits-to-work?
- what are the arrangements for stopping the work, if there are serious health and safety concerns?
Once the work has started, make sure you keep a check on how the work is going against what you have agreed.
You can do this by:
- undertaking regular checks to ensure the works are being undertake safety, and current control measures are suitable
- investigating if things have gone wrong, for example near misses, incidents and ill health should indicate that further controls are necessary.
After the work has been completed, there will be benefits in reviewing and learning from any lessons to see if performance can be improved in future.
