THE BURTON BOROUGH SCHOOL A Specialist Arts College CONTRACTORS ON SITE POLICY Policy Reviewer Sarah McElduff Date of Review September 2013 Date Presented to Governors 14 October 2013 Date of next Review Autumn 2015
POSITION STATEMENT Burton Borough School has bought back into the Property and Design Service offered by Telford and Wrekin Council. Whereby, the majority of Major Building Work will be Project Managed by Telford and Wrekin s Property and Design Team and will be subject to their checks. A Building Surveyor is allocated and will act as the Project Co-ordinator between School and the Contractor. Burton Borough School fully adopts Telford and Wrekin s Working Safely with Contractors Policy Statement and the Policy on Management of Health and safety in Construction. The Working with Contractors Policy is an appendix to this document and both documents can be located on the school T drive and in the Health and Safety Policy Folder located in the Business Manager s Office. School Commissioned Contractors It is the policy of Burton Borough School, where possible, to arrange all contractual works outside of normal school hours, i.e. before and after school hours and during school holidays. However, some emergency and maintenance work will be required to be carried out during the school day. 1. No contractor will be allowed on site unless a prior arrangement has been made. 2. All contractors visiting the site MUST report to reception on arrival and sign in (and on departure sign out). The receptionist will inform the contractor of emergency evacuation procedures. They will be met by a member of the School s Site staff. The nominated person will ensure contractors are informed of any hazards on the school site, for example Asbestos. The register will be made available. 3. Should it become necessary to call out a contractor for an emergency i.e. heating, electrical, security or plumbing during normal school hours the contractor must be accompanied at all times by a designated member of the Site staff. 4. Contractors who provide a regular maintenance and service to the School will be CRB/DBS checked, and only when approval has been given will they be allowed to work unsupervised. 5. Staff members liaising with contractors undertaking work at the School have a responsibility to take appropriate action if they observe the contractor or any of the employees using any work practice, items of equipment which the member of staff considers to be dangerous. Such actions must be reported to the Site Manager, Assistant Site staff or the Business Manager for him/her to rectify, or failing that to the headteacher or Telford and Wrekin s Corporate Health & Safety Team. 6. For after school clubs and school holidays activities - students must be supervised by staff at all times where practicable. When prior knowledge of contractual works is available, adequate supervision to allow students to be
accompanied should movement around the school be required must be assessed. A model risk assessment is available on the T Drive. 7. Major Works/Builds Where the works are undertaken outside of the Telford and Wrekin Property and Design team, then the designated site will be segregated and secured from the students. The Contractors Site Manager (for the works) must be CRB/DBS checked prior to commencement and will act as main contact, and will be required to escort unchecked site members should they require access to other parts of the School. A Health and Safety agreement must be in place before the works commence. APPENDIX A HEALTH, SAFETY & RESILIENCE WORKING SAFELY WITH CONTRACTORS 1. Introduction 1.1 Contractors are used by Telford & Wrekin Council to carry out tasks ranging from small one-off jobs of maintenance or repair to major building contractor to regular daily service delivery. Under Health and Safety law, however, the same principles apply regardless of the size or duration of the contract: 2. Responsibilities 2.1 Health and safety responsibilities are defined by the criminal law and cannot be passed on from one party to another by a contract. In any client/contractor relationship, both parties will have duties under health and safety law. Similarly, if the contractor employs sub-contractors to carry out some or all of the work, all parties will have some health and safety responsibilities. The extent of the responsibilities of each party will depend on the circumstances. 2.2 Telford & Wrekin Council has a legal duty to protect the health and safety of its own employees and anyone else that our undertaking affects and that includes contractors. 2.3 Telford & Wrekin Council must inform the contractor about any health and safety issues on the premises or site where they are working so that they can take these into account and work without endangering people.
2.4 The contractor, similarly, has a legal duty to ensure the health and safety of their own staff and anyone else they affect which is likely to include Telford & Wrekin employees, our customers, service users etc. 3. Identify the work to be done: 3.1 Identify all aspects of the work you (as the client) want the contractor to do, including in any necessary preparation and completion phases, this should be set out in a specification. The level of risk will depend on the nature of the job. Whatever the risk, clients need to consider the health and safety implications of the job they want done. 4. Selecting a contractor 4.1 Clients need to satisfy themselves that contractors are competent (ie they have sufficient skills and knowledge) to do the job safely. The degree and nature of the competence required will depend on the work to be done. 4.2 The rules around selecting a contractor can be found on the Corporate Procurement intranet pages. 4.3 Before appointing a contractor you need to ensure that they are generally competent to manage health and safety. Many contractors are now accredited by CHAS (Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme) http://www.chas.gov.uk/ or registered, by one of the other equivalent schemes recognised by SSIP (Safety Schemes in Procurement) http://www.ssip.org.uk/. By selecting one of these contractors you will know that they have already been assessed as generally competent to manage health and safety and you don t need to require further evidence of this. 4.4 The Council has a list of local approved contractors that can be found on the corporate intranet and, for schools, as T&W approved contractors is provided on the Learning Platform. 4.5 If a contractor you wish to consider isn t already accredited under one of the above schemes nor on the approved list, you will need to make further enquiries. There are suitable questions included in the PQQ (prequalification questionnaire) on the Procurement section of the corporate intranet. CHAS also have a suitable questionnaire and standards available http://www.chas.gov.uk/. By prior arrangement, the Health & Safety Team, may be able to assist you to evaluate and score the answers given. 4.6 The next step is to ensure that the contractor has sufficient expertise to manage health and safely competently for your particular project. You may need to make further enquiries about previous similar work and take up references. Ask for detailed method statements for certain aspects of the work to be carried out; select the aspects that have the potential to cause the most harm to the most people and use the information supplied to inform your judgement. 4.7 Check the potential contractors resources. As well as sufficient financial resources you need to establish that they have enough time to carry out your contract safely and won t be tempted to cut corners. Also that the relevant experienced personnel are going to be available and that they have access to the necessary plant, materials and equipment.
4.8 The selection of any sub-contractors, if any, are the responsibility of the contractor. Clients must, however, satisfy themselves that a contractor has an effective procedure for judging the competence of a sub-contractor. 4.9 Get evidence that the contractor has an adequate level of insurance. 4.10 If the contractor s staff will be working unsupervised in the vicinity of children or vulnerable adults you will need evidence of satisfactory CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks. 4.11 Schools, due to delegated funding, can select their own competent tradespeople or company provided they can satisfy themselves of the contractor s competence, insurance and financial standing. 5. Construction projects 5.1 Construction work is regulated by the Construction Design and Management Regulations 2007 usually known as CDM. These regulations were brought in to try to reduce the number of accidents occurring in the construction industry. The regulations formalise the requirement to co-operate and communicate on safety matters and integrate health and safety into every stage of a project from planning and design to maintaining the building once it is completed. 5.2 These regulations place considerable responsibilities on clients and anyone in the position of commissioning construction work should use the professional services available within the Council in Development, Business and Housing or Highways, Engineering and Transport. 5.3 The Council s CDM policy is on the corporate intranet and, for schools, on the Learning Platform and sets out the detail of what is required. This is essential reading for anyone contemplating commissioning construction work, it contains a checklist of all the client s responsibilities. 5.4 Schools who buy back in to the Property and Design service can obtain professional assistance to ensure that suitable construction contractors are selected. All schools are strongly encouraged to make use of this service. 6. Before work starts 6.1 Discuss with the contractor the main hazards involved in the work they are to undertake and agree how the risks from these are to be controlled. 6.2 You should already have a risk assessment for the work activities of your own business. The contractor must assess the risks for the contracted work and then both parties must get together to consider those risks from each other s work that could affect the health and safety of the workforce or anyone else. The client and the contractor need to agree the risk assessment for the contracted work and the preventative and protective steps that will apply when the work is in progress. If subcontractors are involved, they should also be part of the discussion and agreement. 6.3 If the work involves visiting households within the Borough then it may be appropriate to advise the contractor of any additional safety precautions they need to take if any of the properties to be visited are on the Personal Safety Precautions
(PSP) Register. The register itself cannot, however, be shared with third parties. For further advice on this point contact Jo Revell Health, Safety and Resilience Manager. 6.4 Bring to the contractor s attention any work that may be going on in the premises that will affect the contractor or will be affected by the contractors activities. There may well be vulnerable service users or pupils on the premises who will require additional care as they may be unaware of dangers. 6.5 Agree access and egress arrangements, signing in procedures etc. 6.6 Agree times at which certain operations can be carried out. 6.7 Find out the name and contact details of the person who will be supervising the work. 6.8 Inform the contractor of the emergency evacuation arrangements. 6.9 Agree accident reporting arrangements. 6.10 Show the contractor of the location of any known or suspected asbestos materials in the vicinity of their work. Show the contractor the results of the asbestos survey for the premises, where relevant, and ask them to sign the declaration to the effect that the work they will be doing will not disturb any asbestos. 6.11 If more than one contractor is to be present on site ensure that they communicate with each other and co-ordinate their activities to minimise risks to health and safety. 6.12 Agree how to manage ongoing communication as the project progresses to ensure co-operation and co-ordination. Regular meetings can assist with this. 7. During the work 7.1 You cannot leave a contractor entirely to their own devices, some monitoring is required. The more impact the contractor s work could have on the health and safety of anyone likely to be affected, the greater the management and supervisory responsibilities of the client. Clients will also have greater management and supervisory responsibilities where they know more about the health and safety implications of the contracted work than the contractor. In all circumstances, clients need sufficient knowledge and expertise to manage and supervise the contracted work. 7.2 Monitor the contractor s activities against what has been agreed, particularly the method statements and / or the risk assessments. 7.3 If you observe, or someone brings to your attention, an apparently unsafe practice by a contractor you must act. There are a range of possible actions dependant on the severity of the situation: a. In all cases ensure your own, employees and customers safety. Do not enter dangerous areas. b. Speak with the individual(s) concerned, their supervisor and/or the most senior representative of the contractor on site, express your views and record this in your diary.
c. Raise any such health and safety matters at routine meetings and record in the minutes. d. Write formally to the contractor expressing your views and reminding him of his obligations under health and safety law. Send a copy to: The contractor s head office Andy Collier Surveying, Mechanical & Electrical Team Leader if the contractor is from the Council s approved list. e. If the risk is sufficiently serious i.e. an imminent risk of injury or to the health of any person then the work must be stopped. Confirm this instruction in writing. Inform the Contractors management and the Council s health and safety officers (01952 383625) as soon as possible. 7.4 You are not expected to do a complete safety inspection for a contractor- that is their responsibility. 8. On completion of the work 8.1 Review how safely the contract was carried out. Record any lessons that were learnt for future reference and pass these on to the Andy Collier Surveying, Mechanical & Electrical Team Leader if the contractor is from the Council s approved list.