Hi I'm Sarah I'm one of Her Majesty's inspectors of Health and Safety and today is Monday 22nd of September
and for the next four weeks the Health and Safety Executive the construction inspectors of the Health and Safety Executive are
proactively inspecting refurbishment premises
So I'm at the premises at the moment I've just done my first visit of the campaign looking at all the issues that we find on site
The types of issues we've been looking at the moment are management of the site and the control of the
people that are working on the site so the health and safety of all the people that are working on the site
There are some issues on this site regarding working at hight for example
people working on bandstand and trestles with no guardrails things like that
Some electrical safety concerns on site
Fire management on site concerns with the safety of the people working on site getting out of the building in case of a fire
waste materials and how they're being managed across the site
There's quite a few issues going on site at the minute
The site has been given notices in order to help them improve and go in the right direction
We're going to see what else we find in the next few visits that we do over the campaign and I'll let you know what I find
Today is the 22nd of September and today we've been to four different construction sites around this area
Maybe come into contact with up to 20 construction workers today
We've had a very positive impact on the work environment of the people that we've met today
and improved things for the better for those twenty people so hopefully they can go on working and have a happy and healthy working environment
So I'm currently in Oxford today it's raining I think it's raining on the whole of the country today and it's raining on me in Oxford
But I just thought I'd show you Oxford this is where I'm out and about inspecting today
or right I don't know how my colleagues are getting on there is another three inspectors around Oxford somewhere today
So hopefully we'll catchup with them at the end of the day and I'll see what they get up to
So I've just been onto the latest construction site
and generally things are being managed pretty well safeties really good
The areas that tend to let these
this company down was the health issues
So the management of silica dust the management relating to health and safety
with manual handling
so people are doing a lot of form work moving big massive pieces of wood around
and there's no manual handling training and there's no manual handling assessments
so that's something that this company got picked up for
Health issues don't tend to be given the same weight across the industry generally as the safety issues which is something we're working hard to put right
and hopefully make an improvement on quite a few people's lives today
So good news for this site all the subcontractors and principle contractors on this site are working well and effectively
and there are no material breaches so nothing significantly wrong with health and safety on this site
so I'll go and target my time somewhere else and be more affective somewhere else
So I've been out and about in Leicester today and got a call from the local police station in Leicester
telling us about an activity that was going on with a refurbishment an office block was being refurbished
can't mention ant names but it wasn't being done particularly well
A site manager had been put in charge of the site who hasn't done any of the health and safety training you'd expect from your site managers doing large projects
I arrived at the site there was about seven chaps wiring on the site and one of them was only 17
no paperwork on site what so ever no site induction
and basically young men putting their lives at risk
so that the job can be done just that little bit quicker
Not the best practice at all really so thats going to be going further and forward
We where out in Oxford the other day my colleagues and I went to about 12 different sites
I don't think any legal enforcement action was taken but there was a few things wrong around the site
but nothing tribally tribally bad
So the campaign has been running for two weeks we're into our third week at the moment in the first two weeks
about 800 sites were visited I think just over 800 sites nationally with the construction inspectors
and out of those 800 sites I understand about 40% of them
had material breaches on the site so letters
information being sent onto the site
where things aren't being quite right so still obviously a lot of work to be done across the refurbishment sector
in making things better so obviously our times is not being waisted
and everything is being put to good use
So this is where I'm heading to next as part of my refurbishment campaign
it used to be a shoe factory
a long time ago
and it probably would have been one of the main employers in Leicester of its time
Would have employed a few thousand if not more I should of thought
when it was operational it's been derelict for maybe ten fifteen years and I know part of the factory has been refurbished already
The site I'm on today is absolutely fine not found any problems here today but I've not been here that long and I won't be staying that long
The site where I am today was built in 1891 and when it was built it was one of the world biggest shoe factories
and today its been left to rack and ruin for a while and now a companies come along
and they're turning the site into over a hundred different properties so making a hundred different homes for families to move into in the area
So far in the campaign its been going for four weeks I've been to football stadiums I've been to churches that have been converted
I've been to big houses that have been turned into smaller flats
I've been to schools I've been to hospitals I've been to offices blocks that are being converted
a lot of different refurbishment activities
The problem I tend to find where I've been out on site are
working a hight
I've issued more notices and taken more action for working at hight problems than anything else whilst I've been on site
generally people tray and get a job done quicker
taking shortcuts not working safely
and a general health and safety
culture I suppose that's excepting that it's ok to work to that standard
so we're asking employers and telling employers that actually do you know what this goes back to you you need to take
action to make sure that the people that are working for you are working safely
People just want to get a job done they just want to work and earn a days wages if they start making a fuss or kicking up
problems for their employers saying things aren't safe we don't want to work like this
the chances are they're not going to get a call back next week to go to work
so they just get on and try and get the job done
But it's the employers that we're looking at and saying do you know what there's a minimum standard out there you need to make sure that the guys that are working for you are working safely
and anybody that's working on you site has everything they need to work safely
and make sure that's going on
but here today every things fine so far