MANAGING CONTRACTORS ON EDUCATIONAL PREMISES Dr Clive Werrett Corporate H&S Manager Worcestershire County Council
THE CONTEXT DEFINITIONS: • Contractor – A person or firm that undertakes a contract to provide materials or labour to perform a service or do a job”. • Subcontractor – A person or business which has a contract (as an "independent contractor" and not an employee) with a contractor to provide some portion of the work or services on a project which the contractor has agreed to perform. • Usually associated with “construction works”, i.e. CDM 2015 • Other contracted jobs – • Service engineers – planned preventative maintenance • Assessors, auditors, surveyors and testers • Sports coaches (swimming instructors, c.f. Woodland), • Management consultants etc. • Enforcement agencies? • Volunteers?
THE DUTIES • Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 – s2 & s3 (does s4 apply?) • Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 • Duty of care – to individual (Paris v Stepney BC 1951) In loco parentis – 19 th century – teacher should act “as a prudent • father” • Non-delegable duty of care – Woodland v Essex County Council 2015 • Children Act 1989 – LA duties - s22 “safeguard and promote welfare” …… “duty to promote the child’s educational achievement” NB. s103 – consent, connivance or neglect by any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate (c.f. HASAWA 1974 s37) • Occupiers Liability Act 1957 & 1984 (safe access and egress)
PROSECUTION 1 The investigation also found Cardiff and Vale University Health Board failed to effectively manage their contractors. They did not undertake suitable checks to ensure W D Rees Maintenance Ltd were competent to carry out such work or ensure a suitable risk assessment or safe system of work was in place. They provided the beam, a piece of lifting equipment, which was used to support Christopher Rees but failed to ensure it had been examined to ensure it was safe for use. Speaking after the hearing, the HSE inspector commented, “Duty -holders must ensure that all work at height activities are properly planned, appropriately supervised and undertaken in a safe manner. It is essential that companies employing contractors do not simply rely on the knowledge and experience of the contractor but make reasonably practicable checks themselves to ensure work is safely completed.”
PROSECUTION 2 The investigating inspector at HSE, said: "Aston University failed to ensure university employees and others working across the site were aware of the presence of asbestos fibres. "Surveys on the location and conditions of asbestos and materials containing asbestos had been carried out across the university but there was no procedure for communicating the details to contractors. "Access Fire and Security Ltd, a long-term contractor with the university, had never been given any information about asbestos - and had never asked for it. They also failed to assess whether asbestos was present, what type of asbestos was involved and what condition it was in, before undertaking work."
CIVIL CLAIM Woodland v Essex County Council – Supreme Court 2015 Lord Sumption identified five ‘defining features’ which, he said, would typically give rise to the existence of a non-delegable duty of care and justify a departure from the general fault-based principle: 1. the claimant is a patient or child or some otherwise vulnerable or dependent person; 2. there is an antecedent relationship between the claimant and the defendant which puts the claimant in the care of the defendant and from which it is possible to assign to the defendant a positive obligation actively to protect the claimant from harm (as opposed to a duty simply to refrain from harmful conduct); 3. the claimant has no control over how the defendant chooses to perform those obligations; 4. the defendant has delegated some part of its function to a third party, and the third party is exercising, for the purpose of the function delegated to it, the defendant’s custody or care of the claimant and the element of control that goes with it; and 5. the third party has been negligent in the exercise of that delegated function.
THREE SCENARIOS 1. Directly employed contractor: a. Greater control b. Determine contract and work specification c. Set the rules of engagement 2. Indirectly employed contractor: a. Central control b. Little involvement in contract or specification c. Set the rules of engagement? 3. Externally employed contractor: a. No control b. No involvement in contract or specification c. Set the rules of engagement?
CONSTRUCTION WORKS 1 • Construction works (CDM 2015) – the carrying out of any building, civil engineering or engineering construction work and includes: (a) the construction, alteration, conversion, fitting out, commissioning, renovation, repair, upkeep, redecoration or other maintenance, decommissioning, demolition or dismantling of a structure; (b) the preparation for an intended structure, including site clearance, exploration, investigation and excavation and the clearance or preparation of the site or structure for use or occupation at its conclusion; (c) the assembly on site of prefabricated elements to form a structure or the disassembly on site of the prefabricated elements; (d) the removal of a structure, or of any product or waste resulting from demolition or dismantling of a structure, or from disassembly of prefabricated elements which immediately before such disassembly formed such a structure; (e) the installation, commissioning, maintenance, repair or removal of mechanical, electrical, gas, compressed air, hydraulic, telecommunications, computer or similar services which are normally fixed within or to a structure .
CONSTRUCTION WORKS 2 MANAGING CONTRACTORS (HSG159) Five practical steps for safe working: 1. Planning 2. Choosing a contractor 3. Contractors working on site 4. Keeping a check 5. Reviewing the work
CONSTRUCTION WORKS 3 FIVE STEPS TO MANAGING CONTRACTORS (WCC) 1. SPECIFY EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT THE CONTRACTOR TO DO. 2. MAKE SURE THE CONTRACTOR UNDERSTANDS WHAT YOU WANT DONE. 3. HAVE A MEETING BEFORE WORK STARTS TO EXPLAIN THE SITE RULES. 4. MONITOR THE CONTRACTORS WORK OCCASSIONALLY. 5. ENSURE THE JOB IS COMPLETED TO THE SPECIFICATION AND TO YOUR SATISFACTION BEFORE AUTHORISING PAYMENT.
GENERAL PROCEDURES Before a contractor starts work : • Who are they? Company and / or individual (competence) • Who sent them? (competence) (contracts) • Why are they there? • What are they going to do? (work specification) • Where are they going to work? • When are they going to do the work? • How are they going to do the work?
GENERAL PROCEDURES During : • Communication to staff / students • Induction • Time of arrival / departure • Access to work area – escorted and left? (security) • Access to utilities • Access to welfare facilities • Contacts • Monitoring and supervision (site meetings) • Segregation – separating contractor from staff / students • Responsibilities (is work area under the control of the contractor) • Material storage and waste • Emergency procedures / Accidents & incidents
GENERAL PROCEDURE After : • Inspection – work completed to specification? • Snagging – difficult to get a contractor back once they have left the site • Paperwork – signing off • Records – copies of paperwork
SAFEGUARDING AND SECURITY 1. DBS / Extended DBS – what level you want? 2. Access – what measures do you have in place to stop a contractor entering areas other than where the work is? 3. Security systems – how easy is it to defeat your security systems?
THANK YOU ANY QUESTIONS?
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