Lone working places employees at a higher level of risk due to some of the situations that can be encountered when working alone. (i.e. personal injury, violence / assault, etc).
People are considered to be lone workers if they carry out work by themselves without close supervision or interaction from other members of staff. This can include people who work in fixed establishments where they work in an area that is separated from others or people who work outside of normal working hours when other people are not around. It can also include people who work away from their fixed location (i.e. transient workers)
In all cases, where the potential for lone working has been identified, the Site Manager will ensure that they put in place a safe system of work to control the risks to any member of staff.
OUR POLICY
High risk situations and prohibitions
For normal operations, the risk of lone working may be controlled in accordance with the risk assessment that will be undertaken by the Site Manager prior to the commencement of the works.
In the following circumstances the deployment of lone workers will be prohibited as the operations are deemed to place the individual carrying out the work at too great a risk to be acceptable. These operations are described as follows…
· Any work involving live electrical equipment - (i.e. installation, fault finding, testing, etc).
· Any work involving glazing - (i.e. renewal or replacement of glazed sheeting or panels)
· Any work that is carried out at high level - (i.e. roof work, work using steps or ladders)
· Any work in a property designated as high risk due to previous experience or advice from the customer
(i.e. properties with violent or abusive tenants).
Planning the works and risk assessment
All lone working situations will be identified and addressed by the Managing Director / Site Manager to ensure that a safe system of work is drawn up and implemented.
When planning the safe systems of work to be used, staff will take into account any advice from the property owners / Customer in relation to the history of the location as well as any recent incidents (i.e. violent or abusive tenants, recent assults, etc).
All lone working situations must be considered against this guidance and a suitable risk assessment that is specific to the operations and locations concerned must be produced.
All risk assessment control measures must be formally identified and recorded and any findings must be communicated to the staff that will be carrying out the works. The Risk Assessment Briefing Register must be completed by the Site Manager / Line Manager in all cases.
A short Lone Working Micro Training Session has been produced to provide information to staff on the management and control of lone working situations. This training session forms part of the briefing given to staff prior to commencing work on site and is carried out to our employees on a quarterly basis to update and remind them of the dangers of lone working.
Controlling the risk whilst working alone
The basic premise of the procedure for controlling the risk from lone working is outlined below. (local variations will apply and it is up to the Managing Director to determine the exact extent to which this process is implemented). The following steps must be used as appropriate guidance towards achieving the correct standard of control…
· Plan the working patterns carefully to minimise the amount of lone working (if possible)
· Do not plan work that includes any of the prohibited operations if a person is working alone
· Maintain up to date contact lists so that people can be contacted in an emergency and encourage lone
workers to maintain any relevant telephone numbers on their mobile phones
· Ensure all persons undertaking lone work have access to a suitable means of communication (i.e. a
mobile phone) and it is fully charged
· Identify who will act as the central point of contact and communicate this to the people carrying out the
work
· Where possible confirm the pattern of work (i.e. locations, operations, etc) with the person who is acting
as the central point of contact
· Where necessary, highlight any high risk areas for lone working through the risk assessment, and ensure
that the assessments are handed and briefed out to the individuals carrying out the work
Upon arriving at the property, the following action should be taken…
· Reassess the situation / location in accordance with the information contained on the risk assessment
and confirm any variances with the Site Manager
· When ready to start the work, contact the person acting as the central point of contact and let them
know where you are, what you are doing and roughly how long the task will take
· The person acting as the central point of contact should then make a note of this to act as a log of where
the lone worker is supposed to be and the timings that they will be working to (methods of recording
this information can be set up locally). It is the responsibility of the lone worker to update the person
acting as the central point of contact if the work should over-run or they change locations
· Whilst carrying out the works, members of staff must remain vigilant at all times and should maintain an
awareness of their surroundings and the people who live, work or visit there. If the situation should
change, then the works must be made safe (if it is safe to do so) and the person acting as the central
point of contact must be made aware of the situation and should request advice from the Site Manager
as to what action to take.
Upon completion of the work, the following action should be taken…
· Contact the person acting as the central point of contact and advise them that the work is fully
completed and that you are moving onto the next job
· Review the risk assessment and note anything that may be of interest should any further work need to
be carried out at the property
Emergency situations
If a lone worker fails to call into the central point of contact at the agreed time then it is the responsibility of the person performing this function to escalate the need to check on the lone worker. This can be done by re-directing other members of staff to the last known location of the lone worker to check on their whereabouts.
It will be the responsibility of the person acting as the central point of contact to co-ordinate any emergency response as needed.
The Site Manager and the Safety, Health, Environmental and Quality consultant must be informed of any emergency escalations, even if there was no further incident to report.
Emergency call outs and Controlling the risk - 365 Response Maintenance
From time to time it is necessary for Topcon staff to attend to out of hours calls where lone working may become involved (i.e. travelling to the job separately) and there is no local central point of contact to check into. In these cases special measures should be applied:
General Precautions
From time to time lone workers may receive visits from a visiting supervisor. When this occurs importance must be placed on the effectiveness of any lone working controls that are being used as well as the information contained within the risk assessments.
When carrying out lone working in a remote area of an occupied premise (i.e. a basement), all staff will ensure that they inform the nominated representative in control of the Construction where and when they will be carrying out the work. This is in addition to the calls made to the person acting as the central point of contact.
All members of staff carrying out lone working activities must be physically and medically fit. Contact your Consultant for advice on health screening if required.
All lone workers should carry a small first aid kit to deal with any minor incidents to prevent them from worsening, until they can get help. The kits must be carried at all times when carrying out lone working activities. Training in first aid techniques must also be provided.
All injuries sustained by any member of staff carrying out lone working operations must be considered as significant. These must therefore be reported to the person acting as the central point of contact as well as the Consultant.