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Risk assessment and

method statements
(RAMS)
M Y R A K E L LY, S T E V E P U L L I N G & D AV I D M O N E N
Contents

Introduction • CASE STUDY1 – INCIDENT ON NETWORK


The regulations • THAMES WATER SAFETY HUB
Introduction – the legal framework
• SUMMARY
◦ Who’s duty is it?
• Q&A
Definitions
Risk assessment • CASE STUDY 2 – NINE ELMS (CDM 2015)
Introduction: The speaker
Worked for Thames Water for over 40 years, current position is Health, Safety and
Wellbeing Senior advisor
Have worked supporting IOSH and on IOSH committees for many years including as
Council member
Currently TV Branch treasurer having served as Chair previously.
Been committed to IOSH TV Branch for over 25 years.
David Monen – worked for Thames Water for 30 Years
Has a lot experience working on the Network within Thames Water 5,000 square
miles, a person to go to for pragmatic advice.
Introduction: the legal framework
Health and Safety at work act 1974 – origin of ‘safe system of work’, covered under (Reg 2) AKA
Method statement
Management of health and safety at work regulations 1999- risk assessment (Reg 3)
Construction Design and management Regulations 2015 – Principles of Prevention
Practically every other item of legislation you have heard of!
Working at height regs, confined space, PUWER, LOLER, control of vibration, control of noise……..
………All of them are connected to the need for risk assessment
Risk Assessment

H&S advisors are often presented with large


documents covering every single potential
hazard even on a small project or activity.
Key words and phrases to remember would be
to consider what is significant or unusual, or
what is “reasonably foreseeable”.
There are three simple tests to establish
whether the risk is reasonably forseeable

Common Knowledge Industry knowledge Expert knowledge


Asbestos Buried Services Fire Suppression
Reasonably foreseeable

The requirement is to assess


reasonably foreseeable
risks, and reduce risks so far
as is reasonably practicable
Reasonably foreseeable risk

Legal Definition
A likelihood of injury or damage that a reasonable person should be able to
anticipate in a given set of circumstances.
Foreseeable risk is a common affirmative defence put up by defendants in lawsuits
for negligence, essentially claiming that the plaintiff should have thought twice before
taking a risky action.
Why are risk assessments so important?
Quick quiz
1. ON AVERAGE, HOW MANY DIRECTORS AND MANAGERS ARE PROSECUTED IN A YEAR?

Number of
directors/managers
prosecuted by HSE

In 2018-19 the HSE brought 29 cases, securing 23 convictions under


Section 37 HSWA. Of the 23 convicted senior post holders, nine received
custodial sentences (ranging from a suspended sentence to 10 months in
prison). Of those convicted, four of the directors were disqualified for
between three and seven years.

Source: https://www.shponline.co.uk/legislation-and-standards/most-recent-
hse-statistics-show-limited-action-against-management/
Duty of Care

Legal definition
a moral or legal obligation to ensure the safety or well-being of others.
Examples in use:
1. “Employers have a duty of care to their employees”
2. “Managers have a duty of care to their teams”
Hazard & risk

A hazard is anything that has the potential to cause harm

For the hazard to cause harm, a hazardous event must occur

The risk is the likelihood of it happening


Risk
Risk is the combination of the
likelihood of a hazardous event occurring, and the consequence of the event, the position
of the hole in the pavement in a secluded location or a pathway for example would change
the likelihood. Depth of the hole would determine the consequence.

Risk = Likelihood x Consequence


5 steps to Risk
assessment
Risk Assessment –Steps 1 and 2

Steps 1 & 2
Risk Assessment -Step 2
2. IDENTIFY THE RISKS
WHAT ARE THE HAZARDS?
WHO MIGHT BE HARMED? Step 2

HOW MIGHT THEY BE HARMED?


Risk Assessment -Step 3
3. ESTIMATE THE RISK

Step 3

You need to consider two things:

1. How likely is it that something


can go wrong?
2. How serious would the outcome
be?
Likelihood

Increasing likelihood
Consequence
Risk matrix
Risk Assessment -Step 4

Step 4
Risk Assessment -Step 5
HIERARCHY OF RISK CONTROL
Risk assessments are a form of
document which details how to
measure risk BEFORE YOU PUT ANY
CONTROLS IN AND AFTER YOU
HAVE DECIDED ON WHICH
CONTROLS WORK BEST.
Controls = what operational tool or
system would work best to bring the
risk level down. there is a hierarchy of
controls.
Risk Assessment /
Method Statement
(RAMS)
Risk Assessment – Methos Statement (RAMS)

From my experience why do we need to create Risk Assessments?


For me its part of a journey to creating the vital piece in the jig saw that
keeps our staff, contractors and third parties etc Safe & Healthy.
Being the Client for 30 years within Thames Water I have found the
development of RAMS very interesting.
It starts with selecting a contractor.
The Task
What is required to be undertaken?
Can this be completed in house, the latest is bringing back in house a lot
of work that was undertaken by contractors?
Are you an intelligent client, or have you lost a lot of your specialist skills?
Is the task required involves specialist work, e.g. welding to an insurance
standard?
How long is the tsk going to take, a couple of hours, a day, week, month,
years, major infrastructure project, Tideway Tunnel.
Selecting the Contractor
This started with using the yellow pages.
The bigger the advert the better the company, well that was my initial thought.
It developed as a result of incidents and having a lot of contractors on our data base
that this was not the correct way of undertaking a selection.
To be fair the larger multi million pound contracts had a selection process that had to
be right, but this still depends on the project team on site delivering the work.
To day we are looking at using the Achillies process for selection, but this still depends
on the project team on site delivering the work. INDG368 guides you to selection of a
contractor.
Our last selection of large contractors involved our Safety Manager using Behavioural
Specialist as part of our selection to see if the senior manager from the contractor was
committed to Health, Safety & Wellbeing.
The Brief
What do you require?
How much resources have you available for the work to begin?
Is there enough time for the work to be completed safely?
Are we going to use a tendering process for the task?
How is the task going to managed?
When is the start date, when is the completion date, what welfare facilities are going to
be provided, what drawings have we, where are the services, water, gas, electric?
The Risk Assessment
What Risks have been identified for the task?
How are the control measures going to be managed, controlled and adopted into the
Method Statement?
Do we need the 3 by 3 matrix, ideal for small work, 5 x 5 matrix for larger work, 10 x
10 for complex operational tasks.
What works best for you/ us?
What risks are we going to accept as acceptable for the project?
When do we need to rethink the task?
I hate it when I see risks in the risk assessment that are not applicable to the task.
The Method Statement
I have witnessed a 75 page Method Statement.
How are we going to explain this to the work force?
Keep it relevant and to the point?
Daily huddles with the team to explain what’s going on today with work, the risks any
other impact from a third party on the work.
Thames Water – Essential Standards no.10
https://sanehighhealthsafetydo
cs.blob.core.windows.net/twul/
Essential%20Standards/Essenti
al%20Standard%2010%20-
%20Risk%20assessment.pdf
Q&A
Now's the time…..

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