How good are your fencing skills?

No, this is not a swashbuckling based question. It relates to the different kinds of barriers which we might call fencing, whether it is permanent or not. And by effective, we mean safe  as well as fulfilling its prime role of access control.

A building contractor here in the UK was recently fined £20,000 after a fence was blown over onto a woman, who sustained serious life changing head injuries.

A simple risk assessment could have revealed that if there was windy weather, the fence would be likely to  blow over and if it did so, it would clearly have the potential to injure someone. By undertaking this simple operation, preventative measures can be made to prevent a fence from being blow over. A further factor in this case, was that the staff who undertook the work were both untrained and inexperienced.

A very high proportion of businesses and events rely heavily on fencing and barriers of many kinds to keep people safe from the hazards associated with work taking place within the boundary or for security reasons.  If this applies to you, do you undertake such a risk assessment and if you do, do you use competent staff, do you keep a check on it and do you keep records?

Such a safe system of work is a relatively basic skill but if you would like assistance or training in health & safety risk assessments and safe systems of work, we are here to help, please call us on 0800 111 4207 or contact us here.