Placing orders with Contractors

7.1    Risk Assessment

To ensure that work is safely carried out, the contracting officer / consultant must complete a general risk assessment of the hazards associated with the work required. Any risk that can be eliminated or reduced by the clients should be acted on if possible. In many instances the risk assessment will reveal very little risk involved and nothing that a contractor, assessed as competent, would not expect to deal with on a day to day basis. In such instances there may be no information on residual risk to pass on to the contractor. If residual risks are identified these must be passed to the contractor in order for them to make suitable arrangements to deal with them.

However, the same work being carried out when vulnerable clients or children may be in the area could raise the risks for both them and the contractor. In these cases, co-operation and communication will be vital to manage the risk successfully.

In high-risk areas a more detailed risk assessment will be required, for example:

• gas,
• electrical,
• work on the highways or near to live carriageways,
• working at height e.g. window cleaning,
• confined space working,
• working adjacent to water,
• asbestos,
• proximity to vulnerable clients / pupils with unpredictable behaviour, and
• transporting of vulnerable clients or those who use wheelchairs, etc.

Some of these activities will require a ‘permit to work system’, hot work procedure, or method statements. See Part 3 Forms and Checklists, Appendices 9-13 for further guidance.

7.2    Further Requirements for Contract types listed in section 4.4 – 4.6 and High-Risk Work

This category of work could extend to supplying a whole Council service area or portfolio function or could involve construction, renovation, redevelopment, decoration and / or repairs or maintenance. In which case, The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 will apply regardless of size. See section 7 of Part 2 of the “Toolkit” for details.

Council employees placing orders with contractors may only do so for high-risk work if qualified / competent to do so (or where they are reporting to a qualified person who must then sign off the work following a specific risk assessment of the work to be undertaken). 

The principles below generally refer to the procedures required in a construction project. However, they should be taken and modified to use in any contracting process to effectively manage the health and safety aspects of the work. The Health and Safety Team can help with this task and advise on developing arrangements specific to particular work.

For any type of work clients must make sure: -

• there are reasonable management arrangements in place;
• they allow sufficient time for each stage of the work ;
• they ensure co-operation with all parties involved;
• they ensure there is co-ordination between all parties involved;
• that welfare arrangements are made if required; and
• any fixed workplaces comply with health and safety requirements and relevant information is passed to any parties that may need it.

Pre-start or pre-construction information (if CDM Applicable) will also need to be drawn up prior to tender / selection of a contractor. Service Area permission for such work initiated locally will also be required. See Toolkit Section 12 for a précis of CDM 2015.

It is strongly advised that owing to the potential size and complexity of such work professional knowledge and advice is sought.

When placing an order for such work one of the following statements should be incorporated:

I have carried out a risk assessment of the work* / site* (*delete as appropriate) and, in my opinion, the work may be undertaken either:

a) By you as a competent contractor in accordance with your generic / specific risk assessments and working practices, taking any BC generic risk assessments that may have been issued to you into account.

Or 

b) When the additional requirements, information, residual hazards and risks described above / attached have been addressed and your intentions discussed with me for agreement.

The contractor must then carry out their own work-based risk assessment and develop appropriate method statements and working practices (Safety Plan) taking into account all the information provided by the Contracting Officer.

Or for CDM 2015 notifiable contracts.

c) Pre-construction information works order is attached. You must not start work until you have discussed your intentions with the client co-ordinator for approval and delivered your construction phase Health and Safety Plan. Formal authorisation to proceed will be given by the client.

The order must be signed by the officer who has assessed the work, and when appropriate in the case of a CDM job above the threshold (see Section 7 of Part 2 the “Toolkit”) by the Designer / CDM-Coordinator; as well as the officer authorised to sign the order in accordance with the financial regulations of the Council.

Finally, all such information should be discussed and agreed at a pre-start meeting involving all the parties affected by the work during its progress at any stage; See Part 3 Forms and Checklists Appendix 7 for information on what should be included in a pre-start meeting.

7.3    Information for Contractors

Information on residual risks following the contracting officer’s risk assessment must be passed to the contractor with any other relevant information. This must include information to assist the contractor to carry out the work safely. This information will change in detail on a contract-to-contract and site-to-site basis; however, an example has been provided in Part 3, Forms and Checklists, Appendix 15 as a guide to the type of information which should be provided by contracting officers. Contracting officers may modify this example as appropriate.

The effort devoted to planning and managing health and safety should be in proportion to the risks and complexity associated with the project / work.

Any paperwork produced should help with communication and risk management. Paperwork which adds little to the management of risk is a waste of effort.

7.4    Planning Meeting

Before work commences a pre-contract, planning meeting must be held. In complex or high-risk projects there may be many as the project progresses through its various stages. This meeting should be attended by the following:

• Designer (and CDM co-ordinator if applicable).
• Supervising officer (or consultant) from the employing Service area.
• Principal Contractor and or contractor’s representatives (senior member of site staff).
• Where applicable the manager / person in charge of the premises in which the work will take place (where the building is occupied by staff of more than one Service area or shared site and the work is likely to affect them all then a representative from each Service area or Team should attend).
• Where appropriate the Service area’s Health and Safety Adviser.

Methods of controlling work events to avoid risks should also be considered, see Part 3 Forms and Checklists Appendix 9-13 for standard Permit to Work / Limitation of Access forms.

The Contractor must have developed a Safety Plan or if appropriate a Method Statement for the work from the pre-construction / start information. See Part 2, the Toolkit, Section 3 and Part 3, Forms and Checklists, Appendix 14 for guidance.

Work may not commence until either the appointed CDM co-ordinator (if applicable) contractor and / or contracting officer agrees that the safety plans and arrangements are sufficiently developed for works to commence. The Principal Contractor, if applicable or contractor is then responsible for the on-going implementation / development of the plan as the project develops.