The ultimate hazard of working at height is, of course, falling. You do not have to fall from a great height to injure yourself. The severity of your injury is determined by many factors including weight, age, how you land, and the surface you fall on.

When we hear the phrase ‘working at height’ it’s common to assume this refers to working on roofs or skyscrapers, but actually, the UK Health & Safety Executive defines it as "work carried out in any place where a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury".

If you or someone you employ is in ANY way capable of falling from a height and sustaining an injury, you must take the proper safety precautions. When trying to determine the risks of your workplace it may be necessary to do a height risk assessment. You can read more about this here: Working at Height Risk Assessment

Regardless of the height you work at, it’s important to remember that catastrophic injuries or even death can happen from falls of only a few feet. The hazards of working at height should not be underestimated, and it’s important to provide the proper equipment to ensure safety.

Common hazards of working at height

While falling is most likely the most common hazard of working at height, there are others to be aware of. These include:

• Dropping/falling equipment - Falling equipment can be fatal. It is vital that the proper height safety equipment is used to stop workers from being able to drop objects like tools from height.
  
  
• Insufficient PPE - If you or your workers are not wearing the required protective clothing, they are at risk of injury. Protective equipment such as hard hats can help to keep you or your employees safe.
  
  
• Lack of/poor risk assessment - A thorough risk assessment will identify and analyse any potential hazards to best prepare workers in the event of an incident. Inadequate risk assessment put everyone involved at risk.
  
  
• Inexperience - Mistakes happen, but knowingly allowing inexperienced members of staff to carry out tasks at height is extremely dangerous.

We provide various equipment to reduce the risk of falling such as safety harnesses, fall arrest blocks, and ladder safety kits.

Full Range of Height Safety Equipment 

If you have any further queries about how to keep you or anyone else safe from the hazards of working at height, feel free to get in touch. Our helpful team is more than happy to give you advice.

Here at SafetyLiftinGear we specialise in a whole plethora of height safety equipment, but before you get up there and start work, we understand that you're going to need to know how to use your height safety equipment properly in order to prevent any accidents or fatalities - and that's where our Working at Heights training course can help.

Our Working at Heights Course provides essential training for anyone that works at height, as well as highly recommended for supervisors, managers, the appointed personnel that have to meet health and safety duties, and business owners.

This training course is delivered by The Training Societi in partnership with us. The Training Societi are a Bristol based training consultancy that specialise in workplace health and safety, and they deliver a range of training courses - such as the course you can find in our safety training courses category. 

The Working at Heights training course will take place in Bristol, and will take an entire day to complete. The course consists of the following:

• Health and Safety Laws and Regulations
• The responsibilities of employees and employers
• Definition of Work at Height
• The four basic principles to planning work at height following HSE guidelines
• The different types of equipment, and how to select the correct equipment
• Five steps of conducting and recording a risk assessment
• Advice on how to collate method statements 
• Preventative and protective control measures 
• Test paper, questions, handouts and a review

The course is based around HSE guidelines; delivered by a friendly and experienced consultant in a comfortable environment; provides you with bespoke advice that meet your company's requirements; and it'll provides you with peace of mind - it keeps you, your employees and your business safe and legal. Once you have completed the course, you will be provided with a Training Societi certificate and photographic ID card with a 5 year expiry.

Please contact us for course details >>

Why risk breaching safety regulations?

Why risk breaching safety regulations?