Our partners and the UK’s leading specialists in health and safety and risk reduction for farms, estates and agricultural businesses, Safety Revolution, have provided this guest blog post about why it is important for rural businesses to effectively manage contractors and what information they should be requesting from the contractor before work starts.
About Safety Revolution
Safety Revolution are a specialist health and safety adviser and provide a comprehensive system that is designed to assist farms, estates and rural businesses in maintaining legal compliance. With the aim to raise the industry standards of health and safety and reduce the risk of injury and fatality in the agriculture sector, Safety Revolution offer a range of packages to help rural businesses attain the best safety practices for their organisation.
Find out more about the various levels of solutions they offer here.
What to consider when using a contractor
Managing a contractor can be difficult at the best of times, but even more so at times of peak activity, such as harvest.
Using contractors on your land or that are working for you, doing jobs that perhaps you used to do in-house, does not reduce your responsibilities in terms of health and safety compliance, it just changes the way that you need to discharge those responsibilities and what you need to do to ensure that you maintain a safe place of work for your team.
You must gather evidence that each contractor is competent to do the work that they are undertaking for you. It is critical that you do this before you instruct the contractor to begin work and that you hold documents to prove that you have done that. In fact, it is easier to ensure that sort of pre-approval process is completed well ahead of when you think you will need a contractor and ahead of the busy period.
What information to acquire from each contractor
The information that you need from each contractor depends on a number of factors, but most importantly, you need to consider their size and the job they are doing for you. If they employ five or more staff then they are obliged to have up-to-date documentation of their health and safety policy and risk assessments. You should obtain copies of those documents and should check that they are suitable and sufficient for the work to be carried out, and that the contractor has reviewed them within the last twelve months.
Whatever the size of the contractor’s business, they must provide you with evidence of liability insurance and any training or professional qualifications held which, therefore, qualify them to do the work that they are undertaking for you. For example, if the contractor will be working on your roof, you will want to see evidence which includes proof of training for working at height, as well as a risk assessment that is bespoke to that particular job and to your site; generic templated risk assessments are not good enough.
Reputable and professional contractors will already hold all of this information and be able, and willing, to provide it to you. If a contractor is unable to or does not supply their documentation to you then that should sound alarm bells. Ultimately, if you are unable to get the relevant information you need, you should not use that contractor and should look for one who can supply you with the information required.
What do to if the contractor is self-employed
If the contractor is self-employed or a ‘one man band’ then it is often easier to treat them as an employee and bring them under the umbrella of your own safety management system by asking them to read and sign your own policy, as part of inducting them into your own health and safety system.
In practical terms, once they are on-site, you should maintain some basic oversight of their work. If you notice unsafe practices, bring it to their attention and make a simple diary note. If you think they are operating in a way that could cause serious injury or damage, you are obliged to suspend their operations until you are confident that they have addressed the issue and are able to then operate safely.
Protect your business and reduce risk with Safety Revolution
Safety Revolution’s services are available for your business through McClarrons – please get in touch if you would like further information by emailing farm@mcclarroninsurance.com or calling 01653 609152.
You can learn more about the packages and services Safety Revolution provide, here.
Remember, McClarrons offer you access to Rural Protect, a specialist Management Liability policy that is there to protect you should a claim be made against you for issues such as an accident on your premises, in which case the HSE may impose FFI costs from the moment they arrive on your land to start investigations. Find out more about Rural Protect here or again, speak to our team by emailing farm@mcclarroninsurance.com or calling 01653 609152.
