Practical steps that CDM Designers can take.

GOOD Designers can make a BIG difference designing OUT the risks

1) Health and safety should not be an afterthought. This is sometimes better understood by civil engineers than by designers of buildings because many civil engineering projects involve obvious and clearly defined risks. When designing a bridge to be built over a busy road the safety aspects of the operation have to be considered from the outset. There may be several ways of tackling the work.  Building designers should learn to work in a similar way when choosing between design options.

2) There is no easy answer to deciding the importance that should be given to health and safety. Perhaps the best way to look at the relative weightings that could be given is to examine the consequences that will result from a choice or decision. In the end a professional judgement has to be made – it should be a decision that involves a proper exercise of judgement  which takes account of health and safety issues.

3) The most important contribution a designer can make to improve health and safety often has to be made at the start of a project.  Opportunities can be lost if health and safety is not considered at this early stage. Rather than looking on health and safety as a matter that can be postponed until other issues are out of the way, designers should deliberately bring consideration forward to ensure that the other issues are resolved in a way that eliminates risk so far as reasonably practicable.

4) The appropriate level of risk assessment will vary from project to project and from one operation to another. Where it is clear that there are serious hazards, a thorough study of the risks and a detailed method statement may be needed, eg when glazing is to be replaced over an active shopping mall or when explosives are to be used to open a channel through rock. The assessment may involve a detailed analysis but more often all that is appropriate is a simple judgement based on the seriousness of any incident that could result and the degree of exposure to the hazard.  In a project that does not involve exceptionally hazardous operations, design reviews at key stages (eg before tender documents and working drawings are started) should help to identify hazards needing investigation. Sometimes it may be possible to avoid a hazard altogether but in many cases, where alternative methods of construction are possible, it will be necessary to assess the risks within each alternative so that safety measures can be considered and the health and safety aspects of alternatives can be taken into account.

5)  There is a great deal of information in existence on construction health and safety. Although rarely written specifically for designers, much of it can be used by them when carrying out their duties under the CDM Regulations. Also of relevance is the health and safety legislation governing:

i)    Materials (such as lead, asbestos and other hazardous substances

ii)   activities (such as demolition or removal of contaminated soil);

iii)  welfare requirements (including sanitary accommodation and first aid);

iv)  environmental conditions (resulting from noise and dust);

In compliance with the above, Designers will need to have regard to :

i)    the contractors who will be constructing the facility

ii)   others who may be affected by the design requirements during its construction eg the public

iii)  those who will have to maintain the facility

iv)  those who may have to decommission/demolish the facility

As a consequence of the risk appraisal process the Designer should aim to eliminate risks, and lessen others. The significant residual risks, and information about these risks, need to be communicated by the designers to the CDM Coordinator.

CDM Coordinators will convey the information that affects the construction phase to the Principal Contractor via the Health and Safety Plan, and information that affects the maintenance or decommissioning phase to the Client via the Health and Safety File.

To help CDM Designers we have an excellent Design Risk Register if you would like us to send you a free copy please contact us.

Another article by Veritas Health and Safety Consultants and CDM Coordinators

CDM Designers Risk Register

A CDM Designers Risk Register is to be regarded as a management tool for the identification and elimination/reduction of hazards and risks associated with the de project. The Designers Risk register can be used to create a single document where all significant design risks can be identified, collated, monitored and ultimately reduced as part of the design process. At the end of the design process, the register will provide an audit trail of design decisions.

All CDM designers are required to analyse their designs as they develop and identify any significant hazards associated with them. As significant hazards are identified they will be added to the risk register and the relevant actions taken to reduce or eliminate the associated risks will be recorded.

As each significant hazard is reduced to its lowest practicable level, the remaining hazard and any identified control measures will be logged and subsequently communicated to Contractors via the Pre-Construction Health and Safety Information and to the end user by the Health and Safety File.

Click here to request a Designers Risk Register template

CDM Designers Risk Register its Purpose and Approach

This process describes how H&S, and when appropriate environmental issues, are taken into account as an integral part of the design process for construction projects, so that:

where reasonably practicable, design measures are taken to avoid or eliminate identified risks
details of significant residual risks are communicated at the appropriate time to those who need to know progress and outputs are monitored and reviewed compliance with the CDM Regulations can be demonstrated and is auditable

Here is how to use a Designers Risk Register

List the construction activities comprising the design package or project element.
Identify the hazards and associated harmful events for each activity, package or element.
Assess the identified risks (pre-design) – Assume no design mitigations or site controls are in place when assessing the risk.

The CDM designer must always look for opportunities to avoid or mitigate risks even when the risks are considered to be normal to the type of work. Many such risks still have a high associated incident/accident rate despite being ‘well known’
A simple qualitative assessment of High, Medium or Low is all that is needed. A H/H assessment indicates a very high priority for the design to be altered. At the other end of the scale a L/L result indicates a low priority for an alteration.

Health and Safety Design Assumptions.

Record any assumptions critical to the design risk control measures taken and outline the controls that others will need to implement to ensure safe working
Information/assumptions critical to safety must be recorded, eg requirements for stability before structure/installation is complete.

The data captured is more to show that the contractor has not been left with an impossible problem and that provision has been made for a safe system of work, than it is to tell the contractor what to do in detail.

In practice there may be instances where there is ‘no reasonably practicable’ design measure that can be adopted to avoid, or reduce an identified risk (if this is the case then this is noted in the CDM Design risk register). However, it is not permitted to pass on a risk that cannot be controlled by site/implementation measures during construction or subsequent cleaning or maintenance etc.

Significant Residual Risk

Review risks (post design) and identify ‘significant residual risks’ for communication to those who need to know.

The significance of a residual risk depends on whether it is reasonable to assume that a competent contractor would expect to encounter the hazard. Eg ‘work at height’ is likely to stay a high ‘severity’ risk but will not necessarily need to be highlighted in the Plan. On the other hand a risk that has a low likelihood/severity will still need to be communicated if the contractor is likely to be unaware of it, such as when the risk is site- or project-specific or the risk is likely to be difficult to manage in practice.

If a risk has been reduced to as low a level as reasonably practicable and the residual risk is not significant then the risk can be closed-out in the risk register.

Residual risks may also be highlighted in the register in order to signify their status and highlight those requiring particular attention by contractors. For example, a residual risk that is ‘significant’ (ie unusal, unexpected, adbnormal or difficult) but which can nevertheless be controlled on site by standard best practice, such as method statements, permits etc is highlighted as Blue.

A significant residual risk that will require particular attention over and above standard best practice is highlighted in say red. ‘Non-significant’ risks should not be highlighted, eg in say green, because to do so might imply that no site controls etc are required. This may not necessarily be the case if the risk, such as ‘work at height’, although usual and expected is still a major hazard requiring proper site controls.

Note – Do not rely upon measures that will be taken on site to control hazards, always seek to alter the design.

CDM Designers Competence

It is assumed that all CDM Designers are familiar with:
their duties under the CDM Regulations
the principles of design risk assessment/management
relevant construction/maintenance processes and associated H&S risks

Click here to request a Designers Risk Register template

For a CDM Designers Risk Register Template please contact us