7.1 Work at Height

7.1 Work at Height

Quick Answer: Work at height is work where a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury, including falls into holes and excavations. Control it with the hierarchy: avoid work at height → prevent falls (scaffolds, MEWPs, edge protection) → minimise distance and consequences (nets, airbags, fall arrest last). Use ladders only for short-duration light work (~30 minutes continuous-use teaching guideline), at roughly a 1-in-4 angle (75°), with three points of contact and inspection before use. Plan for fragile surfaces, weather, competence, and rescue.

Falls from height remain among the most serious causes of workplace death and major injury in Great Britain. Managing Safely expects line managers to apply a clear hierarchy, challenge casual ladder culture, and refuse to normalise “just five minutes on the roof.” This section sits in the physical / mechanical / environmental hazard space: gravity is the energy, but organisational pressure often decides whether people take shortcuts.

Definition — what counts as work at height?

Under the Work at Height Regulations 2005 idea taught to managers, work at height means work in any place where, if precautions were not taken, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury. Key teaching points:

• It is not limited to “above 2 metres.” Low falls (from vehicles, loading bays, step stools, staging) injure and kill people every year.
• It includes work above ground level (roofs, scaffolds, MEWPs, ladders, mezzanines, elevated plant).
• It includes work where a person could fall from ground level into an opening, pit, shaft, or excavation — below-ground falls are still work at height.
• It includes work at the edge of fragile surfaces and near openings in floors or roofs.
• It does not generally include slips and trips on the same level (those are separate hazards), or permanent staircases used in the normal way as means of access — but temporary access, incomplete stairs, and unprotected edges do fall into the regime.

If someone can fall and be hurt, treat it as work at height and assess it properly.

Why managers get this wrong

Typical failures:

• “It’s only two steps up a ladder — no assessment needed.”
• Choosing a ladder because it is quick and cheap, not because it is the right control.
• No plan for who is underneath, what tools are carried, or how weather changes the risk mid-job.
• Hiring a MEWP or scaffold without trained operators, exclusion zones, or ground assessment.
• Fitting a harness as a “tick box” with no anchor, no training, and no rescue method.

Managing Safely wants you to reverse that culture with hierarchy thinking, not more posters.

The hierarchy of control for work at height

Learn this order cold for the exam and the project. It mirrors ERICPD logic applied to gravity.

1. Avoid work at height (so far as reasonably practicable)

The best fall is the one that never happens because nobody went up.

Examples:

• Design or assemble components at ground level, then lift them into place
• Use extendable tools, long-reach cleaners, or ground-level controls for lights and cameras
• Bring the work down (lower plant for maintenance where design allows)
• Specify window and façade access systems that reduce the need for temporary access
• Use drones or remote inspection where competent and suitable instead of sending people onto fragile roofs

Avoidance is not “never clean the gutter.” It is: can we redesign the task, frequency, or method so people do not need to leave a safe place?

2. Prevent falls — where work at height cannot be avoided

If people must work at height, prevent them from falling. Prefer collective protection that protects everyone in the area without relying on each person’s behaviour, over personal protection that only works if the individual uses it correctly.

Prevention means the fall does not start. That is always better than catching someone after they leave the platform.

3. Minimise distance and consequences of a fall

Only when you cannot prevent a fall entirely do you move to minimising how far someone falls and how badly they are hurt.

Exam trap: Fall arrest is not the top of the hierarchy. Avoid and prevent come first. Using a harness “because we always do” while a scaffold or MEWP would prevent the fall is poor control selection.

Collective vs personal protection

Use personal systems when collective measures are not reasonably practicable — and still supervise them properly.

Ladders and stepladders — limits managers must enforce

Ladders remain useful tools. They are also overused. Teaching and HSE-aligned practice for managers:

When ladders may be appropriate

• Short-duration work
• Light work (not heavy materials, high force, or two-handed power tools for long periods)
• Where a risk assessment shows a ladder is the most suitable access after considering better options
• Where the ladder can be secured or footed, on firm level ground, with adequate lighting and space

Teaching rules of thumb (memorise for exams)

Stepladders: use fully open with locking devices engaged; do not work from the top platform unless designed for it; avoid side-loading.

When ladders are not appropriate

• Long-duration jobs (hours of painting a whole elevation)
• Heavy materials or significant force (large drill torque, heavy lifting while balanced)
• Work that needs both hands free for long periods with high fall risk and no other support
• Unstable or sloping ground that cannot be made safe
• Adverse weather that makes footing or grip unreliable
• Fragile roofs as a walking surface
• Any task where a reasonably practicable safer method exists and the hierarchy demands it

Fragile roofs and surfaces

Fragile roofing (cement sheets, rooflights, old liners, corroded metal) is a classic killer. Managers must:

• Assume roofs and rooflights are fragile until a competent assessment says otherwise
• Use crawling boards, roof ladders, staging, and edge protection designed for the structure
• Never walk the line of purlins “because everyone does”
• Demarcate and cover rooflights
• Control access; use permits or formal authorisation for roof work where site rules require it
• Brief contractors — many serious incidents involve visiting workers who do not know the building

Weather, environment, and other conditions

Competence, supervision, and equipment

• People who plan, supervise, and carry out work at height need appropriate competence (training + experience + ability for the method used).
• MEWP operators need recognised training for the machine category; scaffolders need industry competence schemes for the work they do.
• Inspect access equipment on a sensible regime: pre-use checks by users; formal inspections as required for scaffolds, towers, and harnesses (including thorough examination where regulations or manufacturer guidance apply).
• Damaged ladders, out-of-date harnesses, and home-made platforms are stop work issues.

Rescue planning — the forgotten control

If fall arrest is used, or if someone could become stranded in a MEWP or on a structure, you need a rescue plan:

• How will we recover an unconscious or injured person quickly?
• Who is trained and available?
• What equipment is needed (rescue kit, second MEWP, emergency services interface)?
• How do we avoid rescuers becoming second casualties?
• Suspension trauma awareness for harness casualties — time matters

Calling 999 alone is not always a sufficient plan if the person is hanging in a remote yard with no access route. Exam and project answers that prescribe harnesses without rescue thinking are incomplete.

Hierarchy in one manager table

Worked scenarios

Project application

On the Managing Safely project, height-related hazards should show:

1. Clear hazard and hazardous event (fall from mezzanine edge; fall through rooflight).
2. Who is at risk (employees, contractors, people below).
3. Existing controls honestly described (often “ladder in the yard” is not enough).
4. Additional controls that climb the hierarchy (avoid / prevent before harness).
5. Reference to competence, inspection, weather, and rescue where relevant.
6. Residual risk that reflects real residual fall potential — gravity does not get kinder after a toolbox talk alone.

Common exam traps

• Putting fall arrest first in the hierarchy
• Claiming work at height only starts above a fixed height such as 2 m
• Forgetting below-ground falls (excavations, pits)
• Treating ladders as suitable for all access jobs
• Ignoring people below and falling objects (toeboards, tool tethers, exclusion zones)
• Specifying harnesses with no anchor or rescue

Manager checklist

1. Define the task: is it work at height (including into holes)?
2. Apply avoid → prevent → minimise in that order.
3. Prefer collective prevention over personal PPE systems.
4. Restrict ladders to short-duration light work; apply ~30-minute teaching guideline, 1-in-4 angle, three points of contact, pre-use checks.
5. Treat fragile roofs as high hazard; never casual access.
6. Check competence, equipment condition, weather, and exclusion zones.
7. If fall arrest or stranded access is possible, put a rescue plan in place before work starts.

Work at height rewards managers who slow the job down long enough to choose the right access method. The exam rewards the same discipline: hierarchy first, ladders last, rescue never forgotten.