A meeting between MPs recently resulted in a manifesto urging industries where employees often work at height to adopt digital technologies to help prevent accidental falls. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Working at Height (APPG) believes that such technology can address the challenges of the most common causes of workplace fatalities.
However, while digital technology can help in various ways as the APPG makes clear, education, training, and vigilance are the best accident prevention available to us. Following the best practices and using the right equipment in the right way is the only true prevention we can implement across all industries.
It is not just the education and training of workers either, but of the management too. Far too often there is an attitude of ‘just get the job done as quickly as possible’, whereas management should be the ones saying ‘let’s not do anything silly and stay safe’. The world’s digital technology won’t help if the management isn’t fully onboard with workplace safety, especially with employees working from heights.
The manifesto published by the APPG does have some really good ideas though, so let’s have a quick look at what it says.
APPG Manifesto for Working at Height
One of the primary purposes of the manifesto is a call for simplified reporting of accidents, which digital technology would enable. The APPG says that currently there are several different government agencies and organisations that collect elements of accident data with ‘varying effectiveness’, and that this needs to improve.
Digital reporting would make the data on how and why falls happen more accessible, with the No Falls Foundation – a charity focused on falls from height – already conducting deep research into the underlying causes of falls from height.
The charity manager at the No Falls Foundation, Hannah Williams, said of the charity’s research: “The survey will be aimed at all sectors and people who either experienced, witnessed or investigated a fall from height. It will allow them to share detailed information on fall-from-height accidents. It will inform upcoming research projects we are undertaking as well as enabling us and others to focus resources in a more targeted way to prevent falls from height.”
Technology to Prevent Falls?
The APPG’s manifesto is encouraging the use of certain technology they believe can prevent falls from height, which includes wearable technologies to help avoid and alert against potential danger. More help is always welcome of course, but its implementation will again come down to the attitude of the management and the workers themselves.
More interesting is the APPG’s encouragement to use virtual and augmented reality to provide realistic training scenarios, as well as plan out jobs more effectively and safely. The group also suggests that mobile apps can provide information, competence verification and micro-learning at points of need, and supports the HSE Science Discovering Safety initiative on leading indicators to predict risk.
Such initiatives are excellent, but getting the attitude and approach right from management through to the workers is still the most important aspect of workplace safety.
To learn more about training for working at height, get in touch with the team at Ability International today.
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