THE National Access and Scaffolding Confederation has issued a DVD and pocket guide to help its drive for better health and safety procedures.
Developed with input from the Health & Safety Executive and endorsed by the UK Contractors Group, the two products are designed to ensure safer manual handling in the scaffolding industry.
The NASC’s A4 Safety Guidance document, SG6:10, was launched in November 2010 as a management and training guide for new industry starters (induction) and experienced hands (refresher training) and covers all aspects of planning of manual handling work and methods for risk reduction.
Now, to back-up SG:10 as part of a training package aimed at reducing the frequency of manual handling accidents in the industry, the confederation has released the interactive DVD and user-friendly pocket User Guide for SG6. To be used primarily as a training delivery tool, the 21-minute DVD covers all aspects of the SG6 and is backed-up with downloadable questionnaires from the NASC Website for additional training tools. It retails at £50 + VAT (£25 + VAT for NASC members).
Meanwhile, the A6 pocket guide is in full colour with a laminated cover and features the new safety guidance in detail, for use on site by scaffolding operatives. It costs £4 (£2 for members).
Robin James, NASC managing director, commented: “More than 25% of the injuries reported each year by NASC members are associated with manual handling. We have produced our new, interactive SG6 DVD and user-friendly pocket User Guide to give scaffolding contractors, NASC members, non-members, and main contractors alike the ability to ensure a decent basic level of competency in manual handling activities exists for all scaffolding operatives, whether employed directly or working on one of their sites.
“The DVD and User Guide are there to provide additional tools to support the manual handling recommendations in SG6:10 – aiming to provide excellent training, to help scaffolding operatives and their employers reduce the risk of accidents, injury and long-term health problems too often associated with manual handling.”
Stephen Radcliffe, director of the UK Contractors Group, added: “Following on from UKCG adoption of NASC guidance on appointment and management of scaffolding contractors, the UKCG is pleased to join forces with NASC to tackle the frequency of manual handling accidents occurring to scaffolding operatives on UKCG sites.”
