The need for a robust approach to health and safety within the building industry is widely accepted. To aid this, local construction advisory specialists HLG Associates is launching a comprehensive Health and Safety Project Coordinator (HSPC) service to help ensure Jersey’s developers and property owners remain focused on and meet local legal construction obligations. HLG will be providing these HSPC duties to complement their current existing service-offer to clients who see the value in an integrated service provider.
A 2016 law passed by the States of Jersey clearly establishes health and safety risk management requirements for anyone carrying out local construction work. These include ensuring good communications on health and safety among all involved, establishing clear lines of responsibility, and ensuring any specific health and safety issues are dealt with.
The law also specifies the use of a Health and Safety Project Coordinator if the project falls into the ‘major’ category and sets out this role’s responsibilities and duties.
“A major project is one that will last more than 30 working days, or requires more than 500 man-hours to complete,” explains HLG’s Chris Bester, “which covers anything in Jersey above fairly minor construction work. If your project is in this category, you must appoint a designated HSPC who understands what’s expected from them. While most developers are aware of this requirement, our experience is that it can be viewed as something of a ‘tick-box’ exercise often combined with a last-minute appointment to the post. We believe that the role and requirements demand more than this – and not just from a legal standpoint.”
Dedicated and effective health and safety risk identification and management can help assure the wellbeing of those working on the construction. It can also help protect anyone subsequently using the completed building by minimising the risk of unnecessary accidents caused by challenging building design. It will also support those responsible for a building’s maintenance and eventually its demolition or repurposing at some future time, by explaining construction methods or critical points of building integrity. Investing in sound advice at an early design stage can also prevent potentially costly revisions once work is underway or projects are completed.
HLG’s new HSPC service allows developers and property owners who are commissioning construction projects to pass responsibility for this over to dedicated experts. Alongside peace of mind, the benefits are a professional and consistent health and safety risk management approach from project concept to client handover.
“Having seen the increasing need for this type of professional service, we’re really excited about this step to become more involved in this important aspect of construction,” Chris concludes. “‘It’s a logical move that builds upon our already extensive range of construction industry consultancy services. And a satisfying one that should hopefully lead to a lowering of risk for everyone involved in building projects or enjoying the outcome of new developments.”
