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How InForm Helps Schools Manage Construction Safety Risks

As anyone who’s ever been involved in a school construction project will tell you, managing the health and safety aspects is a demanding discipline. On top of all the normal construction-related risks that have to be assessed and managed, there are added complications if the project takes place on a live school site during term time.

These days, the client with ultimate accountability for health and safety will probably be the school or academy trust rather than a local authority. This is a significant responsibility as a glance at the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 shows.

A basic requirement is to plan the work so the risks involved are managed from start to finish. A logical extension to this is that it’s helpful to select a building method or system that specifically minimises the health and safety risks on the school site.

Take the Work Offsite

An effective way to minimise risk is to ensure that work is carried out away from the site wherever possible. There are then fewer operatives and operations onsite during the construction phase.

One of the many benefits of Osborne’s InForm product for education is that over 55% of the value of each project is pre-manufactured. Rather than being fabricated onsite, walls, floor slabs, stairways, roof cassettes and many other components are manufactured in a controlled environment. They are then delivered to the site when needed and assembled following an established sequence.

Health and safety elements of this construction process are easier to manage with complete certainty. There are fewer risks. Those that are present are known, documented and fully mitigated.

Low Risk Scheduling

The other benefit is that there’s much less onsite working time. Osborne normally aims to schedule operations so that the most intensive work takes place during holidays or at weekends. Every detail, down to deliveries and vehicle movements, can be timed with precision to avoid busy times such as the beginning or end of the school day.

The most effective way to manage risks is to remove them altogether where you can. One school was so impressed by how we engaged and did this that they named one of the school buildings after our project Manager!

For more information about Osborne’s InForm product for education contact Caroline Compton-James ([email protected]) or visit our resource centre.

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