Section

Summary

Site Safety Principles

This section looks broadly at the principles of site safety, including site health and safety inductions. This section also looks at one of the most under-looked but equally important aspect of site safety – good site behaviour. Also looking in detail:

• Health & Safety Inductions and their delivery
• General Site Safety Principles
• Site Behaviour
• Good Housekeeping & Good Cleaning Practice

Fire Safety

In order to understand and appreciate the importance of fire safety you need to understand the principles of fire hazards. This section looks the important concepts in developing a fire safety plan, also looking in detail are:

• Identifying fire hazards
• Sources of ignition, fuel and oxygen
• Evaluate and reduce the risk of a fire occurring
• Fire extinguisher types
• Types of fire

Water as a Hazard

Water is essential in cleaning, it’s needed to carry away soiling, but sometimes water is not a practical, or a safe, way of cleaning. Sometimes the very presence of water can often make the cleaning job harder than it needs to be. Sometimes water can pose a significant safety risk. This section looks at the risks posed by the presence of water and looks at when water can or cannot be used.

First Aid & Accident Procedures

It is vital – and a legal requirement in most countries – to have provision for first aid and knowledge accident procedures. This sections takes first aid and accident procedures together  and develops the requirements you need in any workplace, of any size.

Within first aid the main focus is the first aid kit, what must be included and what size the kit should be (depending on the site and the number of staff).

Within accident procedures the main focus is what to do and how to record and report (if necessary) an accident. This legal requirement also requires there to be some form of investigation afterwards and all points raised to be noted.

Health and Safety

This section looks at basic health and safety covering the safe use and handling of cleaning equipment and products, including personal protective equipment (PPE).

This section is further sub-divided into:

• Electrical Safety – guidance in the safe use of electrically powered cleaning equipment
• Working at Height – guidance working Scissor lifts and ‘cherry pickers’, fixed and mobile scaffolding and ladders and step ladders
• Dust & Soils – many substances encountered during the cleaning process present a health and safety risk. e.g very fine stone dust, human or animal waste and wood dust.
• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) – full guidance on the different types of PPE covering all areas of the body, everything from different hats to different types of safety boots

Risk Management

This section is centred around the probable consequences of actions in order to fully and accurately assess risk. With every action there are numerous consequences, covering harm to individuals (directly and indirectly), environment, financial harm to the business and equipment damage.

Taking this holistic view of risk during the initial evaluation, can prevent costly damage. In this section you will understand how to rank risk based on consequence and then further evaluate the risk based on likelihood (probability of it occurring) to create of list of preventative measures in order of priority.

This process is a critical step in creating a risk assessment, which is the next part of this section. The second part of this section looks at risk assessments and method statements and how to create them.

Chemical Safety

Broadly, this section looks at the safe use, handling and storage of cleaning chemicals and cleaning products. Physical injuries caused by strain, lifting, slipping and falling are often acute injuries requiring immediate attention, whereas injuries caused by chemicals are often chronic and the symptoms delayed, although no less severe.

The damage caused by improper use, handling and storage of chemicals can have a huge impact on a business. Imagine the injury caused and the cost of repairing a damaged floor because the cleaning product was used incorrectly.

Chemicals and how they are used can cause numerous injuries, but where do you start to understand the risks involved in order to complete a risk assessment? This section will show you the sources of safety information at your disposal, as well as giving you a large range of fundamental principles covering all aspects of chemical safety.

Detergents & Cleaning Products

This section follows on from the previous section on chemical safety and focuses on choosing suitable cleaning detergents and products. This section looks at:

• The basic composition of detergents
• How to choose a detergent product
• Acids, alkali and neutral cleaning products
• pH, dwell timing, dilution and rinsing
• Detergent problems and their remedies