Home » Respect for People - Skills Health and Safety

Health and Safety in Design

Health and safety training special

Ten Tips for Design Health and Safety

As RIBA prepare their next CPD programme, Paul Clark of Provelio has worked with HSE and CESW to prepare the training content and put together a ‘Ten Tips for CDM’ from a designer’s perspective.

Tom Harper says: "Whilst we have produced a great set of DVDs for designers which are RIBA CPD approved (see below for more details),  we felt that there was also room for a Ten Point Guide - anything that makes this subject easier to grasp has got to be a step forward. This short guide will be very helpful." 

The Ten tips for CDM are available for download here and from the  RIBA website. (724KB)

Health and Safety Films for Designers

Low cost quality CPD that you can achieve in house

A series of films has been coordinated by CESW in partnership with the BBC, RIBA and Health & Safety Executive, to provide high quality ‘in practice’ CPD material specifically for architects and other industry designers at very low cost.This groundbreaking series of films affirming great design whilst safeguarding people working in construction has now been launched. The films are aimed at architects (including architecture students) and other construction professionals who have a key role in creating safe, sustainable and buildable designs.
 

The series is not-for-profit and the first film will be provided to RIBA validated courses at schools of architecture for no charge, to get the thinking embedded into the next generation of designers.

Copies of the DVDs will are available at a cost of £9.99 (incl P&P) for the first film in the series:"Compliance", and £17.99 each for all other films (incl P&P). To order, please visit the Squared Circle website, using the links below:

Squared Circle HOME PAGE
Squared Circle SALES
To view footage from the DVDS: DVD Library

The film series has the endorsement of RIBA President, Sunand Prasad who said: 'Architects have a key role in creating safe, sustainable and buildable designs. RIBA endorses this DVD which introduces the Construction (Design and management) Regulations 2007. It challenges architects’ perceptions of addressing health and safety and can count towards their yearly CPD quota.'

Three films are now available and further DVDs are planned to assist internal training in small and large design companies around the UK, with the aim of promoting understanding of health & safety and how to integrate good practice in the design.

The DVD challenges architects' perceptions of addressing health and safety through their design process. It also seeks to provide best practice solutions to health and safety issues in design, harnessing great ideas and hints from current architects. Real life examples are provided along with analysis from different CDM duty holders.

The films have been commissioned by a new film production team, SquaredCircle. The team comprises four industry health and safety specialists: Mark Poole, BBC; Peter Caplehorn, RIBA; Shelley Atkinson-Frost, Construction Confederation; Tom Harper, Constructing Excellence South West with support from the Working Well Together construction industry health and

Safeguarding People Achieving Design Excellence Publication cover

A lack of effective ways of delivering knowledge has been a major barrier to the up-skilling of construction professionals. Indeed, although several initiatives have been implemented to deal with training issues, still reaching out into the industry remains a challenge. This is of vital importance when it comes to the management of health and safety in construction. In this regard, further creative thinking is needed in order to promote best practice for creating a safe working environment while updating the industry on the latest procedures and legislation.

To address these issues the idea of the Health and Safety Films was put forward attempting to provide the industry with reliable and timely information in a straightforward manner and to reach as wide an audience as possible. Thus, this experiment includes the production of a series of films that form a training and promotion campaign to raise awareness of safe design principles and practice amongst construction professionals in general and architects in particular.

The films are high quality productions featuring construction professionals who provide advice on creating safe, sustainable and buildable designs accompanied by examples of live construction projects.

The industry-relevant expert team included members of organisations such as RIBA, BBC, Constructing Excellence, and Construction Confederation. Additional contributors to the production of the films are the Health & Safety Executive and the Working Well Together construction industry health and safety campaign.

The timeline for the delivery of the films is particularly demanding for two reasons:

  1. Filming has to be completed within short timescales in order to minimise costs and use of valuable resources.
  2. The films need to be distributed promptly so as to ensure that updated H&S information is presented to construction professionals on time.

These requirements, along with the view that that no time should be wasted in enhancing industry efforts to reduce death and serious injury, encouraged partners to agree a number of milestones including:

  • The first in the series of films Safeguarding People Achieving Design Excellence supporting architectural training institutions and small practices to be launched on 7 April 2008 so as to coincide with the first anniversary of the revised CDM regulations – achieved.
  • The 2nd in the series of films Roofs: to be available mid 2009 - achieved
  • The 3rd in the series of films Refurbishment & Alterations: to be available mid 2009 - achieved
  • The 4th in the series of films New Build Housing: to be available Autumn 2009 - achieved
  • The 5th and 6th in the series are Structures and Building Services. They are yet to be produced and this is dependent upon funding sources becoming available.