Leading architectural glazing specialists Hazlemere Commercial aren’t just respected experts in school, college and university installations, but a much sought-after main contractor with expertise in all aspects of renovation and new build in education. Mark Austin, Hazlemere Commercial’s Marketing Director and Chair of the Glass and Glazing Federation’s Windows and Doors Group, shares insights into the most crucial aspect of any school or college job – everyone’s well-being, but especially child safety.
Education projects can bring more than their fair share of issues, challenges and potential headaches – but none more major and more daunting than ensuring student safety. Sadly, despite all the improvements in Health & Safety here in the UK, people can still suffer injury and loss on construction sites – and the risk of them coming to harm is inevitably heightened on jobs that require bringing heavy-duty machinery, scaffolding, huge glass panels and other potentially dangerous building materials in close proximity to hundreds of persons.
Health & Safety is something that therefore should rank highly on every education project manager’s list of priorities – so how can one make sure we are all doing our utmost to protect everyone one site, including students, staff, workmen and visitors? Fortunately, there’s one simple, incredibly effective way of cutting risk to the absolute minimum – scheduling as much as the work as possible out of term time. The six-week school summer break each year offers a perfect opportunity to complete noisy and in theory potentially dangerous work on schools. It’s England, so you can never be sure about the Climate – but July and August are about the best choices if you’re hoping for fine weather, too.
Colleges and universities have even longer breaks – although they tend to remain busier than schools in these periods, with some students staying behind to complete work, the institutions themselves making their facilities available to conferences and other events, and so on. Bear in mind that these sorts of buildings are very rarely completely empty. But what if that’s just not possible? Your next best option is to be clever with your scheduling. At Hazlemere Commercial, we’ve often worked with project managers, customers and other involved parties to plan a job so that while it may start or finish during term time, there’s also a section of the project that can take place in the holidays too. That allows you to organise the work in such a way that tasks with more noise and/or potential risk can take place when the site is closed to the public or at its quietest. Re-scheduling lessons in classrooms that are away from any potential noise disruption, is another sensible practical where wok is necessary during term time.
Regardless of when your project is set to be implemented, it’s crucial you make sure the school, college or university itself is aware of its own health and safety obligations. Under Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the commissioning institution has a responsibility for ensuring the safety of everyone affected by the works – and there are big penalties if the Health and Safety Executive judges them to have fallen short. Fees in the thousands of pounds aren’t unusual, and if the HES visit, they’re liable to charge for their time at a rate of £124 an hour, plus VAT.
It’s therefore vital that you work with the commissioning institution to draw up a crystal-clear specification for the project, identifying any potential hazards from the outset – and ensure that every organisation involved in the work sees health and safety as their highest priority. Very often in the industry, you hear stories of projects that started out with the best of intentions when it came to safety, but were let down by shoddy subcontractors who weren’t singing from the same hymn sheet. That’s why it’s so crucial to choose a reputable main contractor with extensive experience in the education sector, and a list of trusted subcontractors it knows will follow health and safety procedures to the letter.
During the project itself, it’s vital you physically separate the area being worked on from the rest of the school. Children, particularly young children, are naturally inquisitive. Construction sites can look exciting and enticing – big machines, brightly coloured tabards and helmets, constant activity. Preventing children from entering the site is only part of the battle – wherever possible, you have to keep work out of sight and out of mind, too.
One excellent way of maximising safety is by engaging with the school staff and students themselves. Some contractors encourage children to draw their own ‘keep out’ signs, that are then used around the site, or colour-code areas of the school to teach them which are safe to be in, and which aren’t. Work with school staff to come up with inventive, engaging ways of keeping students safe.
For friendly professional help and advice about any forthcoming project, why not have a discussion with CHAS & EXOR accredited Hazlemere Commercial to see if they can be of genuine assistance?. With a prestigious client list that includes some of the UK’s most respected schools, colleges and universities, and a portfolio of recent projects that includes installations on award-winning new builds like Bideford College in Devon, historic Desborough School in Maidenhead, success CIF Bid clients like Burnham Grammar School in Bucks, and refurbishment clients the University of Reading in Berks, they have the knowledge and the expertise to make a success of your next education project, whether it be renovation or new build.
