Toolbox talk: working at height

This is a ready-to-give toolbox talk on working at height. Keep it to about five to ten minutes, run it before the work starts, and make it about today's job rather than the topic in general. Use it as a script, adjust it to the task in front of the crew, and take questions at the end.

Why this matters

Falls from height are the single biggest cause of death in UK construction, year after year. It does not take a tall building. People are killed and seriously injured falling from ladders, off the edge of a flat roof, through a fragile rooflight, and off a scaffold that was one board short. The point of this talk is simple: nobody works at height today without the right protection, and if the protection is not there, the work stops until it is.

The main risks on the job

• Falls from an edge, at eaves, verges, openings and leading edges where there is no guardrail.
• Falls through fragile surfaces, such as rooflights, fibre cement sheets and old or corroded roofs that will not take a person's weight.
• Falling objects, tools and materials dropped onto people below.
• Ladders used wrongly, overreaching, standing on the top rungs, or using a ladder for a job that needs a tower or a platform.
• Access equipment faults, a damaged ladder, an untagged scaffold, or a MEWP used without training.

What you must do

• Avoid working at height where the job can be done another way, for example assembling at ground level.
• Use the right access for the work, a scaffold, tower or MEWP rather than a ladder for anything but short, light tasks. Only use a scaffold that is tagged and inspected.
• Keep collective protection in place, guardrails, toe boards and covers to fragile surfaces and openings. Never remove them.
• Treat every rooflight and old roof as fragile and never step on one. Use crawl boards and stagings, with nets below where needed.
• Secure tools and materials and keep an exclusion zone below so a dropped object cannot hurt anyone.
• Check your equipment before use. A damaged ladder or a defective harness is taken out of use, not made do with.
• Use a harness only as a last resort, where collective protection is not possible, and only with a suitable anchor and a rescue plan.

Questions to discuss with the crew

• What are we working at height on today, and what access are we using?
• Where are the edges, openings and any fragile surfaces on this job?
• Is the scaffold tagged, and has anything changed since it was inspected?
• What is the plan if someone spots a missing guardrail or a damaged ladder?

Record the talk

Write down the date, the topic, who gave the talk and who attended, and keep it on file. The record shows the briefing happened, and it is often asked for by the principal contractor or in an investigation after an incident.

Related: RAMS for working at height, RAMS for roofing, and the full RAMS and method statement guides.