Over an intensive 8 hours of theory focused tuition with visual presentations, group exercises, demonstrations and workshops, you’ll gain extensive knowledge of the legislation, responsibilities, procedures, best practices and compliance that enable you to govern jobs efficiency and keep your employees safe from the dangers of falling.
Key Topics
Working At Height Regs
British Standard
Hierarchy of Control
Harness Training
Permanent & Temporary Anchorage
Intermediate Devices
Kit Care & Weekly Inspection
Dropped Objects
Rescue
Risk Assessment
Method Statements
Manager Controls
Who is it for?
This courses is aimed at managers and supervisors of operatives working at height who are required to issue 'permit to work' (PTW) for work at height activities. It may also be useful for someone seeking to further their careers in the field. Every course is tailored to your unique working at height requirements and trade sphere.
Aftercare Access
Valid for 3 years
Recognised Certs & ID's
All Kit Provided
01 / Legal & Moral Responsibilities
Become an effective Manager of work at height.
Managing work at height requires an advanced skill set covering a wide range of legal and moral responsibilities. To achieve this we enable you to identify potential hazards, complete effective risk assessments and method statements, get you fully up to date with the latest equipment and work methods and teach you all the skills you need to be manage work successfully.
02 / Equipment Selection
Choose the right kit for your operatives.
A big part of being a manager means ensuring your team has the right equipment for their tasks. We’ll explore the function and use of various types of height safety equipment at an advanced level, giving you full proficiency in the selection and utilisation of harnesses, intermediate devices and anchorage that together form your employees height access solutions.
03 / Rescue Planning
Make provisions for a height rescue.
Discover the effects of falling on the human body and get all the information and tools you need to begin making necessary height rescue provisions for work at height. You'll be able to select and place appropriate recovery systems for any work at height and fulfil your risk assessment requirements — an essential skill for any managerial role.
04 / Kit Inspection and Storage
Control and maintain your companies PPE.
Learn how to store and maintain your equipment and discover how to perform weekly kit inspections on a full range of PPE. We also reveal strategies that safeguard against the repercussion of dropped objects using cutting-edge tethering systems.
05 / Work Planning
Manage work at height activities.
In a final group exercise you’ll demonstrate your competency as a manager by risk assessing and selecting appropriate work methods and equipment for several mock work at height scenarios. As a qualified WAH appointed person you can issue ‘permit to work’ (PTW) for all working at height activities.
06 / Card System
Police your employee licences.
The Leading Edge license card management system gives you the power to take disciplinary action by removing the corners of a license if the card holder commits an act of misconduct. A Leading Edge card with all 4 corners removed is considered invalid and requires the operative to be retrained before continuing work.
07 / Training Equipment
All kit provided.
We provide our own projector, screen, laptop, props and a bag full of equipment to deliver theory lessons. We just need somewhere to teach. So if you're booking a course on your site, don't forget to arrange a training room that can hold the appropriate number of people.
Certification
Your license to work.
By completing this course you will be awarded with an industry
recognised Leading Edge license card and certificate.
The card is valid for 3 years and requires renewal after
the expiry date stated at the time of issue.
Foundations lays the groundwork for your training. We’ll discuss course
objectives and prime you with essential background knowledge on the
subject of height safety, covering the basics of why we need it, the
devastating effects falls have on individuals, families and businesses
and your general legal responsibilities and duties. By exploring
historical references, statistics and legislation we’ll paint — in real
terms — a picture of where we are today, how far we’ve come and how
far we still have to go to make the work place a safe place.
As a manager or employer you have strict legal responsibility
to keep your workforce safe at height. But while the WAH
Regulations and British Standard exist for everyone’s benefit,
being extensive jargon-filled documents makes them daunting and
difficult for non-legal professionals to understand. Thankfully
we do all the heavy lifting to pull out the clauses that are
relevant to you and explain them one-by- one in layman’s terms,
helping you understand how to comply with the law and prevent
unknowingly exposing yourselves and your team to the possibility
of future legal repercussions.
To have a meaningful discussion about height safety we need a
clear picture of the terminology and work methods fundamental
to all work at height. They fall into three distinct
categories: Fall Arrest, Work Positioning and Fall Restraint.
In DEP we break down and deliver detailed defnitions of all
three methods, demystifying what they mean, how they function,
the equipment that comprise them and the various ways in which
they can be utilised in a height access solution.
Before work at height can begin each task must be assessed for
risk and appropriate safety measures should be placed where
needed. To do this we’ll utilize the Hierarchy of Control
Measures, which outlines a step-by-step procedure to guide
your height access provisions. We’ll start at the top with
the safest possible procedure (avoiding the need to work at
height all-together) and move down the hierarchy with
progressively hazardous scenarios, giving you the knowledge to
conduct your own future assessments using the HCM.
Throw it over your shoulders, clip it together, fasten the leg
straps and you’re good to go, right? Be under no illusions, a
damaged or incorrectly worn harness can lead to death, or if
you’re truly unlucky, extreme testicular trauma and rectal
damage! To prevent such a nauseating fate we’ll take you back
to basics, familiarise you with different types of height
safety harnesses and their various purposes, teach you how to
perform pre-use inspections and then get down to the nuts and
bolts of how to don and adjust it. At the end of the module
each of you will be provided with your own harness to practise
wearing, which will be then be assessed by the instructor to
make sure the whole team is competent and con dent before
moving on.
Once you have an understanding of what arrest and restraint
methods are we take a deeper a look at intermediate devices,
which work together between your anchor point and harness to
form a height safety system. These include inertia reels,
lanyards, lifelines, connectors and anchorage. We walk you
through each device, demonstrating how they function, how you
use them, what their limitations and performance capabilities
are and the practices and work methods that enable you to use
them correctly in applications.
Anchorage is the first and arguably the most important link in
the height safety chain. The challenge is knowing what
constitutes a safe anchorage point and how to select the right
anchorage device to connect with out of a myriad of different
options and confgurations. To help you understand we’ll start
by exploring permanent anchor points comprising of fixed
structures in your environment and move on to temporary
solutions. Finally we’ll talk in-depth about available
anchorage devices and analyse their specic uses,
configurations, ratings and certifcations, giving you the
theoretical knowledge to identify and set up suitable
anchorage for your height safety system.
While we should do all we can to prevent falls, using arrest
and adjustable restraint systems mean the risk of a fall still
exists. We need to be prepared to conduct a swift height rescue
should one occur. In height rescue 101 we’ll examine the
physical effects of suspension intolerance and reflow syndrome
on the human body and demystify the law, revealing exactly
what you are required to plan and make provisions for. We’ll
then introduce you to the 3 main methods of height
rescue—lowering, raising and combined—to gain an overview of
how they operate, their requirements of use and their pros
and cons for the recovery of conscious and unconscious fall
casualties.
Working at height puts your life in the hands of your equipment,
so it’s in your interest to make sure your kit is t for use.
To ensure safety we’ll teach you the importance of frequent
kit inspection and outline the basic principles of product
and service life. We’ll then explore both the causes and
visual indicators of degradation on a variety of di erent
products, helping you keep your kit in good condition by
handling, storing and transporting it appropriately and
identifying damage when conducting daily pre-use inspections.
Equipment inspection is a requirement that must be
conducted by a competent person on a 6-monthly basis. To
understand your legal responsibilities we’ll introduce you to
the inspections process for a full range of PPE and demonstrate
how to record the relevant paperwork. Towards the end of the
module is a practical exercise in which groups complete a
harness inspection test, which gives them the confidence to
conduct kit inspections for height safety harnesses.
Those responsible for planning work at height are legally
required to provide a method statement, a document explaining
the way tasks should be completed. It outlines in detail the
hazards involved and provides a guide on how to complete the
job safely. With examples, we’ll walk you through the process
of creating a strong, simple and e ective method statement
that communicates risks and necessary precautions to all those
involved in work at height, whilst avoiding the pitfall of
ambiguities or generalisations that could lead to confusion.
For many people conducting a risk assessment seems
laborious and over-demanding, but it needn’t be difficult and
if done properly will make all the difference. A good risk
assessment ensures employees stay safe and, should an accident
occur, you’ll have the paperwork to back up the fact you did
all you could be reasonably expected to do. To get you started
we dive right in and show you how to easily identify hazards,
consider who might be harmed, evaluate risks and record and
implement your findings into a pain-free risk assessment.
Dropped objects are a serious risk, and not just to people,
to anything below a work area where hand-held equipment can
fall. In Dropped Objects we have a frank discussion about the
problems associated with untethered tools, cover some
mind-blowing physics about the impact force even the tiniest
objects can generate, and lay down the law regarding
individual and company liability resulting from injury.
Finally we explore some tool tethering solutions available to
you today, so you can start to safely secure your tools at
height.
In a group exercise create a formal plan for several mock working at height activities.
Planning Work Activities
You’ve sat through the all modules, now it’s time to put it
all together! Using the knowledge gained throughout the course
we give you several mock scenarios and challenge you in teams
to conduct visual risk assessments, decide upon suitable
anchorage locations and select equipment for work at height.
In an informal discussion each group will then explain and
debate their decision making process to demonstrate their
ability to plan for a variety of work activities.
Exam
An independently marked multi-choice paper to test your knowledge.
Anchorage forms the foundation of your height access system and
any mistakes made here makes all subsequent efforts worthless.
In phase 2 You'll learn which anchorage devices to use and in
which configurations to place based on your work area and the
leading edge.
Fall arrest sytems increase mobility but the trade-off is they
allow you to fall. If that happens the blocks lock like a car
seat belt and (hence the title) arrest your fall. Because
falling is permitted caution is required, so we show you strict
rules and practises that enable you to use them safely for work
at height.
Higher up in the height safety hierarchy are Restraint Systems.
These systems offer the same level of access as Fall Arrest
Blocks but are considered a safer and more desirable method of
work since the use of ropes physically 'restrains' your
proximity to an edge. Restraint Systems are extremely versatile,
allowing for both front and rear connection in several
configurations across horizontal, vertical and pitched planes.
Some or all of which you'll discover and practice depending on
your course.
Lifelines prevent pendulum and provide greater levels of access
when working over large areas as the added use of a pulley
allows you to safely traverse the edge along which the lifeline
is set. You’ll learn how to deploy, position and tension a
lifeline, operate it using front and rear attachment across
horizontal and pitched planes, and explore more advanced
techniques such as lifeline bending for multiple edge access and
intermediate attachments to support multiple simultaneous users.
Lanyards are the most extensively used piece of equipment in the
height safety arsenal. It’s no surprise given their versatility
for preventing operatives from entering a fall hazard up to a 2m
edge distance. You can discover up to 5 different kinds of
lanyard to achieve a range of access from simple fixed locations
to climbing and the traversal of complex structures. This is
your chance to reaffirm lessons learnt during theory modules and
practice connecting to harnesses and anchorage while gaining the
invaluable ability to select the right lanyards for your
applications. We’ll continuously verify your competency along
the way!
Site Requirements
Practical exercises require three anchor points (columns,
railings, fencing, metal structures, rebar or anything
capable of supporting 300kg) placed at right angles and
spaced between 5 and 20 meters. Don't fret if site access
is unavailable. We strive to be as accomodating as possible
and can conduct practical lessons in car parks, fields and
classrooms when necessary.