Safe start

If the activities on your site change regularly, you need to ensure that your staff are kept in the loop. Achieve this with our safe start document.

Just ten minutes

The safe start briefing isn’t meant to take long. Its aim is to get all your staff together for a few minutes - ten maximum - just to check that everyone is aware of what’s going on and that the appropriate paperwork is in place.

What’s covered?

On the first page you will find a list of points to cover in your briefing. There are 13 in total. These include questions which check that: (1) staff have attended the client’s health and safety induction; (2) a construction phase plan or risk assessment and method statement have been completed; (3) staff have their PPE with them; and (4) there are appropriate numbers of staff on site.

Records

On page two you will find a “Completion record”. Here record when the briefings were completed and who attended. Rather than printing off a new briefing each day, this form provides space for seven days’ entries. There’s also space for staff to sign to state that they have received the briefing. They should tick the appropriate box to identify the days they attended.

Note. If any issues are identified, for example, staff don’t have the right PPE with them, you have space in the “Further information” box on page one to record which day this happened.