OUR BLOG 

 
Below are a number of posts containing useful tips and insights from the Directors of Auxil Limited, acknowledged industry experts and trusted advisors in the fields of Health & Safety and Human Resources, which will hopefully trigger some thoughts or ideas. 
 
Why not join the conversation? We would love to hear your views… 

Posts tagged “H&S”

As the construction industry starts to become somewhat normal again across the UK, Building will resume, however a lot more building’s will be gracing the sky rather than stretching across the way. 
According to a report by New London Architecture, there are 525 new planned high-rise buildings with 20+ floors, for London alone. 
This will increase the problem Health and Safety professionals face and how to consistently operate safe workings at height. 
 
So, what is working at height? 
According to the HSE, working at height is defined as; work in any place where, if precautions were not taken, a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury. 
You are working at height if you: 
• work above ground/floor level 
• could fall from an edge, through an opening or fragile surface or 
• could fall from ground level into an opening in a floor or a hole in the ground 
CDM stands for Construction Design and Management Regulations 2015 and not Cadbury’s Dairy Milk! 
CDM 2015 applies to all construction work which means the carrying out of any building, civil engineering or engineering construction work. 
Who are the duty Holders under the CDM 2015 regulations? 
1. Clients are organisations or individuals for whom a commercial construction project is carried out and have control of the decisions relating to the build. They must; 
a. Appoint a Principal Designer and Principal Contractor in writing or accept their duties themselves and assess their competence; 
b. ensure an F10 notification is submitted to the HSE, if the project is over 500 person days or over 30 days with more than 20 persons on site at any one time; 
c. Ensure suitable welfare facilities are in place from day 1 of construction 
d. provide Pre-Construction Information (PCI) to every designer and contractor appointed 
e. before the construction phase begins, a Construction Phase Plan (CPP) is in place 
f. a Health and Safety File for the project is prepared when construction is complete 
Working safely during the coronavirus pandemic has been and is at the forefront of business owners’ minds. To enable businesses to return to work, following the latest information from HM Government, employers are required to produce a risk assessment. 
 
To help, we have listed below the requirements employers must consider when producing their Covid-19 Risk Assessment: 
1. Are your employees fit to come to work or are their immediate family are infected or vulnerable, 
2. Should they be isolated, 
3. What happens if they show symptoms at work, 
4. Can your employees work from home and use technology 
5. Can you stagger shifts to reduce numbers at premises at any one time 
6. How are your employees getting to work, driving, using public transport, cycling or walking 
7. How are they signing in and out safely 
8. How is social distancing being managed within the workplace, 2m spacing, and moving around the workplace 
9. Use of desks, workstations, people in shared rooms or using shared working platforms. 
 
Earlier this month we had the chance to take a Student at Severn Vale School under our wings for a week so he could experience everything Auxil had to offer. 
“Working with Auxil has shown me that Health and Safety and HR Consultancy are two massive industries, the way Auxil has blended them both together is ‘really’ clever! I would love to work for a company like this in the future.” 
Creating work experience opportunities for students and school leavers is a beneficial situation for both your company and for the young person. 
 
For employers, work experience is about giving back to society and helping the future economy by doing your bit to help preparing young people for the world of work. Employers who offer work experience give young people the opportunity to work on the company premises for a few days, giving them insight to the reality of your industry. Many young people, once they have completed or while completing their GCSEs have an idea of what they want to do as a future career, but they have no real hands on experience in the workplace. 
Auxil was blog free the whole of April, Why? Because April is a busy month for any business, with the new tax year coming into effect. 
Have you ever wondered why the new financial year starts in April? 
You might think logically the new financial year should coincide with the calendar year; some countries it does, but in the UK, we scramble to get our affairs in order by April 5th and the new year starting on the 6th. To understand this, we need to look back a few years… 
In the UK, the new year used to start on March 25th, also known as ‘Lady Day ’, to mark the angel Gabriel’s announcement to the virgin Mary that she would become the mother to Jesus Christ. Lady Day was one of the four most important days in the religious calendar. 
The move forward to April 6th is a result in changes from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. Until 1582, Europe has used the Julian calendar established by Julius Caesar. Under the Julian calendar, the year had 11 months of 30 to 31 days, with February being an exception of only have 28 (29 every leap year). This had worked well for centuries, however because it didn’t align with the solar calendar, over time problems developed. 
 
SMAS is short for Safety Management Advisory Services. They are a Health & Safety assessment organisation that offers a nationally recognised Health & Safety accreditation used to demonstrate your business' Health and Safety standards.  
They are a co-founding member of the Safety Schemes in Procurement or better known as SSIP. 
Here at Auxil Limited we have just successfully renewed SMAS for another year, 
SMAS is a recognised SSIP Accreditation which helps us keep up to date with our policies and procedures. Without this accreditation we would not be able to, in good knowledge, give the pristine and established services we are proud to provide. 
All of the assessments are undertaken in-house which enable SMAS to offer a consistent standard across all assessments, the minimum standards SMAS assess against are set out in the SSIP Core Criteria. 
 
Milestones are great, especially for businesses. It means you’ve achieved a goal and something’s going right. 
This month we are celebrating a very special milestone as we are turning 5 years old, and we wanted to mark this occasion with a blogpost dedicated to how we have grown from a small idea to the thriving local business we are today. 
 
The thing with starting your own business is that you literally don’t know what you don’t know. It’s easy to head off, all gung-ho, into the entrepreneurial world but sticking at it through good times and the tough times takes strength and determination about your business’s potential success. Its hours of hard work! 
From a one-man band to a team of dedicated consultants, Auxil Ltd has come leaps and bounds from where we began. But we couldn’t have got to where we are today without you, our customers. 
Connor, our Health & Safety Coordinator, has been hard at work with his studies in recent months and is seeing the rewards for his efforts. 
 
Firstly he has completed the CITB Site Management Safety Training Scheme (SMSTS). The Construction Industry Training Board was first established in July 1964 and has been providing training for the construction and civil engineering industries ever since. 
 
The SMSTS is run over 5 days and provides an understanding of health, safety, welfare and environmental issues on construction sites. 

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