Construction phase plan example for a small building job
A construction phase plan for a small domestic job can be short: who is doing what, the site rules, welfare, and the main dangers with how each is controlled. The example below is invented, and a real plan has to be made specific to the job in front of you.
What the law asks of the plan
Regulation 12(2) of CDM 2015 says a construction phase plan must set out the health and safety arrangements and site rules, and include specific measures for any work on the Schedule 3 list of particular risks. On a one-contractor project, regulation 15(5) makes that contractor responsible for having it drawn up before the site is set up. Where there is more than one contractor, the principal contractor does it under regulation 12(1).
For a domestic client, HSE says the client duties normally pass to the contractor on a one-contractor job, or to the principal contractor otherwise. HSE's guidance (L153) says the plan should be as simple as possible and proportionate to the size and risks. Generic risk assessments, records of how decisions were reached and detailed method statements do not belong in it. HSE's busy builder leaflet (CIS80) says a simple plan before work starts is usually enough for jobs such as extensions and loft conversions.
An example: a rear extension at Dove Cottage
This job is made up. Dove Cottage in Grasmere is only a famous address, and everyone named is long dead. The headings follow HSE's CIS80 template.
- Job: single-storey rear extension with a pitched slate roof and a new opening through the existing rear wall. Client: William Wordsworth. Designer: Sir John Soane. Contractor: Thomas Telford, the only contractor, so he also carries the client duties.
- Dates: start Monday of week 1, finish Friday of week 10. Electricity off for one day in week 4 to connect the new circuit.
- Told by the client: where the gas, water and electricity isolation points are, and that no asbestos survey exists. A refurbishment survey is done before the rear wall is opened and the result is shared with everyone on site.
- People: four of Telford's own employees, no other contractor. Telford runs the site.
- Welfare: the client's cloakroom and kitchen until the wall is opened, then a hired unit on the drive, agreed in writing.
- Falls from height: scaffold to the eaves, inspected before first use and at least every 7 days. Ladders only for short, low-risk tasks.
- Excavations: edges barriered, sides supported if needed, services scanned first and hand dug near them.
- Collapse: needles and props in before the wall is cut, fitted by a competent person.
- Dust and asbestos: wet cutting, extraction on tools, vacuum not brush, well-fitting masks. No work on suspect material until the survey is back.
- Electricity: supply isolated before drilling or cutting into walls.
- Public and the household: site fenced off from the garden, gate locked overnight, children and pets kept out.
- Site rules: hard hat and boots, no smoking, parking in the lane, phones away on the scaffold, no hot work without a permit, client's rooms off limits.
- Emergency: first-aid kit in the van, address written on the plan, escape route shown at induction.
- F10: not needed. Four people for ten weeks is about 200 person days, and never more than 20 workers at once.
Making it fit your job
Change every line that does not match the site. A plan copied from another job names the wrong risks and people.
- Ask the client about services, isolation points, access limits and asbestos.
- Add the risks of this job, such as a flat roof, a deep dig, a shared boundary or live services.
- Point to the RAMS for each task instead of copying them in.
- Review it when the work changes: L153 calls it a working document.
- Cover the site rules at induction and keep the plan with the job.
More than one contractor, and the F10
If a second contractor comes on, such as a separate electrician, or it is reasonably foreseeable that one will, the client must appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor in writing (regulation 5). On a domestic job, if the client does not, the designer in control of the pre-construction phase becomes the principal designer and the contractor in control of the construction phase becomes the principal contractor (regulation 7). The plan then becomes the principal contractor's under regulation 12.
A project must be notified to HSE on an F10 if it is scheduled to last longer than 30 working days with more than 20 workers at once, or to exceed 500 person days (regulation 6). On a domestic job that duty passes to the contractor, or to the principal contractor if there is one (regulation 7).
Sources
- legislation.gov.uk: CDM 2015, regulation 5
- legislation.gov.uk: CDM 2015, regulation 6
- legislation.gov.uk: CDM 2015, regulation 7
- legislation.gov.uk: CDM 2015, regulation 12
- legislation.gov.uk: CDM 2015, regulation 15
- legislation.gov.uk: CDM 2015, Schedule 3
- HSE: Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015
- HSE: Domestic clients, roles and responsibilities
- HSE: Managing health and safety in construction, L153
- HSE: Construction phase plan (CDM 2015), CIS80