No margin for error
February 1st 2008

OCS started out as a window cleaning firm when Queen Victoria was still on the throne.Today it's the UK's largest window cleaning operation, covering some of the country's most demanding buildings. Its mantra? 'Training, training and more training'

The art of cleaning windows goes back centuries, but the skill of staying safe has only come of age relatively recently.According to OCS Cleaning, the key to competence, confidence and keeping safe requires three fundamentals: training, training and more training.

The firm's window cleaners are continuously trained and their competence tested at national, trade organisation and company levels, resulting in a safety training regime which is as robust and reliable as the quality equipment they use.George Thomas, an OCS team manager who was one of the first abseiling window cleaners in London, has worked with the company for 35 years."In spite of many people thinking that the UK has gone H&S crazy," he says,"I don't think you can ever have too much training or regulation when it comes to safety. When you're working at height, you need to feel totally confident that everything has been done to protect you and the people you're working with." OCS cleans the windows of some of the country's most difficult and demanding buildings, including high-rise five star hotels,world class concert halls and government buildings, which make maximum use of modern steel and glass structures with steeply curving facades and sloping glass exteriors. For such a wide range of complex structures, OCS adopts a variety of solutions including high-level abseiling, cradle-based access equipment, mobile alloy towers and mobile elevating working platforms.

Whatever the selected solution, teams are trained not only according to equipment manufacturers'own specific standards but also to the relevant national trade body requirements such as the IRATA (International Rope Access Trade Association, IPAF (International Powered Access Federation) and PASMA (Prefabricated Access Suppliers and Manufacturers'Association).

The IRATA training, for example, has three levels and covers all safety aspects including rope rigging and rescue procedures including 'snatch rescues'. Once certificated, staff undertake refresher courses at the recommended intervals to ensure that they are completely up to date with the latest procedures.

Safety training is taken to even higher standards by a strict programme of in-house training. The company provides its own 'Window Cleaners Certificate of Competence' including assessments of theoretical knowledge and modules covering everything from H&S law to job-specific tasks. H&S advisor for the OCS Group Mike Smedley says,"We are duty bound by health and safety regulations and we insist on adopting industry standard training. However,we also have two-day management courses over and above the industry standard and hold regular toolbox sessions to remind everyone of the dos and don'ts and prevent people developing bad habits. Attendance at training sessions is not enough for people to prove their competence so regular and rigorous testing is undertaken to constantly prove their abilities. In addition to this, OCS also sends anyone involved in managing work at height or of a high-risk nature on a four-day intensive Managing Safety course accredited by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH).

Steve Killingback, a regional manager for OCS Cleaning, highlights another important piece in the jigsaw of safe working by emphasising the new technologies now used to ensure that the training given off-site is actually adopted on-site in a way which complies with health and safety law."The start point is the site survey which forms a vital part of safety and risk assessment and ultimately leads to job-specific method statements.We now employ hand-held PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) with state-of-the-art software and wireless telecommunications to store this information and ensure every job is performed safely and to specification." This new technology removes the need for traditional paper-based work bills and reduces layers of administration but most importantly allows control of work practices.The system sets work patterns and standards in a structured way using pre-programmed health and safety practices, each of which must be electronically signed off by the window cleaning team manager before work commences.This acts as a continuous safety prompt to operatives and will also actively lock out the task if any of the test procedures are by-passed."Safety is not an area for compromise and effective training unlocks safe working practices," concludes Mike Smedley.

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