Permit to work - stepladders

Although stepladders are recognised as acceptable work equipment to enable staff to work at height, you may want to control who uses them and when. This can be achieved with a permit to work document.

Balancing act

Although stepladders are seen as a safe option in many places of work, statistics paint a different picture. They identify that many accidents occur while using this type of equipment. Therefore, restricting their use is a good idea.

One pager

Our simple Permit to Work - Stepladders document should only take a matter of minutes to fill in. The process requires the individual who authorises use of the equipment and the person who will complete the work to think about the task that they’re about to carry out and identify how it should be done safely. In effect, it’s a risk assessment.

Details

So that it’s easy to relate the paperwork to the task, the first section of the document asks you to complete details of the job, provide information about the equipment and the task to be carried out from the stepladder. 

Note. There’s only limited space on the form to fill in the details. This is intentional. We’ve restricted the space to ensure that staff are not tempted to write pages of unnecessary information.

Considerations

The next step asks all parties to consider five points. These include: (1) making sure that the stepladder has been subject to appropriate safety checks; (2) its use is detailed in prescribed safe systems of work; (3) that it’s the most suitable tool for the job; (4) that if there are safer methods of work available these are adopted; and (5) that ground conditions are suitable.

Authorisation

The final sections are to be completed by the individual authorising the work and the person who will use the stepladder.