Controlling Contractors Safely on Site
Safe Contractor Control for Managers & Supervisors - A practical one-day course for managers and supervisors responsible for contractors working within their areas. Learn how to brief, authorise and monitor contractor work, recognise when circumstances have changed, intervene when necessary and ensure work is safely handed back before normal operations resume.
Course Format
Virtual Course – These courses are run using the Zoom platform as a fully interactive course, just as our live courses are. We have had great feedback from delegates on these courses.
Overview
Contractors carry out a wide range of work within organisations, including maintenance, servicing, cleaning, installation, repair, construction, inspections and specialist technical activities. Even where competent contractors have been properly selected, effective management is still needed once they arrive on site.
Managers and supervisors are often the people who make those arrangements work in practice. They may receive contractors, explain site hazards, coordinate their work with normal operations, check that agreed controls are in place, monitor progress, respond when circumstances change and decide whether an area or item of equipment can safely be returned to use.
This one-day course provides a practical framework for managers and supervisors who have contractors working within their areas but who are not necessarily health and safety specialists.
The course follows the lifecycle of a typical contractor job from arrival and pre-start checks through to monitoring, changes in scope, intervention and final handback. Attention is given to the situations where contractor arrangements commonly begin to break down: generic RAMS, unclear responsibilities, changing work methods, additional personnel, interacting activities, permits that no longer reflect the job and pressure to complete work quickly.
Delegates will learn what they should reasonably check without attempting to manage the contractor's specialist trade, how to ask effective questions, when additional clarification is needed and when work should be paused or stopped. Practical scenarios are used throughout the day so that delegates can apply the principles to realistic contractor situations and develop a consistent approach that can be used across their organisation.
Why this course is important
Controlling contractors on site is a frequent failing leading to prosecutions. Contractors may be unfamiliar with the premises, processes, people and local hazards. At the same time, managers and supervisors may not fully understand the technical work the contractor is carrying out. This creates an important interface where information must be exchanged, responsibilities clarified and activities coordinated.
HSE guidance on managing contractors emphasises the need to provide relevant information, agree arrangements before work starts and establish appropriate supervision and monitoring while work is taking place. The level of contact should reflect the risks involved rather than being based simply on the fact that a contractor is considered competent.
Problems frequently arise not because there was no original plan, but because the job changes after work starts. A contractor may encounter an unexpected condition, decide to use different equipment, bring an additional worker, extend the work into another area or propose a quicker method. Controls that were appropriate for the original job may no longer be suitable.
Managers and supervisors need to recognise when this has happened and know when work can continue, when arrangements need to be reviewed and when the job should be stopped until suitable controls are re-established.
They also need sufficient confidence to challenge unsafe work. A manager does not need to know how to perform the contractor's specialist task to ask why an agreed barrier has been removed, why a permit no longer matches the activity or why the work is being carried out differently from the agreed method.
Effective contractor control also continues at the end of the job. Equipment may need to be tested, guards replaced, isolations removed, fire systems reinstated, waste cleared and outstanding defects communicated before normal operations resume.
This course gives managers and supervisors a common practical standard for controlling contractor work and helps organisations reduce the gap between their contractor-management procedures and what actually happens on site.
Who should attend?
This course is designed for managers, supervisors and others who receive, coordinate or oversee contractors as part of their normal role, including:
- Operations Managers
- Department Managers
- Production Managers
- Facilities Managers
- Maintenance Managers
- Engineering Managers
- Estates Managers
- Site Managers
- Premises Managers
- Warehouse and Logistics Managers
- Office Managers arranging contractor work
- Project Managers
- Contract Managers
- Shift Managers
- Team Leaders
- Supervisors
- Those acting as a contractor's site contact
- Anyone responsible for an area in which contractors are working
Delegates do not need to be health and safety specialists.
The course is particularly suitable for organisations wishing to give managers and supervisors across different departments a consistent approach to day-to-day contractor control.
What you'll learn:
On completion of the course, attendees will:
Course Programme:
09:30–10:00hrs | Introduction & Contractor Safety Responsibilities
• Welcome and introductions
• Course aims and objectives
• Why contractor work creates additional risk
• Responsibilities of the organisation, contractor, managers and supervisors
• Difference between monitoring contractor work and managing the contractor’s specialist activity
10:00–10:40hrs | Planning Contractor Work Before Arrival
• Understanding the scope, location, timing and nature of the work
• Identifying site-specific hazards and operational interfaces
• Information contractors need before arriving on site
• Contractor personnel, equipment, competence and subcontractors
• Clarifying responsibilities for access, isolation, permits and supervision
• Identifying higher-risk contractor activities requiring additional control
10:40–10:50hrs | Break 1
10:50–11:30hrs | Practical RAMS Review & Pre-Start Checks
• What managers and supervisors should look for in contractor RAMS
• Recognising generic or unsuitable risk assessments and method statements
• Checking that RAMS reflect the actual site, task, equipment and conditions
• Identifying missing hazards, unrealistic controls and operational conflicts
• Confirming contractor personnel and arrangements before work starts
• Practical exercise: Proceed, Clarify, Pause or Escalate?
11:30–11:40hrs | Break 2
11:40–12:20hrs | Contractor Arrival, Induction & Work Authorisation
• Signing in, access control and confirming who is on site
• Contractor induction and communication of site rules
• Emergency arrangements, welfare, restricted areas and traffic routes
• The pre-start conversation: confirming scope, location, personnel and conditions
• Permit-to-work interfaces including hot work, electrical work, work at height and confined spaces
• Isolation responsibilities and communication between contractor and site operations
12:20–13:20hrs | Lunch Break
13:20–14:00hrs | Monitoring Contractor Work on Site
• What managers and supervisors should monitor once work begins
• Confirming that agreed methods, barriers, isolations and permits remain effective
• Monitoring contractor interaction with employees, vehicles and other activities
• Changes in personnel, equipment, subcontractors and site conditions
• Setting the level of monitoring according to risk, complexity and duration
• Recording significant observations, changes, near misses and performance issues
14:00–14:10hrs | Break 3
14:10–14:50hrs | Managing Change, Unsafe Work & Stop-Work Decisions
• Recognising when the actual job has moved away from the planned job
• Changes in scope, method, personnel, equipment, access or isolation
• Applying the Stop – Review – Reauthorise approach
• Deciding when RAMS, permits or other controls need to be revised
• Challenging unsafe contractor work constructively and confidently
• Practical exercise: Observe, Ask, Pause, Stop or Escalate?
14:50–15:00hrs | Break 4
15:00–15:30hrs | Coordination, Incidents & Contractor Performance
• Coordinating contractors with employees and other contractors
• Managing simultaneous operations and shared work areas
• Contractor work affecting access routes, fire systems, production or building occupants
• Reporting and responding to contractor incidents and near misses
• Contractor and subcontractor communication
• Recording performance information for future contractor review and selection
15:30–16:00hrs | Completion, Handback & Return to Service
• Confirming that contractor work has been completed safely
• Checking guards, isolations, permits, temporary equipment and work areas
• Reinstating fire systems, access routes and normal site arrangements
• Testing, commissioning and communicating outstanding defects or restrictions
• Clarifying who has authority to accept handback and return equipment to service
• Practical exercise: Would you accept the handback?
• Wrap-up discussion and Q&A
16:00hrs | End of Course
