Managing Safety in Maintenance Work
This engaging course equips delegates with a comprehensive understanding of the key health and safety challenges involved in the day-to-day maintenance of buildings, facilities, plant, and equipment.
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
Maintenance is necessary to keep buildings, plant and equipment safe and operational, but maintenance work itself can expose employees and contractors to serious risks.
Work is frequently carried out outside normal operating conditions. Guards may be removed, equipment isolated, pressure released, building fabric disturbed and workers required to access roofs, plant rooms, pits, voids or confined spaces. Reactive repairs can add time pressure, incomplete information and pressure to restore services quickly.
This one-day course provides a practical framework for managing planned, preventive, reactive and contractor maintenance safely.
It covers maintenance planning, plant and equipment safety, energy isolation, hazardous substances, asbestos, water and combustion risks, premises and structural hazards, confined spaces, work at height, contractor control, permit-to-work systems and the application of CDM 2015 to maintenance activities.
The course also considers how building management systems (BMS), computerised maintenance management systems (CMMS), Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring and predictive maintenance can support earlier fault detection and safer work planning.
The final part of the course brings these subjects together into a maintenance safety management system covering responsibilities, asset information, work control, inspection, defect management, handback, monitoring and review.
Why this course is important
Maintenance presents a particular risk because people often need to work closer to hazards than they would during normal operation.
Machinery can contain electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, thermal and gravitational energy. Pressure may remain within systems after shutdown and equipment may restart automatically or through the actions of another person.
The course examines the maintenance and energy-isolation duties under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER), together with practical lockout/tagout (LOTO), stored-energy control and verification arrangements.
Maintenance workers may also disturb hazardous materials, work on roofs or fragile surfaces, enter confined spaces, temporarily disable fire precautions or undertake intrusive work within occupied buildings.
Reactive maintenance needs a controlled sequence: stabilise the situation, make safe, assess the risks, plan the repair and communicate before work starts.
Effective maintenance safety therefore depends on a complete process: planning the job, selecting competent people, providing information, isolating hazards, controlling the work, dealing with changes and confirming that equipment and safety systems have been correctly reinstated before handback.
Who should attend?
This course is suitable for those responsible for planning, managing or supervising maintenance work, including:
- Facilities managers
- Maintenance managers and supervisors
- Engineering managers
- Estates managers
- Building managers
- Health and safety managers and advisers
- Hard services managers
- Operations managers
- Property managers
- Plant and production managers
- Contract managers
- Those responsible for appointing or supervising maintenance contractors
What you'll learn:
On completion of the course, attendees will:
Testimonials
Excellent day
- SERC
Excellent content and knowledgeable speaker
- Xylem
Good presentation and very interesting
- OSI Food Solutions
This day was just what I was looking for
- Lincolnshire Coop
Excellent knowledge of subject matter
- Huntsman PU
Well presented, relaxed, informative and interesting day
- LB Waltham Forest
Very good day, thank you
- Islington Council
Very informative course
- OCE
Very good course, well presented and delivered
- Weymouth College
A very informative, well paced and led by an excellent trainer, thank you
- Walsall Adult & Community College
Very informative and delivered at the right pace
- North Warwickshire & Hinckley College
Excellent day
- SERC
Excellent content and knowledgeable speaker
- Xylem
Good presentation and very interesting
- OSI Food Solutions
This day was just what I was looking for
- Lincolnshire Coop
Excellent knowledge of subject matter
- Huntsman PU
Well presented, relaxed, informative and interesting day
- LB Waltham Forest
Very good day, thank you
- Islington Council
Very informative course
- OCE
Very good course, well presented and delivered
- Weymouth College
A very informative, well paced and led by an excellent trainer, thank you
- Walsall Adult & Community College
Very informative and delivered at the right pace
- North Warwickshire & Hinckley College
Course Programme:
9:30 am | Welcome and introduction
• Course aims, objectives and the maintenance safety issues delegates face.
| Introduction to safety in maintenance
• Maintenance activities and the risks they create.
• Planning and controlling preventive, reactive and emergency work.
• Case study: emergency repairs.
| Plant, equipment and energy isolation
• PUWER and LOLER duties, equipment checks and defect management.
• Identifying hazardous energy and applying lockout/tagout (LOTO).
• Verification, group isolation and controlled return to service.
• Group exercise: preparing a plant isolation plan.
| Morning break
| Managing hazardous substances
• COSHH assessment and exposure controls for maintenance tasks.
• VOCs, asbestos, Legionella and carbon monoxide risks.
• Asbestos registers, management plans and checks before intrusive work.
• Discussion: hazardous substances during a reactive plant-room repair.
| Premises, structures and facilities
• Workplace maintenance: floors, doors, powered gates, fire precautions and structural concerns, including RAAC.
• Work at height, fragile roofs, access equipment and rescue arrangements.
• Confined-space identification, entry controls and emergency planning.
• Discussion: planned maintenance in an ageing building.
| Lunch break
| Contractor management, permits and CDM
• Defining the work and selecting, briefing and supervising competent contractors.
• Permit-to-work systems, coordination, changing conditions and handback.
• Recognising when CDM 2015 applies to maintenance projects.
• Group exercise: roof-mounted fan replacement involving several contractors.
| Afternoon break
| Maintenance technology and digital work control
• Using BMS, CMMS and IoT monitoring to detect faults and plan safer work.
• Condition-based and predictive maintenance, including AI decision support.
• Data quality, human review, cybersecurity and fallback arrangements.
• Discussion: planning a maintenance technology pilot.
| Developing a maintenance safety management plan
• Responsibilities, asset registers and safety-critical equipment.
• Planning, authorising and controlling maintenance work.
• Defect priorities, overdue work, escalation and verified handback.
• Performance measures, audits and management review.
| Final questions and action planning
• Review of the main learning points and supporting resources.
• Identifying practical improvements and preparing an action plan.
• Final questions and course feedback.
4:00 pm | Close
