No Falls Week: Closing the Gaps

As a supporter of No Falls Week, Heresafe is joining the conversation around one of the most familiar risks in workplace safety: falls from height.

In 2024/25, 35 people lost their lives at work due to a fall from height, accounting for 28% of all workplace deaths in Great Britain. Falls from height have also remained the leading cause of workplace fatalities for over two decades.

That is what makes the issue so difficult. The risk is well known. The guidance exists. Sites already use training, risk assessments, method statements, permits and toolbox talks.

The harder part is making sure those controls are applied clearly, consistently and early enough for the specific work being carried out.

Because when a fall happens, the failure is not always at the point someone climbs. The weakness may have started earlier, when the task was planned, approved, briefed or changed.

Where the process can break down

Work at height depends on a chain of decisions, checks and evidence. When that chain is split across emails, folders, paper forms and informal conversations, the process can look complete without being easy to follow.

That is where real risk can creep in.

A ladder may be used where a safer form of access should have been considered. A fragile roof, rooflight or unprotected edge may not be clearly flagged before work starts. A method statement may not reflect the actual task, location or conditions on the day. A contractor may have the right documents uploaded, but not the right briefing for the work they are about to do.

Work at height rarely happens in perfectly still conditions. People change. Timings shift. Documents are updated. Weather, access, location or scope can move on between planning and the point of work.

When information is disconnected, those changes are easier to miss.

For example:

• If RAMS are reviewed away from the job details, site-specific risks may not be picked up early enough.
• If a permit is approved without supporting information, teams may not have confirmed whether safer access or additional controls are needed.
• If briefings are not linked to the task, workers may miss key details about access routes, exclusion zones, rescue plans or site conditions.
• If changes are agreed informally, there may be no clear trigger for a recheck.
• If records are scattered, it becomes harder to show what was reviewed, approved and completed.

None of this means people are not trying to work safely. It means the process can depend too much on people remembering, chasing and joining the dots manually.

For high-risk work, that is a fragile place to leave control.

What should be clear before work at height starts?

Before work begins, teams should be able to answer practical questions quickly:

• Has the task been reviewed and approved?
• Are the RAMS relevant to the work being carried out?
• Has the working at height permit been reviewed by the right person?
• Have workers completed the required inductions or assessments?
• Is responsibility clear if the scope, timing or conditions change?
• Is there a reliable record of what was checked and agreed?

These are not new questions. They sit behind much of the established guidance around working at height.

A working at height permit is one way to bring those details together. It helps define the task, identify hazards, confirm control measures and set expectations before work begins.

But the permit should not sit in isolation. It is strongest when it is connected to the wider process around the job: RAMS, inductions, approvals, responsibilities and records.

For a closer look at what a permit should include, we’ve covered this in more detail in our blog – Ascending New Heights, Safely: Inside a Working at Height Permit.

How Heresafe supports safer work at height

Heresafe helps teams manage work at height by bringing permits, RAMS, inductions, approvals and records into one platform.

That matters because the issue is often not whether the checks exist. It is whether they are connected clearly enough for the process to hold up in practice.

With Digital Permit to Work and Authorisation to Work, higher-risk tasks can be reviewed and approved before they begin, with supporting information kept alongside the job. That gives teams a clearer view of what has been requested, what has been checked and what has been approved.

RAMS approvals help teams review key documents in context, rather than treating them as a separate upload. For work at height, that makes it easier to check whether the proposed method, access arrangements and control measures match the actual task and site conditions.

Online inductions and assessments help confirm workers have completed the right preparation before attending the site. This supports safer planning by making worker readiness part of the process, rather than something assumed at arrival.

Approval workflows route checks to the right people, helping create clearer responsibility around review and sign-off. If something is missing, expired or needs attention, the process is less dependent on informal chasing.

Through the Self-Service Contractor Assurance Portal, contractors can submit and manage required information more easily, helping teams keep documentation, approvals and readiness checks in one place.

Heresafe also supports clearer records through audit trails, showing what was submitted, reviewed, approved and completed, and when. If work changes, questions are raised or evidence is needed later, teams have a clearer record of the process followed.

For work at height, that joined-up approach matters. It helps reduce the gaps between planning, approval, preparation and evidence, without replacing the judgement, competence and safe systems of work that still need to sit behind every task.

A useful question for No Falls Week

No Falls Week is a good time to test the process, not just revisit the risk:

If work at height was due to start tomorrow, how quickly could you prove the right checks had happened?

If the answer depends on searching emails, chasing documents or asking several people for updates, there may be gaps that are harder to see until the work is already underway.

Heresafe helps teams bring work at height checks, approvals, RAMS, permits, inductions and records into one structured process, making it easier to manage the work before it starts and evidence what happened afterwards.

Book a demo to see how Heresafe can help your team bring work at height checks, approvals and records into one clearer process.