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Safety

Are your emergency call buttons working?
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By Avire

Lift entrapments are a huge risk, and it is inadvisable to wait until the alarm button is needed for the system to be tested! Currently Facilities Managers rely on their lift companies to monitor lift emergency call systems and testing of the system.

This lack of visibility means manual checks are often being carried out for peace of mind and internal records. Not only is this time consuming and costly, but in the current situation, where touching anything unnecessarily is discouraged, it would be extra beneficial to be able to stop this activity.

Avire’s secure online monitoring platform, the Avire Hub, enables Facilities Managers to monitor their lift alarm call systems and acts as a record of compliance. To be compliant lift emergency call systems must make a test call at least every three days. These test calls show that the alarm system can dial out and that everything is connected and working. The system creates an alert if the system has not made the test call.

Monitoring the status of back-up batteries, changing the emergency phone number and other functionality is also available in the Hub. Another benefit is the use of GSM based technology as many buildings could dramatically save on landline bills by moving to SIM Cards and at the same time avoid the risk of landlines being turned off based on inactivity.

The Avire Hub does not require any dedicated PC hardware for monitoring. It is easily and securely accessible from any internet capable device and can have multiple users. The system hardware can be easily installed by any lift company and Avire’s technical support team are on hand for any support if required.

Avire’s monitoring solutions offer customisable options for monitoring your lifts including emergency communications, lift movement, lift usage and door safety. We are constantly working on expanding this to include more data at your fingertips and would love to hear from you to help us with what data would be the most useful.

Get In touch for a free, no obligation conversation with one of our experts today!

Email info@avire-global.com

Visit our website

Consolidate your water in, waste out services with one trusted partner
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By Metro Rod

Covid-19 has placed significant pressure on most industries within the UK, in a variety of different ways. In facilities management specifically, operators are juggling the challenge of managing multiple supply chains with several contact points against a stripped back workforce and budget, and a solution is needed to help them maintain the expected levels of efficiency.

To support facilities management providers feeling this strain, Metro Rod offers a one-stop-shop for all water in and waste out needs. Providing one point of contact, one nationwide price, and consistent invoicing and reporting across a multitude of services. Meaning we can reduce the struggle of managing multiple suppliers and save you both time and money.

Why choose Metro Rod?

Our commercial drainage and pump engineers– who are available 24/7/365 – are trusted by facilities managers across the country for maintenance and repair services, and we have vast experience in providing a first-rate service for FM providers working on properties across the private and public sectors.

With almost 50 depots nationally, we’re able to access 85 per cent of the UK’s commercial properties within just one hour, meaning we’re already on the doorstep of your customers. We can deliver all your existing water in and waste out services in one consolidated package, saving you the hassle of managing multiple contractors.

Meanwhile, our experienced engineers – who receive ongoing, in-depth training every year – truly are experts in their field and can quickly diagnose and resolve issues, therefore minimising the inconvenience to your clients, staff and customers. Our exceptional first-time fix and time to fix rates ensure that costs incurred are minimised.

Plus, we’re a digitally-enabled company, meaning we can provide instant visibility of any work, through our customer portal – Connect. We can also integrate directly with your own internal systems and provide additional reporting to ensure you are not only kept up to date but have a transparent view of all of the work undertaken. This enhanced reporting provides an isight into where costs are incurred and allows us to recommend intelligent solutions to reduce drainage problems and drive savings.

All combined, this means we can give you the best possible value for money with one point of contact for all services. Removing the need to juggle multiple supply chains and saving you valuable time and money.

Metro Rod’s services

We’re about more than just drains. As well as the more traditional systems, we’re also experts in water pumps and asset mapping. Our full range of services includes:

All of these services can be worked into a Pre Planned Maintenance schedule – a service plan for routine maintenance which takes place at regular intervals across the year, to prevent the problems which regularly occur in these systems. For example, ongoing scale or grease build-up in pipework can lead to overflows and blockages, which often result in emergency building closures and costly engineer call outs – something both you and your customers will want to avoid. Maintenance might not be top of your list but in the long term, it cuts down the number of emergency call-outs, reduces the amount you spend and keeps the customer free from unnecessary disruption.

Get in touch

To discuss your water in, waste out solutions and how we can help you save time and money contact us on 0800 66 88 00 or visit www.metrorod.co.uk/commercial-drainage/facilities-management.

Reduce contact points in the workplace with touch free drinking water solutions from Zip Water
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By Zip Water

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world in incomprehensible ways. What is clear is as we emerge from lockdown there will be a need to incorporate touch-free technology to meet the vital health and hygiene requirements that the UK government has implemented, to ensure a safe return to the workplace.

With the average person touching their face more than 20 times an hour, it’s possible to transfer viruses from everyday objects, such as handles and taps, to the mouth and eyes, and vice versa. At Zip Water we have a number of new touch-free drinking water solutions for the workplace. Whether you already have a system fitted and are looking for a contactless retrofit solution or want a brand-new product that will enable staff and visitors’ hands-free access to drinking water, at Zip we have it all!

The brand-new Zip HydroTap Touch Free Wave offers a 100 percent contactless solution for filtered boiling, chilled and sparkling drinking water. To dispense water, a user simply hovers their hand 1.5-5cm from the smart infrared sensor and the water flow will stop immediately once their hand has moved away, if the tap is touched or grabbed it will deactivate.

For areas that require larger volumes of filtered chilled and ambient water, the innovative new floor-standing HydroChill HC03 touch-free dispenser is the perfect solution. Easy to install in areas away from the kitchen – such as staff rooms and corridors – this dispenser also features a nano silver surface coating that works to kill up to 99.9 percent of bacteria across a 24-hour period.

If you already have a Zip HydroBoil or EconoBoil system fitted in your workplace, our simple to install touch-free adaptor allows for the dispensing of boiling water without needing to touch the handle. The adaptor can be quickly and easily fitted over the existing HydroBoil or EconoBoil handle to enable users to dispense boiling water by pushing back on it with a cup.

To find out more about any of our products, please click here.

Do your employees feel safe at your premises?
By:

By Fireco

The impact of the virus on society

Since the beginning of the pandemic, scientists from all over the world have been researching the symptoms, transmission and prevention methods to help us better understand the virus.

In the meantime, we have all been following the ‘Hands, Face, Space campaign promoted by the Government in order to help keep everyone safe. With the belief that the best way to reduce the spread of the virus is to keep your hands clean and sanitised, wear a face mask in public and maintain a safe distance between yourself and others.

This year, we have gained a much higher awareness of the things we touch, whether it’s a shopping trolley, money or a door handle. We have also learned to risk assess our everyday surroundings, and social distancing and wearing a mask has become a habit for many.

However, day-to-day life has and will continue to be impacted by the virus. Returning to work, mixing with crowds or even seeing friends can seem daunting for those who have spent most of the year isolating. This raises the question – are employers and other establishments doing enough to support their employees and customers?

Are employers doing enough to keep the work environment safe?

To help you make your business a safe environment for employees, The Governments Health & Safety Executive (HSE) devised a Coronavirus Risk Assessment which identifies potential safety problems arising due to the pandemic and how they can be overcome.

One point included is “Mental health and wellbeing affected through isolation or anxiety about coronavirus”. Being isolated from lockdown and social distancing can heighten feelings of anxiety about going back to ‘normal’. Walking into a building after a few weeks or months and seeing nothing has changed can be very daunting for employees.

Before the first national lockdown ended, a study carried out by CIPD on 1000 working adults revealed that 44% of them were anxious about returning to work due to the potential risk of catching the virus.

Since then, a study carried out by Slater and Gordon, employment law specialists, uncovered that 46% of key workers have whistle blown on their employers for unsafe practices during the pandemic. With concerns ranging from lack of PPE, no social distancing measures in place or people being forced to return to work even if they are classed as vulnerable.

With the news that local councils will have the power to close businesses if they are not COVID-secure, it is vital to ensure your employees feel safe at work. These powers include an order for immediate action to be taken, closures for up to a week and fines if no action is taken.

What measures can be put in place to make a COVID-secure environment?

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Fireco has been helping many businesses stay safe, reduce cross-contamination and improve hygiene with our simple germ control solutions.

Our Germgard Smart Sanitising Station is a portable hygiene stand that encourages the use of hand sanitiser to all building users. It uses an infrared sensor and digital signage to capture the attention of the passer-by and ask them to sanitise their hands, which in turn will reduce cross-contamination on surfaces.

The digital signage is customisable and can be used as a building management tool, for example, you can advise staff to use your one-way system or to take their temperature when signing in.

The Germgard station is a portable device, so you can move it to the location that best suits your building, all it needs is a plug socket nearby.

Germgard helps you provide visual evidence that your company is taking adequate measures to keep your premises COVID-secure and will reassure your employees that they are safe in their work environment.

For more information about Germgard or other ways we can help with your COVID-secure strategy, visit our website www.fireco.uk or call us on 01273 320650.

 

Safe For Work app enables staff to report coronavirus symptoms to employers
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Employers can now keep a written record of the daily health status of each employee using a new symptom tracking app.

The Safe For Work app, developed by London-based Filter Digital, has been designed to give colleagues working together the reassurance that everyone who is at work, is, in fact, safe to work.

It’s available now on the iOS App Store, Google Play Store and Web as a progressive web app and is intended to complement a company’s existing health and safety procedures.

Safe For Work allows employers to design a custom bespoke questionnaire for their employees to complete before they attend their place of work, whether that’s an office, shop, factory, warehouse, etc, to check all are well and reporting no symptoms of infectious diseases, such as COVID-19.

Questions could include “do you have a temperature?”, “have you got a new, continuous cough?”, “have you travelled abroad or had close contact with anyone that has travelled in the last 14 days?”.

The app can be used on any mobile device or browser, allowing employees to communicate honestly, clearly and privately about their health so that they don’t inadvertently place colleagues at risk.

The questions posed are Yes/No by default – the results can then be used by management or HR to determine whether the employee is safe to work that day, or if the responses breach the businesses health and safety guidelines.

Filter says the Safe For Work app can be used easily by both employers and employees and can be set up to the individual needs of any company or process.

Oliver Morrison, CEO at Filter, said: “In this unique and challenging time, we wanted, as a solutions led business, to contribute some good. We recognised that the rules and practicalities of ensuring staff are safe for work had changed and aimed to provide an additional support measure to help reassure employers and employees that everyone who is at work is safe to work.

“We’re delighted to have rapidly developed Safe For Work, a convenient symptom reporting tool and have made it available for free to any business or organisation to use.”

For more information visit, https://safeforworkapp.com.

Government bill ushers in new era for building safety
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The government has published its landmark Bill to deliver the biggest changes to building safety for nearly 40 years and make residents safer in their homes.

The Building Safety Bill will improve regulations as the government seeks to bring forward a clearer system with residents’ safety at the heart of it.

The government is also announcing that full applications for the £1 billion Building Safety Fund, to remove unsafe non-ACM cladding from buildings, can be submitted from 31 July – with 747 registration forms processed since 1 June.

Residents have helped to develop the proposals through engagement groups, and under the new rules, people living in high rise buildings will be empowered to challenge inaction from their building owner and have better access to safety information about their building and will benefit from a swift and effective complaints process.

A Building Safety Regulator, already being set up within the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), will be fully established and equipped with the power to hold building owners to account or face the consequences.

It will enforce a new, more stringent set of rules that will apply for buildings of 18 metres or more or taller than 6 storeys from the design phase to occupation.

The government views the draft Bill as legislation that will evolve as further evidence and risks are identified to ensure that residents’ safety is always prioritised and will also provide new powers to better regulate construction materials and products to ensure they are safe to use.

Government expert Michael Wade has been asked to work with leaseholders, and the finance and insurance industries. He will test and recommend funding solutions to protect leaseholders from unaffordable costs of fixing historic defects, ensuring that the burden does not fall on tax payers. He will also develop proposals to address insurance issues around building safety.

The draft Bill includes a new ‘building safety charge’ to give leaseholders greater transparency around costs incurred in maintaining a safe building – with numerous powers deliberately included to limit the costs that can be re-charged to leaseholders.

It comes as the government will also publish a consultation, which sets out proposals to implement the recommendations from Phase 1 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry that require a change in law.

The consultation will also look at strengthening fire safety in all regulated buildings in England to ensure that people are safe from fire regardless of where they live, stay or work. Taken with the draft Bill, these measures will improve the safety of residents in buildings of all heights.

Housing Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said: “This is a significant milestone on our journey to fundamentally improving building safety and delivering real change that will keep people safer in their homes.

“I remain committed to making sure we get this right, which is why I will be publishing the draft Bill for scrutiny and improvement before it is introduced in Parliament.

“I am also calling on the industry to actively prepare for these changes now. It is vital that the sector moves in step with us, to provide confidence and reassurance to residents that their safety is firmly at the heart of everything we do.”

Building Safety and Fire Minister Lord Greenhalgh said: “As a government we are determined to learn the lessons from that fateful night at Grenfell Tower and ensure that a tragedy like this does not happen again.

“These are the biggest changes to building safety legislation for nearly 40 years, and they will raise standards across the industry and ensure building owners have nowhere to hide if they break the rules.

“Consulting on key recommendations from the Inquiry and wider changes to fire safety regulation will give those affected the opportunity to make their voices heard and help us implement lasting, significant change.

Independent advisor and author of the Independent Review of Building Regulations and Fire Safety, Dame Judith Hackitt said: “I welcome this draft Bill as an important milestone in delivering the fundamental reform this industry needs to make residents and buildings safer.

“It meets the ambitions and recommendations set out in my review. And industry must be in no doubt that it is not enough to wait for the Bill to become law before they implement changes; we expect them to start taking action now.”

CLC launches tool for COVID-19 cost assessments
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The Professional Practice Task Group for the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) Covid-19 Task Force has published a methodology for assessing and reporting the cost implications of disruption due to the pandemic.

Construction clients and contractors rely on accurate cost prediction as the basis of business plans, financial contracts, and commercial control.

The CLC says unprecedented nature of the pandemic is affecting the progress and productivity of existing and future contracts, meaning that the information upon which estimates are usually prepared no longer applies.

The Toolkit acts as a guide to enable better cost forecasting to assist the industry in making informed investment decisions on viability, improving robustness of pipeline and driving long term economic growth.

Simon Rawlinson, Chair of the Professional Practice Task Group said: “The Cost Assessment Toolkit will help the construction industry manage the impact of Covid-19 on existing and future contracts.

“It establishes a standard methodology to incorporate the cost impacts of the virus into estimates, provides clarity on exclusions and through the collection of industry wide data allows clients and supply chains to compare their project costs against an aggregated data set.

“By providing the tools to measure and therefore improve productivity, the toolkit acts as a guide to ascertain and assess project risks and establish viability for the long term.”

To access the tool, click here.

Solutions to keep your people & workplace safe
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At Brady, we are closely monitoring the impact of COVID-19. We aim to continue to respond to your identification and safety needs for your people, products and premises.

  • Safety signs

Identify and warn visitors and staff of potential hazards with our hazard warning signs.

  • Area Marking

Ideal for controlling and directing foot traffic.

  • Spill Control

A range of emergency response kits to handle any type of spill.

  • Print your own identification solution

The ability to print your labels on-site enables you to quickly respond to any identification need and can eliminate all waiting on label deliveries.

Discover our coronavirus related identification and safety solutions >>

BRADY UK

Banbury, Oxon OX16 3JU

Tel: +44 (0) 1295 228 288

csuk@bradycorp.com

www.brady.co.uk

Free facility signs to help stop COVID-19
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Safety and identification specialist Brady Corporation offers signs for download to help stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Anyone can freely download the print-ready files from Brady websites.

All signs offered are compliant or in line with the ISO 7010 international standard to maximise recognition anywhere in the world. Each sign includes a quickly recognisable icon for almost any COVID-19 safety measure, ranging from wash hands and keep distance to wearing the appropriate personal protection equipment.

Your time is precious – we will support you for any request or custom solutions.

Download the ‘Free signs to print’ & browse our COVID-19 Brochure (collection of coronavirus related identification and safety solutions for your people, products and premises)

BRADY UK

Banbury, Oxon OX16 3JU

Tel: +44 (0) 1295 228 288

csuk@bradycorp.com

Enable safer machine interventions with Lockout/Tagout from Brady
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Everywhere you want to go with your Lockout/Tagout programme, Brady can guide and support you. Our complete 4-in-1 Lockout/Tagout solution includes:

  • innovative SafeKey padlocks: achieve the safest Lockout/Tagout procedures during maintenance operations. With 100 000+ unique keys, the locks can support large, company specific key hierarchies in which no 2 locks can be opened with the same key.
  • dedicated lockout devices: our wide range of devices can block any energy source to neutralise machinery and increase intervention safety.
  • practical procedure software: easily introduce, approve or edit, scale and communicate machine-specific Lockout/Tagout procedures.
  • great Lockout/Tagout services: Brady engineers help identify energy control points on-site and write best practice machine specific lockout procedures.

Where do you want to take your lockout programme?

BRADY U.K.

Tel: +44 (0) 1295 228 288

csuk@bradycorp.com