Method statement

[Mr A]

I’ve been a self employed tree surgeon for around 2.5 years now and haven’t yet been asked for a method statement for any jobs, mainly as 95% of my work is domestic. After a recent site visit to provide a quote I’m anticipating being asked for a MS should I get the job. The work is all straight forward and I am confident in doing it, but can anyone give me some advice as to what a MS needs to cover/include and if there’s any templates I can go off I’d be grateful.

 

TIA.

[Tree monkey 1682]

Go one a course for it, as thes no point asking everyone here.

The should be a course for rams and how to write them, then u won't bugger up .

[markieg31]

If you are a member of the arb association they have templates to help on the website. Method statement generally has a load of gumpf at the start and then goes on about the job and how it is to be done. It should be good enough that someone should be able to read it and then carry out the job. 

 

 

[Mick Dempsey]

Guidance-Note-30-Tree-Surgery-Method-Statement.pdf

Here you go.

 

 

Go on a course!😂
FFS.

Edited yesterday at 12:19 by Mick Dempsey

[Tree monkey 1682]

45 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Guidance-Note-30-Tree-Surgery-Method-Statement.pdf 427.29 kB · 12 downloads

Here you go.

 

 

Go on a course!😂
FFS.

The are specialist rams courses ,that means once you've done it  ,you'll never miss anything out...leaving yourself wide open should anything go wrong!! 

 

[Mick Dempsey]

The internet is a great source of info and advice, but also a terrible source.

 

You have just got to sift the good from the bad.

[daltontrees]

'rams' stands for Risk Assessment and Method Statement. Sometimes hard to tell apart, hence often done together since the client/customer is usually concerned mosty with covering their arse in the event of the contractor screwing up. Tiresome and tedious, and if they never get shared with the workforce they are almost pointless. First one takes hours, second one takes 1/2 hour, 3rd 10 minutes of filling in blanks and deleting irrelevant clauses.

[openspaceman]

So true

34 minutes ago, daltontrees said:

the client/customer is usually concerned mosty with covering their arse in the event of the contractor screwing up

So true . The safe system of work (RAMS) that we saw was often 100 pages and supposed to be issued a day prior to work. In practice it was given to the person in charge (Company Obligatory Safety Scapegoat) when he collected his truck to drive the men to a site.

 

When I was first briefed on HSaW the bloke from HSE said the risk assessment should fit on an A4 piece of paper and be read to the workers before starting work but that was in the mid 80s

[daltontrees]

The RA should be short. 2 key elements are 1. deal with 99% of tehrisks by specifying that only competent people are used. 2. Deal with the other 1% by checking for unusual risks and specifying control measures. If the workforce is competent the 1% can fit on one page and the workforce can be involved in completing it. 

[Steven P]

13 hours ago, openspaceman said:

When I was first briefed on HSaW the bloke from HSE said the risk assessment should fit on an A4 piece of paper and be read to the workers before starting work but that was in the mid 80s

 

Kind of true still, if it is too long you forget points or your eyes glaze over towards the end of reading it. If I get one that is too long then my first assumption is whoever wrote it just copied and pasted from previous examples, cover everything, without ever looking at the site or site conditions. My favourite example is specifying a hard hat to walk into a green field months before any plant is considered to start work there. Copy and paste, makes me wonder if the rest of the risk assessment is up to the job.