RAMS for builders: what a risk assessment and method statement must cover, and how to write one in minutes

RAMS is two documents. The risk assessment says what could hurt someone on this job and what you will do about it. The method statement says the order you will do the work in, and how, so that it stays safe. Main contractors ask for both before you set foot on site; on your own jobs the risk assessment is the part the law requires. A good set is site-specific, short, signed and briefed.

Two documents, two jobs

A risk assessment lists the hazards on this job (working at height, dust, manual handling, live services, the public walking past), who is at risk from each one, how likely and how serious the harm is, and the controls you will put in place to bring it down to something acceptable. Every employer has to assess the risks of the work; if you employ five or more people the significant findings have to be written down. That is the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, and it applies to a two-man building firm as much as to a main contractor.

A method statement is the sequence: the steps of the work in the order they happen, who does each one, the plant and the access equipment, the PPE, how materials get to the workface, and what happens if something goes wrong. The law does not name it, but under CDM 2015 every contractor has to plan, manage and monitor their work so it is carried out without risk, and the method statement is how you show a principal contractor that you have.

When you need them

• Working for a main contractor. They will not let you start without them, and the site induction usually checks that your operatives have read and signed them.
• Your own domestic jobs. CDM 2015 applies to work for homeowners too. On a job with one contractor, the contractor picks up the client's duties and has to draw up a construction phase plan before the work starts. For a small job that plan and the RAMS are often the same few pages. What CDM 2015 and the Building Safety Act actually ask of a domestic builder is covered separately.
• Specific activities, whoever the client is. Working at height, hot works, excavations, lifting, anything that might disturb asbestos, silica dust from cutting, electrical isolation, confined spaces. These are the activities inspectors and site managers look for first.

What a main contractor expects to see

Most sites use the same shape, and a set that follows it gets accepted; a set that does not gets sent back.

• Your company details, the site address and the client or principal contractor
• A description of the works and where on the site they happen
• The activities covered, listed one by one
• For each hazard: who is at risk, the controls, and the residual risk once the controls are in place
• The method, step by step, in the order the work happens
• Plant, access equipment, materials and PPE for each step
• COSHH assessments for the substances you will use (resins, cements, solvents, fuels)
• Emergency arrangements: first aid, fire, the nearest A&E, who to call
• Competence: tickets and training for the people doing the work
• Monitoring and review: who checks the work is being done as written, and when the document gets revisited
• A sign-off and a briefing record, so every operative has read it and signed to say so

The mistakes that get RAMS sent back

• Copied from the last job. A scaffold the site has not got, a different address in the footer, an activity you are not doing. Site managers spot it in seconds and it undermines everything else on the page.
• Not site-specific. No mention of the access, the neighbours, the public footpath, the overhead line or the live shop next door.
• Hazards with no real controls. "Take care" is not a control. Edge protection, a dust extractor on the saw, an isolation certificate, a banksman: those are controls.
• A method statement that is a list of rules. It has to read as a sequence. Step one, step two, step three.
• Unsigned, undated, unbriefed. The document only does its job once the people doing the work have read it.
• Out of date after a change. A variation that moves a wall or adds a steel changes the method. Update the RAMS, and note it in the site diary so the record shows when and why.

How long it should take

By hand, from a blank page, a proper set for an extension is an evening, usually a Sunday. The alternative most builders fall into is the copied template, which is quick and is also the first mistake above. The way out is to generate the set from the job itself, so the site address, the activities and the company details are right by default, and then spend ten minutes reading and editing it rather than two hours typing it.

How EstiMate does it

The RAMS generator works from the job you have already set up. Pick the activities on this job, working at height, hot works, manual handling, dust and the rest, and it produces a risk assessment and method statement in the hazard, persons at risk, controls and method structure UK main contractors ask for, with your company details and the site address filled in. It covers the rest of the safety pack too: COSHH assessments for the substances you use, toolbox talk records, permits to work, site induction sheets and timesheets.

You review and edit every document before it is issued, sign it, and it sits on the job's documents with an expiry where one applies, shared with the client or the main contractor from the same place as the quote, the contract and the drawings. Trade documents including RAMS are on the EstiMate plan at £15.99 a month and above; the pricing page has the full comparison.

Before you send it

• Is the address right, and does the description match the quote?
• Is every activity you will actually do on the list, and nothing you will not?
• Does every hazard have a control someone could check on site?
• Does the method read as a sequence?
• Are the COSHH sheets in for the substances on the job?
• Has everyone who will do the work signed it?

Ten minutes on that list is the difference between a set that gets you on site on Monday and one that comes back with a note.