Why Training Alone Won’t Fix the Fall-from-Height Plateau

Why Training Alone Won’t Fix the Fall-from-Height Plateau

TB Davies Technical Director Francis Camilleri has written a major feature for the British Safety Council’s Safety Management magazine examining why training alone has not reduced falls from height further.

The three-page feature, titled “Why training alone won’t fix the fall-from-height plateau”, appears in the latest edition of Safety Management and is also available to read online.

Falls from height have remained the leading cause of workplace fatalities in Great Britain for more than 20 years, despite continued investment in training and safety guidance.

Francis argues that training remains essential, but it cannot be the only control. Fatigue, repetition, time pressure and unfamiliar working environments can all affect judgement—even among trained and experienced people.

This is particularly relevant to short-duration tasks where the time needed to select and set up suitable access equipment can feel disproportionate to the job itself. In these situations, workers may be tempted to improvise or continue in unsuitable conditions.

The article calls for equipment, processes and working environments to be designed around the reality of human behaviour. Access equipment should make the safe method easier to follow, reducing the need for workers to make the correct judgement every time.

Francis also identifies three practical priorities for safety managers and procurement teams:

• Include task-specific equipment selection in pre-task briefings, not only initial inductions.
• Treat the purchase of work-at-height equipment as a safety decision and verify compliance for the exact product being supplied.
• Reinforce formal training with shorter, task-relevant refreshers delivered close to the point of use.

The feature also considers the needs of an ageing workforce and the importance of specifying equipment that reduces physical strain, unnecessary reaching and repeated repositioning.

Francis is Chair of the BSI B512 Committee on Ladder Standards and Chair of the Ladder Association Technical Committee. The feature further establishes Francis and TB Davies as informed voices in the national conversation around working-at-height safety, equipment selection and standards.

Read the full article on the British Safety Council website

View the latest edition of Safety Management

A PDF copy of the three-page feature is also available to download from this page.