National Access & Scaffolding Confederation incoming president Des Moore tells Will Mann about the sector’s impressive safety record and its successful efforts to attract women into scaffolding.
Scaffolding is the construction sector most associated with working at height, but the trade has one of the best safety records in the industry.
Over the last 20 years, the accident frequency rate among members of the National Access and Scaffolding Confederation (NASC) has fallen steadily – from 1.85 per 100,000 worker hours in 1997 to 0.62 a decade later, and to just 0.28 last year.
“I believe having a better gender balance brings a different perspective and often better social skills and integration within a company.”
Des Moore, incoming president, NASC
“We try to innovate as much as possible to improve safety in the sector,” says Des Moore, incoming president of the NASC and CEO of Trad Group incorporating Trad Scaffolding.
One example is the confederation’s safety innovation award, held every two years. Last year’s winner was Acorn Scaffolding’s giant, domed scaffold structure built for the Creamfields music festival in Cheshire (pictured above). Commended was Trad’s “Big Ben” gin wheel, a braked pulley system used on the outside of a scaffold structure, allowing smoother lifting and lowering of heavy items.
The growing use of system scaffold has also contributed to improvements in safety, while offering environmental and workforce benefits. “At Trad, system scaffolding has grown its share of our hire and sales business by 25% to 30% over the past four years,” he says.
“Erecting system scaffold requires a different skill set compared to tube and fittings. It is lighter, the components are uniform and there are fewer of them, and they last far longer compared to tube, fittings and boards. The range of special system components means that system scaffolding can be erected around buildings of any shape and size.
“That said, most scaffolding contractors will keep tube and fittings in their stock to offer flexibility,” he adds. “Tube, fittings and boards can be made to work once you get to site, but for system scaffolding the design needs to be spot on. Trad’s business model is about 60% system and 40% tube and fittings.”
System scaffolding puts more onus on the scaffolding management team to plan ahead.
“Generally, because a project’s scaffolding requirements haven’t been scoped properly for the trades required, there is a 20% to 25% uplift on scaffold prices during a project,” he says. “When scaffolding contractors are brought in earlier, we can adapt and plan the scaffold design to be more cost effective.”
Like the rest of construction, scaffolding feels the pinch from the skills shortage. Use of system scaffolding is one way this is being alleviated; another, perhaps surprisingly, is through diversity. The next NASC vice-president will be female – Chris Sedgeman Scaffolding’s Lynn Way – and at Trad six out of eight surveyors are women.
“We are keen to get more women involved in our industry,” he says. “Apart from the fact that we have a skills shortage, which will get worse after Brexit, I believe having a better gender balance brings a different perspective and often better social skills and integration within a company.”
He is proud of the high standards members have to follow. “All scaffolding contractors in the confederation have their sites and equipment inspected, their workers must be properly trained, and at least 75% of all operatives have to be directly employed,” he says.
The NASC has also invested £750,000 in a scaffolding operational design guide, TG20-13, for the whole supply chain. “We want to educate the wider construction industry on best operational and safety practice,” he says.
