Fall protection on a construction site is too often treated as a reactive discipline — netting installed when the roofing gang arrives, edge protection erected when a gap becomes apparent, harness points fitted when someone raises a concern. That reactive approach creates periods of unprotected work at height between the point at which the risk arises and the point at which the protection is in place. On a busy residential development or commercial construction site, those periods are when falls happen.
The alternative — planning fall protection before work begins, as an integral part of the construction programme rather than a response to it — eliminates those gaps. It’s also a requirement, not an option. CDM 2015 places an explicit obligation on the principal contractor to plan, manage, and monitor construction work so that it’s carried out without risk to health and safety. A fall protection plan that’s developed after work has started isn’t a plan — it’s a catch-up exercise.
What a Pre-Start Fall Protection Plan Should Cover
A fall protection plan developed before work begins should identify every activity on the project that involves work at height, assess the fall risk associated with each activity, and specify the protective measures that will be in place before that activity starts. For a new build residential development, that means considering the roofing programme, the scaffold erection and adaptation sequence, any work on partially completed structures, and the interfaces between trades where one trade’s protective measures may affect another’s working method.
The plan should also address the sequence in which protective measures will be installed — because on a live construction site, the sequence matters. Safety netting that needs to be installed before the roofing gang starts work needs to be on site and installed before the roofing gang mobilises, not ordered when they arrive. Edge protection that needs to be in place before a particular floor level is reached needs to be planned into the programme, not added when someone notices it’s missing.
Red Safety Netting’s involvement before work begins — reviewing the construction programme, assessing the fall protection requirements at each stage, and planning the installation sequence around the roofing and scaffold programme — is how that pre-start planning translates into practical protection on site. The fall protection plan isn’t a document produced to satisfy a pre-qualification requirement. It’s the operational framework that ensures protective measures are in place when they’re needed.
The Hierarchy of Fall Protection and How It Applies in Practice
The Work at Height Regulations 2005 establish a hierarchy for managing fall risk — physical prevention of falls first, then collective protective measures such as safety netting and edge protection, then personal protective equipment such as harnesses and lanyards as a last resort. That hierarchy isn’t an administrative framework. It reflects the practical reality that collective protective measures protect everyone on site without requiring individual compliance, while personal protective equipment only protects the person wearing it and only if they’re wearing it correctly.
Pre-start fall protection planning applies that hierarchy in the context of the specific project. Where physical prevention — barriers, guardrails, or working platforms — can eliminate the fall risk entirely, that’s the preferred solution. Where the nature of the work makes physical prevention impractical — roofing work on a pitched roof, for example — collective measures such as safety netting provide the appropriate level of protection for the workforce as a whole, without depending on individual operatives to manage their own fall risk at every moment of the working day.
Planning which measures apply at which stage of the programme, and ensuring they’re in place before work starts at each stage, is the practical application of the hierarchy on a live construction site.
The Principal Contractor’s CDM Position
A principal contractor who can demonstrate that fall protection was planned before work began — that the hazards were identified, the protective measures specified, and the installation sequence coordinated with the construction programme — is in a strong position if a fall occurs and the adequacy of the site’s safety management is scrutinised. A principal contractor who can only demonstrate that fall protection was installed reactively in response to specific incidents or near misses is not.
Red Safety Netting’s installation documentation — FASET-compliant certificates for every net installation, records of the installation date and configuration relative to the construction programme — supports the principal contractor’s CDM compliance position by providing evidence that fall protection was in place at each stage of the programme, not added after the fact.
To discuss fall protection planning for your next project, contact Red Safety Netting today.
