A risk assessment method statement is two documents that only work as one. The risk assessment identifies the hazards of a task on a site, who is at risk, and the controls that reduce the risk. The method statement describes how the work is done, step by step, with each control at the step where it applies. Written together, the method cannot skip a control the assessment found; written apart, it usually does. The HSE's guidance, cited below, gives risk assessment as five steps: identify hazards, assess the risks, control the risks, record your findings, review the controls, and says that if you employ 5 or more people you must record your significant findings. The risk assessment and method statement tool on this site builds both from one set of figures, free and without an account.
The assessment finds the controls
Each hazard gets a control and a residual risk: edge protection for the fall, isolation for the live cable, an exclusion zone for the lift, dust suppression for the cut. The assessment is the list of things the method must do. Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, cited below, requires every employer to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of their employees, and regulation 3(6) requires an employer with five or more employees to record the significant findings and any group of employees especially at risk.
The method applies them at the step
Step three: erect the edge protection before any work within two metres of the edge. Step seven: prove dead before cutting. The control is named at the step, not in a general paragraph at the top, because the crew reads the steps. The tool on this site places each control from the assessment against its step.
What each has to contain
The assessment: the task, the site, the hazards, the people at risk, the likelihood and severity, the controls, the residual risk, the author and reviewer. The method: the sequence, the plant and materials, the permits, the PPE, the emergency arrangements, the sign-on. The tool prints both with the header shared.
On a managed site
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, cited below, put the construction phase plan on the principal contractor, and the contractor's RAMS is what they use to check each task against it. A RAMS that arrives complete is approved; one that arrives generic is returned. DailyLogDesk Pro keeps each signed RAMS against the job.
Questions people ask about risk assessment method statement
Which is written first?
The assessment, always; the method is built from its controls.
Can one RAMS cover several tasks?
One task per RAMS is the rule a principal contractor expects; a multi-task RAMS is several assessments in one file with one header.
Is the tool free?
Yes, without an account.