What is a method statement in construction is the document that says how a task will be done on this site: the steps in order, with the control from the risk assessment placed at the step where it applies, the plant with its inspections, the site's permits, the PPE, the emergency and rescue arrangements. The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, cited below, place duties on clients, designers, principal designers, principal contractors, contractors and workers, and regulation 12 is where the construction phase plan and the health and safety file sit. It is approved by the principal contractor against the plan and signed by the crew at the briefing. The risk assessment and method statement tool on this site builds it from the assessment, free.
The steps
Setting up, doing, making safe, one action per step, the role named, the control attached by hazard number. The crew follows it with a finger on the page. 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.
What the site checks
The permits named at the steps that need them, the plant on the site register, the interfaces with other trades, the emergency arrangements the site's own, the rescue plan for height. A method that matches the plan is approved.
What the crew does with it
Reads it at the briefing, questions it, has it changed where it is wrong, signs the version briefed. A crew that never changes a method is not reading it. The changed method is re-briefed and re-signed, and the old version is kept as what applied before.
What is kept
The approved, signed method with its assessment, against the job. DailyLogDesk Pro keeps it; the tool prints it. From the vendors' own pricing pages, cited below: SafetyCulture lists its Premium plan at $29 per seat per month billed monthly or $24 billed annually, with a free plan for small teams; Contractor Foreman lists its Basic plan at $49 per month for one user. DailyLogDesk Pro is $29 per month for the whole site team.
Questions people ask about what is a method statement in construction
Is a method statement required by law?
The risk assessment is; the method statement is the site's requirement under its plan and the industry's practice.
How long is a construction method statement?
As long as the task's steps; the tool prints the reading time.
Is the tool free?
Yes, without an account.