Following growing industry discussion around the use of board lifters in drylining, the FIS Health and Safety Working Group has launched new guidance to help businesses understand the safety procedures involving the handling and positioning of large, heavy boards and lifting aids to manage risk, improve positioning accuracy and reduce injury. 

The guidance provides contractors, clients, principal contractors and duty holders with a practical, risk-based approach to the use of board lifters. It responds to growing client requirements and industry discussion around the mandatory use of lifting aids and clarifies how legal duties under the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 should be applied in practice. 

Members can support safer methods of working by setting out the benefits, limitations and risk assessment considerations when installing heavy drylining boards. Logistical issues such as restricted spaces, stairwells and cluttered sites can create difficulties and render the use of lifters impractical or prevent them from being used to their full potential. Equipment setup, storage, productivity and site logistics should always be considered in the planning stage of a project.

Commenting on the launch of the new guidance, David Cant, Chair of the FIS Health and Safety Working Group said:

“Whilst board lifters can support safer methods of work, their use is not universally practicable. Construction projects vary considerably in layout, access, programme constraints and working environment. In some situations, introducing board lifters may create additional logistical challenges, affect productivity, or even introduce new health and safety risks if not properly assessed and managed. For this reason, the use of board lifters should never be treated as a blanket requirement or a one-size-fits-all solution – the decision must be determined through a suitable and sufficient risk assessment.”

Members can support safer methods of working by setting out the benefits, limitations and risk assessment considerations when installing heavy drylining boards. Logistical issues such as restricted spaces, stairwells and cluttered sites can create difficulties and render the use of lifters impractical or prevent them from being used to their full potential. Equipment setup, storage, productivity and site logistics should always be considered in the planning stage of a project.

This new guidance from FIS reinforces that board lifter use should be determined through task-specific risk assessment. The guide includes: 

• Legal frameworks 
• Where board lifters can help 
• The practical limitations on the use of board lifters 
• The safe deployment of board lifters 
• Maintenance and inspection of board lifters 
• The industry position on mandated use 
• Toolbox talks for use on site 
• Example RAMS document 
• Board lifter checklist 
• Dynamic risk assessment approach
  

To download the Board Lifters in Drylining Guidance, click here.

FIS has now submitted its formal response to the HSE consultation on the effectiveness of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work (Amendment) Regulations 2022, including the extension of PPE requirements to “Limb (b) workers”.

The issue has been a longstanding concern for sector, with members highlighting uncertainty around the application of the regulations, responsibility for providing PPE, differing interpretations across the industry, worker-owned PPE and the practical challenges of compliance.

Our response draws on feedback from members and calls for clearer, construction-specific guidance to ensure the regulations are applied consistently and proportionately and we will continue to engage with HSE on the next steps and future guidance. You can read the full response here.

FIS would like to thank members who shared their experiences and contributed to the response. 

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Manual handling injuries remain one of the leading causes of workplace ill health and lost working time in construction, accounting for around 17%* of all reported non-fatal workplace injuries in the UK, making it one of the most significant contributors to lost working time in construction.

In drylining, operatives routinely handle large, heavy and often awkward materials within challenging site environments, making the associated risks particularly significant. UK boards are not necessarily larger or heavier than those used elsewhere in Europe, but their frequent manual handling in UK construction settings increases handling risk, highlighting the importance of awareness and safe practice.

To help tackle this issue, the Finishes and Interiors Sector (FIS) has launched a new course – An Introduction to Manual Handling for Dryliners – designed specifically for drylining contractors and operatives.

Developed in partnership with CITB, Construction People Solutions and FIS members, this course addresses concerns around the handling of plasterboard and other drylining materials on site. Its primary focus is to increase awareness of manual handling risks, promote safer working practices and reinforce the collective responsibility for health and safety throughout the construction process. Its other aspiration is to drive industry training that can easily be transposed on-site.

Speaking about the development of the course, Justin Devaney, FIS Vice President and Operations Director at FIS contractor member Platt and Reilly said:

“The FIS Introduction to Manual Handling for Dryliners e-Learning course is an important addition to the FIS Academy and a valuable resource for drylining and fit-out contractors.

“Evidence regularly shared across social media by plasterboard load-out service providers highlights that unsafe and high-risk manual handling practices continue to take place on construction sites. Too often, these activities go unchallenged despite the responsibility shared by site managers, supervisors, and operatives to maintain safe working practices.

“It’s important that everyone in the chain is responsible for site safety and not just the person carrying out the task. This course provides practical, drylining-specific guidance and should form part of every contractor’s health and safety toolkit.”

FIS Head of Skills and Training Beena Nana added:

“We have developed this training with CITB and Construction People Solutions to support our members, providing practical guidance that reflects today’s working practices, helping members handle materials safely, confidently and more efficiently on site.

“By improving handling techniques and raising awareness of best practice, the training aims to reduce the risk of injury while supporting safer, more productive workplaces across the industry.”

The course forms part of FIS’s wider commitment to improving competence across the finishes and interiors sector and supporting members in meeting their obligations under the industry’s evolving competence and safety agenda.

Michael Lordan, Director of M.L.A and Construction People Solutions and developer of the course said:

“I embarked on this project because much of the manual handling e-Learning available today is generic and not tailored to the realities of construction, despite being widely used to demonstrate workforce training.

“Having seen firsthand the impact that poor manual handling practices can have on workers’ health, wellbeing and long-term careers, I felt it was important to start with this subject.

“The drywall trades are among the hardest working trades in the industry and are often exposed to significant manual handling risks, yet many have little understanding of the cumulative impact these activities can have on their bodies over time.

My hope is that this course will help raise awareness, encourage safer working practices, and ultimately contribute to reducing manual handling injuries across the sector.”

Delivered through the FIS Academy, the online course offers flexible learning that can be completed at any time, making it suitable for operatives, supervisors, site managers and business leaders seeking to strengthen their approach to manual handling safety.

By equipping individuals with the knowledge to identify risks, challenge unsafe practices and implement safer methods of work,

FIS hopes the course will contribute to a reduction in preventable injuries and help foster a stronger safety culture across the drylining sector.

The course is available now through the FIS Academy.

Course costs:

£45 + VAT for members  (£54 inclusive of VAT)

£60 + VAT for non members (£72 inclusive of VAT)

**CITB registered employers may be eligible to reclaim 50% of the full course cost. (Please contact your CITB Advisor ahead of booking this course to secure funding (they should also book the course(s) for you)

(*Non-fatal injuries at work in Great Britain – HSE)

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The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) has published its Mental Health Joint Code of Practice (JCOP), providing leaders and businesses across the sector with a framework to create an environment that fosters better mental health for their workforce.

The sector continues to lose too many people to suicide, and in today’s world, with the plethora of existing support services, this is unacceptable. The health, safety and wellbeing of our workforce must be of paramount importance.

Whilst we recognise there is great work taking place across the construction sector in the mental health space, for too long those efforts have focused mainly on intervention, once people are already struggling. As a new approach, the JCOP is designed through the lens of prevention, enabling businesses to support employees before it reaches that stage.

Our evidence from a representative sample of our core demographic – men in mid to later working life, also shows that workers face multiple barriers to speaking up on these issues England’s first Men’s Health Strategy aims to improve the health and wellbeing of all men and boys in England, recognising that men’s health outcomes are significantly shaped by work and working conditions. It also considers how to prevent and tackle the biggest health problems affecting men of all ages, which include mental health and suicide prevention. The cross-government Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, published in 2023, sets the ambition for employers, especially those in high-risk occupations, to have appropriate mental health and wellbeing support in place for their staff. The new cross-government mental health strategy, to be published later this year, will look beyond the NHS and consider the role of workplaces, schools, the voluntary sector and local government to respond more proportionately to needs and promote positive mental health.

Today’s publication is supported by the Department of Health and Social Care.

The JCOP fundamentally changes the narrative in this space, bringing together key stakeholders across the sector and beyond to take a system thinking based approach, through the lens of prevention.

It will be trialled at 33 Piccadilly and 10 Piccadilly in London – two of The Crown Estate’s new developments in the heart of the capital – working alongside their partners at Kier Construction.

The CLC has worked with its programme partners (New Hospital Programme, Marsh and BCLP), supported by key influential organisations (e.g. Mindflow, Lighthouse Charity, and British Standards Institute) and a cross section of the UK’s leading influential contractors to develop the JCOP, which is endorsed by Government, informed by industry and underpinned by academic evidence.

Affected on the ground workers (through a series of regional focus groups) and industry (through our 3000 consultation responses) told us that the core primary causes impacting the workforce’s mental health are:

• Working Patterns (e.g. long hours and excessive travel)
• People Factors and Work Environment (Welfare, Dignity and Respect)
• Operational Factors (e.g. commercial pressures)
• Barriers to Mental Health support (stigma and low mental health literacy stop people getting help)
• Financial Factors (Late payment and financial insecurity)

The Code is designed as a catalyst and living framework to address these five key hazards: a credible baseline now, which will be strengthened over time through shared learning, data and realworld case studies.

It is evidence-led, moving businesses from response to prevention. It provides- through an improved understanding of those five primary psychosocial hazards in construction- practical workplace solutions to help clients, employers and the supply chain to prevent harm earlier, driving down the incidence of ill health throughout all levels of the industry.

It recognises a simple truth that has come through repeatedly in our evidence gathering: mental ill health is not an inevitable feature of construction, and it is not a problem to be managed solely through individual resilience or support after the fact. It is, to a significant extent, shaped upstream by how work is commissioned, designed, procured, planned, sequenced and led.

This is about prevention first, not prevention only. The JCOP does not replace crisis support which remains essential. The JCOP shifts the focus earlier, helping the industry prevent work-related pressures from becoming crises in the first place.

The invitation is simple to leaders and business: adopt it, use it, improve it — and help the sector move forward together, in step, towards work that is healthier by design.

This is a joint code, written by the sector, for the sector. It reflects the reality that no single organisation can deliver change in isolation. The only way that we will be able to improve mental health in UK construction, is if the industry moves together collectively, and works in partnership.

Baroness Merron, Minister for Mental Health, said:
“It is really encouraging to see the construction industry taking this crucial step to ensure the wellbeing of its workforce, and I hope it sets a strong example for other sectors to follow.

“This government believes mental health is just as important as physical health, which is why we are investing record amounts in mental health services and recruiting more mental health professionals than ever before.

“Mental health is shaped not just by healthcare services, but at work, at home, in schools and in our communities. That’s why this initiative is so important and why our new, cross-government mental health strategy will drive the shift from crisis intervention to preventative care.”

This work was spearheaded for the CLC by The Department for Business and Trade, Heathrow, The Crown Estate, BAM UK and Ireland, Mates In Mind and The University of Warwick and supported by their partners Marsh, BCLP and the New Hospital Programme.