Working in a tight spot

Tanks, vessels, sewers and similar areas are known to be confined spaces by individuals in the industry however, confined spaces in commercial or non – industrial premises more often go undetected as they are less easily identified. Service ducts, loft and void spaces, plant rooms or poorly ventilated rooms all count as confined spaces and can be located anywhere from commercial buildings to hospitals and universities as well as in residential dwellings. Confined spaces can also develop when work is being carried out, such as welding or cleaning. 

In the UK, the Confined Space Regulations 1997 outlines a requirement to identify and manage confined space working. The requirements of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 should also be considered in the preparation of any risk assessment and safe system of work, including training. One of the key requirements of the Confined Space Regulations 1997 is for employers to find a reasonably practicable method of completing the work in the confined space without entry through remote sampling, inspection or cleaning. However, when this cannot be achieved a safe system of work must be developed to enable employers to anticipate, recognise and prevent occupational health and safety hazards within the workplace by providing the correct training, PPE and safety equipment needed to keep employees safe.

Confined spaces undeniably pose a wide variety of potential hazards to workers required to enter them. To help identify them, Arco has published an Expert Guide to Confined Space working. This includes advice and guidance and identifies common hazards experienced by workers including restricted movement, lack of or excess of oxygen, the presence of flammable substances including toxic gases or fumes and excessive heat.

Arco offers a comprehensive confined space training programme that provides learners with the ability to undertake both practical and theoretical learning in confined space entry and exit, face fit testing which is BSIF accredited under the Fit2Fit RPE Fit Test Providers Accreditation Scheme and breathing apparatus training. Our state-of-the-art mobile training units provide learners with a unique opportunity to experience first-hand the some of the hazards related to confined space working in a realistic and safe environment. Each scenario can be tailored to the learner and the hazards that they are exposed to as part of their job. For the more experienced learner, this includes the ability to change the layout of the units at will, during the course. 

Our highly qualified and experienced Training & Consultancy team also has the knowledge and expertise to introduce convincing hazard representations, such as smoke, heat and industrial noise while the trainer can see and communicate with the learner throughout each scenario. This ability to provide live instruction from outside the tunnels system makes the training experience offered to learners second to none.

The great thing about Arco’s mobile confined space units are that they are completely adaptable so there are few restrictions on the types of industry that can benefit from utilising them for training purposes. Industries that have already benefited from this practical training solution include energy, telecommunications, airports, petro-chemical, oil & gas, food and construction to name just a few.  We have also recently prepared training scenarios for emergency services professionals. The confined space training units are also completely mobile and can travel to the doorstep of any business, offering large multi sited locations true national coverage and consistency around training. This offers a cost effective and efficient training solution on a company’s own premises, eliminating the need for learners to travel to remote fixed facilities and the cost and work disruption this causes.

Arco also prides itself in linking an experienced confined space industry consultant with each client to understand their needs and develop bespoke internal layouts for the units to provide an accurate representation of the potential confined spaces that their workers would experience as part of their working environment. We understand that a one size fits all approach is not an effective use of training resources so have developed our units so that the size, number and orientation of entries/exits can be easily changed in addition to the size and shape of the tunnels and chambers. We can also introduce real equipment, such as cables, valves etc. to add another element of realism.