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“I wonder how many of you have looked at advertising hoardings recently and noticed anything different?”, asks Geoffrey Joyce. “They are now encased in working-at-height platforms! Gone are the days when the workman would climb his shaky ladder and struggle with a pot of paste, broom and set of new posters.” All this is a response to the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) current priority project to reduce the number of fatalities and injuries as a result of falls from height.

The HSE has brought out a consultative document setting out proposals for new regulations and guidance covering work at height in the UK in order to implement the European Temporary Work at Height Directive (2001/45/EC), which is due to become law this July.

The Temporary Work at Height Directive applies to all industry sectors, to all places of work, from shops to mines, and includes theatres and other performance spaces. So, let’s imagine not a billboard worker safely ensconced on his new working platform, but a scene-painter working up a ladder, or an electrician refocusing a lantern from a Tallescope, or a technician working with a harness rigging for a pop group!

For the past five years I have been developing a triangular training programme designed to help theatre managers and their technicians to understand and comply with the multifarious Health and Safety Regulations that face us all. The first of these concentrated on the basic skills and competency needed by technicians. Moving a theatre production can be akin to moving house every week, technicians need to know about manual handling and basic electrical knowledge – if only to know when NOT to plug a damaged cable into a 5kw socket! Every theatre technician needs to be able to work or understand the stage flying system and to be able to tie an appropriate knot safely.

The Association of British Theatre Technicians produces codes of practice (the blue books) for safe working practice within the entertainment industry. Incorporating these codes of practice into the courses provides a strong marriage of theoretical and practical knowledge and forms the second element of the training – the completion of a detailed logbook.

Finally, we require students to demonstrate technical competency through taking a practical test at the end of each course. Successful completion of the three elements will achieve the ABTT Bronze Award for Theatre Technicians. Pilot schemes for a Silver Award are being run this summer and managers and heads of department are completing dissertations on risk assessment and safety audits to earn the Gold Award.

It makes good sense to manage theatre health and safety to a high level that is affordable. Importantly, these courses are put together specifically for theatre technicians (and are run by theatre technicians) and are not about what academic-speak consultancies think technicians should be learning. They also provide a springboard to more specialised training in electrical or mechanical engineering and can be counted as accredited prior learning.

These are unique Award courses and provide a good understanding of health and safety, ensure a good theatrical environment and employ recognised safe theatre-working practice.

Geoffrey Joyce is a freelance lighting and production manager. e: geoffrey.joyce@ntlworld.com; w: http://www.abtt.org.uk