The mental health and wellbeing of people in the piling industry will continue to be a focus for the FPS in 2021, according to the organisation’s chair and Central Piling MD Steve Hadley.

In his first blog for the FPS in 2021, Steve says the arrival of the virus, and all it has impacted, has brought much introspection on the ways the industry works, but particularly raised the profile of mental health and wellbeing.

He said he likes to think that some of the taboos surrounding the issue have been removed but assures readers that mental health and wellbeing will be a backdrop to a lot of what the FPS does this year.

On a related theme, he says the FPS will continue its work with Fatigue Science and will publish a Best Practice Guide to Fatigue Management.

The FPS will also publish documents on labour-only best practice and dust suppression. Working group discussions for the former have started and the reports should be drafted soon, for adoption into company processes.

On the latter, volunteers have come forward to share experiences and these should help steer the guide on this that hopefully will be circulated to the wider industry as well as the FPA membership.

A document that has recently been completed is that on Restricted Zones which should be published later in the year. This emphasises the need for principal contractors to respect the space around a rig so their site operatives do not walk through working areas.

Steve’s first FPS blog of 2021 also includes updates and thoughts on:

• Concrete pumping guidance
• Rig operator training
• FPS audit
• Environmental sustainability working group and webinars
• Ground Forum mentoring scheme and degree apprenticeships
• FPS ‘live’ social events

For the full article, please go to https://www.fps.org.uk/news-views/post/the-way-ahead/.