This guidance sets out everyday controls for floors, walkways and cleaning, when slip resistant footwear is needed and what every worker must report.
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Further guidance on slips, trips and falls:
If you'd like hands-on help assessing slip and trip risks across your premises, our remote support services provide direct expert input from our team, by the day, by project, or on an ongoing basis.
Preventing Slips and Trips Guidance
A general guidance document on preventing slips and trips, for all workers and the managers responsible for premises and cleaning. It covers the company's responsibilities, keeping floors and walkways safe, cleaning without creating further slip risks, slip-resistant footwear, and what employees must do to report hazards and keep the workplace tidy.
Topics Covered
- Company responsibilities - risk assessments, training workers to recognise hazards, good housekeeping as the norm, and suitable floors free from obstructions
- Floors and walkways - entrance matting, fixing leaks, spill kits, planned pedestrian routes, clear walkways, good lighting, secured mats and covered cables
- Cleaning safely - choosing methods and materials to suit the floor, following the cleaning and maintenance schedule and reporting worn flooring
- Slip-resistant footwear - footwear needed where floors cannot be kept dry, provided free of charge to workers as PPE
- Employee responsibilities - reporting accidents, near misses, spills and damaged floors, keeping areas tidy, removing trip hazards and looking after PPE
Who Is It For?
All workers, including cleaning staff, and the managers responsible for floors, walkways and housekeeping.
Included in the ISO 45001 Toolkit
This guidance is supplied with the TT-7-12 Preventing Slips and Trips training talk, which is part of the ISO 45001 Toolkit and the integrated toolkits that include it.
Using the Guidance
Issue it at induction, go through it with cleaning staff alongside your cleaning schedule, and keep it as a reference for housekeeping. Record who has received it, for example on the training matrix.
Everyday Controls for Floors and Walkways
The guidance lists simple, everyday controls. Entrance matting absorbs dirt and moisture, leaks from machinery or buildings are fixed straight away, and spill kits are kept where there is a high risk of spills. Pedestrian and vehicle routes are planned, walkways kept clear and well lit, loose mats tacked or taped down, drawers closed and cables crossing walkways covered.
Adapting the Guidance
Edit the guidance to match your own arrangements - who workers report to, where spill kits are kept, your cleaning and maintenance schedule, and the slip-resistant footwear you provide.
Related Documents
Other documents that work alongside this guidance:
Cleaning Without Creating Hazards
Cleaning must not create slip or trip risks of its own. Smooth floors are left dry or kept clear until they are dry, spills are cleaned up straight away with the area isolated, and cleaning materials are used as the manufacturer directs.
Would you rather we prepared it for you?
A day of remote support can take the risk assessments you already have, move them into one consistent format with the same scoring throughout, and build your hazard register from them, so the hazards this guidance covers are backed by a current assessment.
Risk Assessment Reformatting and Hazard Register