Method statement: writing one the site will actually follow

A method statement is a written description of how a specific task will be carried out, in sequence, with the controls that keep it safe. It is normally produced together with a risk assessment — the pair is usually called RAMS — where the assessment identifies what could cause harm and the method statement says how the work proceeds so that it does not. Principal contractors ask for one before a subcontractor sets foot on site, and clients ask for one before they let anybody start.

Because it is requested rather than volunteered, most method statements are written for the person who asked for it. That is the mistake. The document only earns its cost if the people doing the work can read it, recognise their job in it and follow it — which rules out generic text about following all applicable regulations.

What goes in a method statement

• The task, precisely: what is being done, where on site, and the extent of it. Not "electrical works" but the specific operation being described.
• Who is involved, with roles, and what competence or certification each needs.
• Sequence of work, step by step, in the order it happens — the substance of the document.
• Plant, equipment and materials, with inspection or certification requirements.
• The controls at each step, referenced to the hazards in the risk assessment.
• Personal protective equipment, stated per step rather than as one blanket list.
• Permits required: hot works, confined space, excavation, isolation.
• Emergency arrangements: first aid, rescue plan for work at height or in a confined space, spill response, who calls what.
• Environmental controls where relevant — dust, noise, waste, watercourses.
• Who wrote it, who approved it, the date and the version.

Specific beats comprehensive

A twelve-page statement assembled from a template covering every trade tells nobody anything. A two-page one that names the actual scaffold, the actual exclusion zone, the actual isolation point and the actual sequence gets read at the briefing and followed. If a step could apply to any site in the country, it is not a control — it is filler, and the person reviewing the document knows it.

The test is the briefing. If the supervisor cannot walk the crew through the statement in a few minutes and have them recognise their own job in it, it will not be followed, whatever the client accepted. Sign-off by the operatives after that briefing is the point of the document, not the covering email.

Method statement, risk assessment and SWMS

The risk assessment identifies hazards, who might be harmed and what controls reduce the risk; the method statement puts those controls into the order of work. In Australia the equivalent document is the safe work method statement, or SWMS, required for high-risk construction work and combining both functions in one form; in the UK the two are usually issued together as RAMS. The names differ, the content does not: hazards, controls, sequence, competence, emergency arrangements. What does differ is the legal trigger for producing one, which is jurisdictional and worth checking rather than assuming.

It is a live document

Conditions change — the sequence shifts, an access route closes, the weather rules out a lift. A method statement that no longer describes the work is worse than none, because it invites the crew to ignore the one on the wall. Reissue it, brief the change and record who was briefed. Ettex Docs holds the statements with version history so the version in force on a given day is identifiable afterwards, Ettex Records keeps the register of statements, briefings and sign-offs per job, and Ettex Signature collects the operative sign-offs without a paper round.

Being clear: this is documents and records, not a health and safety management system, and none of it is safety advice. What a method statement must contain and when one is legally required depends on your jurisdiction, the work and the client. The risk assessment behind it is the part to get professionally right.

It travels with two other documents on site. A risk assessment identifies the hazard the method statement controls, and a permit to work is what authorises the specific job to start — where the work is hot, a hot work permit with its fire watch replaces the general permit.