Lone working in environmental, conservation and land-based roles
Environmental, conservation and land-based workers play an integral role in protecting, maintaining and promoting the natural world. Workers in this sector may work for private institutions, public bodies or non-profits and there is a vast amount of variation in work for a relatively small sector.
But what risks are there in this sector? The act of working closely with nature or with animals may be very appealing to some, but there are very real risks to consider, particularly when working alone or in a remote environment.
Note: Whilst these roles fall under what the UK government classifies as the ‘Agriculture, Environmental and Animal Care’ sector, we will not be looking at agriculture in this article. You can find more information on lone working in agriculture, here.
What sort of roles are in the environmental and conservation sector
Some roles in the environmental and conservation sector include:
Ranger
Ecologist
Gardener
Arboricultural oficer
Wildlife officer
Gamekeeper
Grounds Technician
Biologist
Horticulturalist
Sustainability Coordinator
Conservation Scientist
The risks of working in environmental, conservation and land-based roles
For those employing environmental, conservation and rural workers, there are some important occupational risks worth considering:
Lone working – working alone without close or direct supervision
Working in remote and hard to access areas
Working in uneven, and unpredictable terrain
Working at a height
Working with animals
Working with or around moving vehicles
Working near falling objects (such as falling rocks or tree branches)
In these ways, the risks associated with these roles are similar to those in agriculture (one of the most high-risk sectors in the UK) but they are much less talked about.
What can go wrong: In 2020 a conservationist and groundworker in the Isle of Wight was killed in a tree felling incident, leading to a charge of manslaughter.
How to manage risks in environmental, conservation and land-based roles
Creating a risk assessment
The first step in managing risk is to create a comprehensive risk assessment. For all your roles consider the risks involved, the likelihood of those risks and their severity. Some risks that you may need to consider:
Working either by oneself or completely alone with the public.
Working with tools, vehicles or machinery – consider whether the person is properly trained, whether tools need to be serviced and how they’ll be transported.
Working at height –whether on a cliff or a ladder, consider what training tools, support and supervision are necessary.
Animals, insects and plants – think about bites, stings, allergies and infections.
Dangerous terrain –working at height, working in or around water or wetlands or working on uneven ground can all be risk factors.
Need help, use our free risk assessment generator!
Dynamic risk assessments
Beyond a typical risk assessment (which is a legal requirement), you may wish to consider using a dynamic risk assessment. Dynamic risk assessments empower workers to spot hazards in their environment, assess the associated risk, and refine their own risk assessment as situations change. Find more information here.
Providing training, tools and protective equipment
It is vital to equip your team with the equipment, tools and training they will need to do their job effectively and safely. When providing equipment or tools, you will need to provide any necessary training, and you should keep track of when an item needs fixing or replacing.
Supervision
There are certain roles where supervision is absolutely necessary (such as working in a confined space or during training). However, there are many roles where it is legal and reasonable to work alone –without direct supervision. For more information, read our complete guide to lone working.
Lone working
The NHS define lone working as ‘any situation in which someone works without a colleague nearby or when someone is working out of sight or earshot of another colleague’.
Lone working in itself is not inherently dangerous but it can make certain activities riskier. Lone workers by their nature have a lower level of supervision. Lone workers also have less access to support during their work and, if anything is to go wrong, it may be harder for them to seek help.
When you combine working alone with working in remote, uneven and unpredictable environments there is a higher risk of injury. This can also be made more complicated by working directly with the public.
How to protect your environmental conservation and land-based lone workers
The UK government says that organisations should provide ‘training, supervision, monitoring and support for lone workers’. As such, it’s important to consider the following:
Does the staff member need to work alone, or could the task be carried out as part of a team?
Does the staff member have any roles that definitely should not be done alone?
Is the staff member experienced enough to do the task alone?
Does the staff member have a suitable method of contacting their team for support or for if something were to go wrong?
How to provide support and supervision for lone workers
The UK’s Health Executive encourages employers of lone workers to provide ‘adequate and reliable means of communication and a way to call for help’ which may include ‘devices designed to raise the alarm in an emergency which can be operated manually or automatically’.
If an environmental worker was to be injured or under threat (or they simply needed support), there are several ways they could call for help: through walkie-talkies, through a phone call or text, or through shouting out.
We go through the pros and cons of many of the lone worker communication methods in this helpful article but, overall, we think the best way (particularly for high-risk roles such as environmental work) is an automated system. Phone calls, texts and even walkie-talkies have certain benefits but they cannot help if a staff member is rendered unable to use them.
Intelligent monitoring through Lone working devices
In contrast to other methods of calling for help, lone working solutions such as Safepoint can automatically flag if there is a potential problem. Safepoint uses a range of smart features to keep workers safe and connected. Some of those features include:
Manual alerts –if a user taps the alert button on their phone or wearable device, an alert containing their live location and safety data is shared with their assigned supervisors.
Live tracking and timeout alerts – users can start a timed ‘task’ with their Safepoint app. While this task is ongoing, their location and status can be monitored by their assigned supervisors. If the task ends without the user checking in as ‘safe’ the app will create a timeout alert.
Fall detection (man-down) alerts – Safepoint’s wearable panic alarm can tell if a user has taken a serious fall and will instantly send out an alarm and start live tracking.
Team dashboard – through the Safepoint Portal, organisations can see and manage all their active tasks and alerts in one place.
24/7 remote monitoring – Safepoint also provides 24/7 task monitoring through its GuardianPlus Alarm Receiving Centre. If a staff member runs into trouble, any time day or night, the fully accredited GuardianPlus team will handle the entire support process including, if necessary, contacting the emergency services.
Some specific benefits of Safepoint’s smart solutions for land-based workers include:
Land-based workers can often work in remote, rural areas with poor mobile reception. Safepoint is designed to share GPS and safety information even at the lowest levels of connectivity. What’s more, if a user is in a task, and completely dips out of mobile reception, monitoring will continue and the task will update as and when they come into reception.
What3words – Safepoint has what3words built-in. What3words is a system that organises the whole world into 3m square grids – each with its own unique 3-word address (such as ‘last.turned.slice’). If a user sends out an alert, their supervising team can use their 3m-accurate address to pinpoint the user –even if they are miles from a street address.
If you want to know how else Safepoint can protect your rural lone workers, get in touch or book in a meeting slot with our friendly team.