NFDC, the world’s longest established trade institute formed to raise standards within the demolition industry, has today issued a new Safety Guidance video to educate demolition contractors on the most appropriate use of scaffold protection during demolition works.

The seven-minute long animated video guidance walks-through a thought-provoking process to follow when determining risk control measures. Clarifying the purpose of scaffold in demolition, the guidance explores the hazards and alternatives to be considered to reduce or eliminate risks.

NFDC’s video guidance will today be distributed to its membership of 145 UK demolition contractors and made available to anybody working in demolition today via the Federation’s website and Youtube channel, with a sub-titled version also available via NFDC’s Youtube channel.

Spearheading the new Safety Guidance initiative is Nick Taylor, Demolition Director at McGee, an NFDC member company with over 60 years of demolition expertise and thousands of demolition projects successfully delivered. Following an incident on site in 2019, the team at McGee have played an instrumental role in the production of new best practice guidance.

Nick Taylor commented, “Safety in our industry is paramount, which is why it’s critical that on the extremely rare occasion an incident occurs, we all learn from them. Not just demolition engineers but an industry as a whole. The comprehensive NFDC video guidance for Use of Scaffold in Demolition has been developed with a team of experts including the National Association of Scaffolding Contractors (NASC) and other NFDC accredited demolition contractors. It is our aim to circulate the new guidance as far and wide as possible, in order that future incidents may be prevented.

Howard Button, CEO at NFDC, summed up; “This video guidance is another excellent deliverable in NFDC’s Safety Guidance series and I would like to thank all those who have played a role in its development. The Federation is committed to increasing the sharing of knowledge and best practice with the wider demolition industry through the provision of quality safety guidance that helps contractors to assess and reduce risk when carrying out demolition works. A written guidance will follow in due course.”