News and Updates

In recent years Arco has delivered several key investment projects as part of its strategic growth programme, including its new offices at Blackfriargate, the extension to its National Distribution Centre and digital transformation, including a new website. Now Arco is announcing plans for the future enhancement of its leadership team, building a strong foundation for the next stage of the company’s growth.

In the coming year, David Evison will retire as Managing Director. David has been at Arco for eight years, joining as Financial Director in 2014 and serving as Managing Director for the last four years. He will work with the Board to ensure a smooth succession programme, continuing to support the company strategy, helping to make its customers world's safer through its expertise, training and products.

Richard Martin, Arco's Customer Experience Director, has been working towards a Non-Executive Director (NED) position on the Arco Board for some time. Now having successfully launched the company's new website, and more recently leading the Customer Experience team, he will be taking a planned, short sabbatical before returning to join the Statutory Board as a family NED to help onboard David Evison's successor and provide continuity for the business.

In addition, Arco's Executive Committee (Exec) has been strengthened recently with new permanent appointments, bolstered by continued progression of a number of senior leaders, to ensure the business delivers its strategic plans for growth and continued business success.

As experts in safety, Arco is reminding those working on construction sites across Great Britain that, between Monday 6th June and Friday 1st July, inspectors from the Health & Safety Executive, will be visiting sites as part of a month-long respiratory health initiative.

To help businesses prepare and ensure construction workers are safe at work, Arco is sharing expert advice to continue its efforts to educate business leaders about the long-term dangers of construction dust.

In the UK, 23 new cases of work-related respiratory diseases are diagnosed every day. As active members of the Construction Dust Partnership (CDP), Arco is dedicated to reducing this figure by working with the CDP to raise awareness and by offering expert guidance to its customers.

Those who regularly work on building sites, where there is excess dust created from activities such as wall chasing, stone cutting, demolition, drilling or sweeping, are more likely to be at risk from construction dust related respiratory illnesses. However, contracting these illnesses is avoidable with effective preventative measures and the correct use of personal protective equipment (PPE) or respiratory protective equipment (RPE).

Controlling the Risks

Once the hazard has been recognised, and the concentration identified through air monitoring, reasonably practicable control measures must be developed. Depending on the risk, measures should be applied to each task to make sure workers are not exposed to levels over the workplace limits, ensuring the health and safety of the workforce. In accordance with good occupational hygiene practice, the risk assessor should adopt the hierarchy of control to reduce the risk:

1. Eliminate the use of harmful substances and remove the hazard in its entirety.
2. Consider substitution, such as using a safer material.
3. Use engineering controls that work to isolate or reduce exposure of the substance, such as less powerful tools, introducing water or bringing in on-tool dust extraction.
4. Ensure there are a set of administrative controls in place, such as the implementation of an effective respiratory management programme which includes correct RPE selection, face-fit testing, training, equipment inspections and maintenance, storage and record keeping. Then ensure that employees are confident to use the control measures put in place and follow procedures and systems correctly.
5. If these methods do not prevent or control the exposure, PPE in form of respiratory protective equipment will need to be issued and wearers will need to be face-fit tested.

Carrying out regular health surveillance on workers will check that control measures are working. By monitoring workers' health, the surveillance can identify early signs of ill-health and, by acting on the results, helps ensure that adequate control measures are being followed.

Kevin Williams, Respiratory Manager at Arco Professional Safety Services, said:

"Construction dust has been dubbed the 'silent killer' for a reason, as it's responsible for an alarming number of deaths every year. We have long campaigned to raise awareness of this issue, working with industry bodies and our partners. We will continue to help employers with the guidance they need to implement better safety measures for their workforce."

For Arco's full guidance visit: Arco Services - Respiratory Protection

Arco Professional Safety Services has been accredited by the Global Wind Organisation to deliver its suite of basic safety training (BST) qualifications at its safety centres in Linlithgow, Scotland, and Stafford, England.

The onshore wind turbine industry is a growing sector within the UK energy market and generated around 24% of the country's electricity in 2020 with Scotland championing the industry where wind alone generated 73% of all renewable electricity output.

The UK currently hosts an estimated 8,600 onshore wind turbines with this capacity expected to double by 2030 in order to meet the target of having all of the UK's energy generated from "clean sources" by 2035. Approximately 39,000 people in the UK undertook GWO courses in 2019 and, with more turbines being built every year, the sector continues to grow while the workforce expands.

As a non-profit body, founded by leading wind turbine manufacturers and operators, the GWO sets the international standard for training qualifications required by those working in the wind industry in the UK. The objective of the GWO is to support common industry training standards for health and safety that have been developed in cooperation between members of GWO and a variety of other stakeholders from the wind turbine industry.

Arco Professional Safety Services provides training and accreditation for the GWO BST Onshore course package, which includes the GWO Working at Height, GWO Manual Handling, GWO First Aid and GWO Fire Awareness modules. After completing the course, the qualifications are valid for two years before workers need to be recertified.

Steve Dawson, Manager – Working at Height Training at Arco Professional Safety Services, said:

"As experts in safety, Arco Professional Safety Services is delighted to have received accreditation from the Global Wind Organisation and to be able to offer customers the full suite of onshore BST qualifications.

"In addition to our GWO BST Onshore training offer, Arco, as the UK's only integrated services and safety products business, is also able to offer additional products and capabilities which other training providers can't, such as fall protection equipment, rescue equipment, IRATA training (rope access), workwear, respiratory protection services and musculoskeletal disorder management, making Arco the expert safety partner of choice for those businesses and staff working in the wind industry."

Spaces are available for courses at Linlithgow Safety Centre, from Tuesday 16th to Friday 19th August, and Stafford Safety Centre, from Monday 12th to Thursday 15th September.

To book your place, visit: Arco Safety Services - Energy & Renewables