Compliance & standards
What is RAMS?
RAMS stands for risk assessment and method statement — the paired documents setting out the hazards of a job and the sequence of work to control them. Most principal contractors require them before work starts.
The risk assessment identifies what could cause harm and what is being done about it. The method statement sets out how the work will actually be carried out, in what order, with what equipment and by whom. They are read together, which is why they are usually issued as one document.
For scaffolding, the method statement is where the erection sequence lives — including how the squad will be protected while the scaffold is incomplete, which is the point at which scaffolders are most exposed.
The common failure is genericity. A method statement that could describe any scaffold on any site describes nothing, and it is obvious to anyone reading it properly. The ones that hold up are specific to the structure and the site.
What goes wrong on site
- A template reissued for every job with the site name changed.
- RAMS written for the finished scaffold rather than for the process of erecting it.
- The document produced for the client and never read by the squad it describes.