Planning & documents
What is a method statement?
A method statement sets out how a task will be carried out safely, step by step, in sequence. It is the second half of RAMS and the half that describes the actual work.
It should read as instructions to the people doing the job rather than as an assurance to the person filing it. If an operative cannot follow it, it has described a job rather than controlled one.
Sequence is what distinguishes it from a risk assessment. The order things happen in is frequently where the risk sits — what is removed before what, what is supported before what is cut.
It has to match the site as found. A statement that assumes a clear working area or an exclusion zone that cannot exist needs revising before work starts, not working around.
What goes wrong in practice
- Written in the language of a policy rather than as instructions.
- Generic sequences reused across jobs with different constraints.
- Revised verbally on site with the written version left describing something else.