A toolbox talk ready to deliver for foremen and supervisors. An 8 to 10 minute spoken script plus a briefing register for the team to sign.
Climbing a tree to work is one of the highest risk things anyone on this crew does. You are up at height, often with a running saw, on a living structure that can move and fail. This talk is the script a supervisor delivers before anyone leaves the ground, so the climber and the whole ground team are clear on the system going up, the checks, and how we keep a fall from ever happening.
Tree climbing sits under the Industry Code of Practice for Arboriculture: Tree Work at Height, and AA Technical Guide 1: Tree Climbing and Aerial Rescue. The rules are plain. Nobody climbs unless they are trained and competent for the work in front of them, the climbing system has been inspected and is in date, and there is a rescue plan with a trained rescuer on the ground. A climber who is tired, working off a single anchor, or trusting kit they never checked is the one who gets hurt. We set all of that right on the ground, because there is no fixing it once you are forty feet up.
Spoken script for the supervisor. Read or paraphrase, in order.
You do not go up unless you are trained and competent for this climb, and signed off for it. Climbing is its own world, and running a saw aloft is another ticket again. If you are not certain the climb in front of you is one you are cleared for, you come to me first. No 'I have watched it done'.
Set your system on sound anchor points, and get a second, independent anchor in wherever it is practical. Test any load bearing anchor with your full body weight close to the ground before you commit to it. A dead limb, a weak union or a cracked stem is not an anchor. If in doubt, it does not get used.
Run a primary climbing system with a separate backup, so that if one part lets go you are still held. Keep any possible fall down to 500mm or less by staying tied in short and above your anchor where you can. The point is simple. No single thing failing should ever put you on the ground.
Every part of the climbing system gets a proper look before you put it on: ropes, harness, connectors, friction hitch or device, and every karabiner locking. Climbing kit is inspected regularly under LOLER and pulled out of service the moment it is damaged or past its date. A glazed patch on a rope or a frayed stitch line on a harness means it is finished, not that it will do.
Get into a stable work position and tied in properly before you start cutting. You should be held by the system, hands free and balanced, not gripping on with one hand and cutting with the other. If you cannot get into a safe position for the cut, you reposition, you do not stretch for it.
A saw in the tree is far more dangerous than one on the ground. Start it on the ground, or braked and against your leg, never drop start it in the air. Keep it well clear of your climbing line at all times, because a saw through your rope ends the same way a fall does. Keep it on a lanyard so it cannot drop onto the ground crew.
There is never a lone climber. Minimum two on any climb, with a trained rescuer on the ground, the rescue kit laid out at the base, and a plan we all agreed before you went up. If you are ever up there on your own, that is the job stopping, not carrying on.
Nothing you cut, drop or lower goes down onto people. Keep the drop zone clear, keep talking to the ground crew, and agree your calls before you climb so a shout means the same thing to everyone. Tools on lanyards, and nothing loose in a pocket that can fall on the person below.
Wind, ice, a storm damaged tree, or you being worn out or unwell, any of those can make a climb a bad idea. A hung up storm tree under tension is a specialist job, not a have a go. If your gut says the tree or the day is wrong, say so. We would rather stand a job down than carry someone out of it.
What the supervisor should be actively spotting on walk-arounds.
Ask one or two of these at the end. Confirms attention more than a silent nod.
A toolbox talk is generic by design. It works on every site. Your RAMS isn't. Briefkit writes a site-specific RAMS for your actual job: the hazards, sequence, PPE, competencies and emergency arrangements that apply to this work, at this address, by this team. £30 per document.
Order a RAMS for £30 →