Small contractors often inherit the same expectations as much larger firms when it comes to site safety paperwork. Main contractors, clients and insurers all want to see that the right documents exist, that workers have read them, and that you can find them again on request. Knowing what each document is actually for makes the whole thing much less intimidating.

Risk assessments: what's the hazard?

A risk assessment identifies the hazards involved in a piece of work, who could be harmed and how, and the controls you'll put in place to reduce that risk. It's the thinking step: working through what could go wrong before anyone picks up a tool.

Method statements: how will the work be done safely?

A method statement describes the safe sequence of work — step by step. It typically covers the equipment to be used, who's doing what, the order of tasks, and the controls identified in the risk assessment. It's the practical follow-on: now that we know the risks, here's how we're going to actually do this job.

RAMS: the two combined

RAMS (Risk Assessment and Method Statement) is simply both documents together, often presented as a single package per task or activity. Most main contractors will ask for RAMS rather than the two documents separately.

Sign-off: evidence people have read and understood it

A document on its own doesn't prove anyone read it. Sign-off — a signature, a digital confirmation, a dated record against each worker or subcontractor — is how you evidence that the people doing the work have been briefed on the controls and the method.

For small teams, the signature itself isn't the hard part. The hard part is keeping a tidy record of who signed which version, on which date, for which site.

Why keeping it organised matters

Documents lose value the moment you can't find them. A current RAMS, a clean export trail and a clear sign-off history make audits, client requests and incident follow-ups far less painful. Version control matters too: if a method changes mid-job, the team should be signing off the new version, not the old one.

What small contractors often get wrong

The common problems are usually practical rather than technical. The document exists, but it is hard to find. The RAMS was copied from an old job and the site details were never updated. The PDF was sent, but the sign-off record lives somewhere else. Or the method changed mid-job, but the team only signed the old version.

  • Reusing old RAMS without updating the site details
  • Keeping sign-off records separately from the document
  • Losing track of which version workers signed
  • Exporting PDFs without keeping a searchable record

How Graftly helps

Graftly lets small contractors create RAMS, risk assessments, method statements and related documents from a mobile-first app, capture sign-off from workers and subcontractors, and export tidy PDFs when a main contractor or client asks. Everything sits per site, so you can pull up the current version and its sign-off history in seconds.

See what you can build, take a look at how Graftly works, or get in touch with us if you'd like a walkthrough.