Every year, Hard Hat Awareness Week highlights the critical importance of proper safety equipment, delivering education about the risk and impact of workplace head injuries. 

Naturally, construction is a sector with a higher risk of head injuries than most. Falling objects, working at height, moving machinery, collapsing structures, and vehicle incidents can all lead to head injuries. Proper protective equipment is vital in reducing the severity of these injuries and, in some cases, can be life-saving. 

Simon, a bricklaying instructor at Able Skills, recalls an incident from his time working on site that serves as a stark reminder of why head protection should never be overlooked: 

"I remember a colleague removing his hard hat while we were working on a construction site in Hammersmith in 1996. Moments later, he walked around the back of the scaffolding, struck his head on a pipe and suffered a serious injury.

Experiences like that stay with you. I've seen first-hand the consequences of not wearing a hard hat, which is why head protection should never be treated as optional on site."

Now in its sixth year, Hard Hat Awareness Week runs from 8th-14th June. Partnered with Headway - The Brain Injury Association and The Silverlining Brain Injury Charity, organisers use the week to host activities, webinars and share advice designed to encourage best practices surrounding safety equipment.

This includes choosing suitable protective equipment, ensuring helmets are always worn when needed and offering guidance on how to properly maintain and store equipment. 

Hard Hat Awareness Week is also about reminding people to take any impact to the head seriously, emphasising how vital it is to report all incidents, no matter how small, and to always follow medical advice when it comes to recovery and returning to work. 

Are head injuries being reported properly?

Beyond promoting the use of hard hats, the campaign is also calling for improvements in how workplace head injuries are recorded and reported. 

As part of the campaign, organisers say they want to see a change in how head injuries are reported. At the moment, there is an issue of head injuries being misreported (or not reported at all) as other incidents, making it difficult to form a clear understanding of how many head injuries are actually occurring. 

The team says they would like to see a full body diagram included in the Health and Safety Executive’s RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations), enabling people to clearly mark the area of injury as well as including a description. The changes would also make it mandatory to include whether or not a person was wearing a hard hat at the time of the injury. 

This data is essential to manufacturers and standard-makers in making improvements to protective equipment. Having this clear, accurate picture could also lead to changes in safety regulations across the sector should they be needed.

You can find more information and access Hard Hat Awareness Week resources here.