In 2024/25 alone, 35 people lost their lives at work due to a fall from height, accounting for 28% of all workplace deaths (Health and Safety Executive).
Behind every one of these numbers is a preventable incident. A team impacted. A family changed forever. It’s a reminder that while progress has been made, the risk has not gone away.
Launched in the UK in 2024, No Falls Week was created with a simple but important mission... to raise awareness about the importance of safe working at height.
Led by the No Falls Foundation, the campaign aims to support organisations across all sectors - including construction, manufacturing, logistics, facilities management, and beyond - by providing the knowledge, tools, and inspiration needed to ensure everyone working at height comes down safely.
Because while the risks are often associated with construction sites, the reality is broader. Work at height happens everywhere, in warehouses, retail environments, factories, offices, and hospitals. Often, it is routine, familiar work where risk can become normalised, and that’s where danger increases.
No Falls Week is designed to go beyond awareness and create meaningful engagement across organisations. The campaign includes:
• Educational resources
Articles, guides, and videos covering safe systems of work at height, regulations, best practice, and emerging safety technologies designed to reduce falls.
• Real stories, real consequences
One of the most powerful elements of the campaign is lived experience. Hearing directly from individuals affected by falls helps connect safety messaging to real-world impact - turning statistics into something personal and memorable.
• Community engagement
The campaign brings together safety professionals, frontline workers, and industry leaders to share experiences, ask questions, and learn from one another.
• Interactive challenges
Practical, engaging activities designed to reinforce learning and encourage participation across teams.
• Real impact from industry participation
One of the strongest indicators of the campaign’s value is how organisations have engaged with it in practice.
For example, Denholm Industrial Services integrated No Falls Week into their internal communications, delivered toolbox talks, ran engagement activities, and even introduced light-hearted initiatives like a “Best Cake” competition - all designed to spark conversation while keeping safety front of mind.
Other organisations, including Horizon Platforms and Marlowe Fire and Security Group, have collaborated on dedicated awareness days focused on MEWP safety, bringing teams together to share knowledge, listen to expert insight, and reinforce safe working practices.
These examples highlight an important point... the most effective safety campaigns are not passive. They create participation, dialogue, and action.
While No Falls Week provides a focused moment in the calendar, the reality is that work at height safety is not time-bound. It is a continuous responsibility.
Safety does not exist in isolation, it depends on consistent behaviours, effective systems, ongoing training, and a willingness to challenge assumptions about “routine” work.
That is why the campaign places such emphasis on education, research, and support, working in partnership with industry bodies such as the Access Industry Forum (AIF) and others committed to advancing workplace safety standards.
Perhaps the most important part of the campaign is its focus on real experiences. Speakers such as Dylan Skelhorn, who share their lived experience of a life-changing fall, bring a human perspective to what can otherwise feel like abstract risk management.
These stories are not about fear, they are about understanding consequence, reinforcing awareness, and helping people recognise that incidents rarely happen because of one catastrophic failure, but often a series of small, overlooked decisions.
The purpose of No Falls Week is not only to raise awareness, but to encourage action - both during the campaign and long after it ends. Because preventing falls from height is not achieved through awareness alone. It requires:
• Consistent risk assessment and control
• Proper equipment selection and inspection
• Effective training and supervision
• Strong communication across teams
• And a culture where stopping work feels just as important as starting it
No Falls Week is one week in the calendar. But preventing falls from height is a lifetime commitment.
Every conversation started, every control improved, and every risk challenge helps move the industry closer to a simple goal, that everyone who goes up… comes down safely.
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