In a RAMS pack the method statement is the half that describes how the work will actually be done: numbered steps, in order, with the plant, access equipment, competence and permits named against the step that needs them. The assessment says what could go wrong; the method says what you are doing about it, in the order somebody will do it. The two are read together, and the single check that gets a pack accepted first time is whether every control in the assessment appears in a step.
Write the steps as actions, in the order they happen
Arrive, unload, set up exclusion, isolate, access, do the work, test, clear, hand back. Each step names what is done, with what, by whom. A step that reads as a job title rather than an action is a heading, and a pack of headings is what gets returned from a gate.
Put the control inside each step of the RAMS statement
Isolate and prove dead before removing the cover. Erect and inspect the tower before any work above. Wet cut with extraction and eye protection. A rams statement that lists controls separately from the sequence leaves the crew to match them up on site, which is exactly where they will not.
Finish with the arrangements nobody wants to improvise
Emergency and rescue, first aid, fire and spill, the site contact, and the instruction to stop and call if the job is not as described. Rescue from height is the section most often left as call the emergency services, and it is the most common single reason a pack comes back.
Questions people ask about rams method statement
What is RAMS in health and safety?
Risk assessment and method statement. It is site shorthand rather than a legal term, and rams h&s or rams in health and safety mean the same pack of two documents.
Who writes the method statement?
Somebody competent in the work, usually the person who will run it, because the sequence has to be one the crew will actually follow. It is then briefed, and the briefing is recorded.
How detailed should the steps be?
Detailed enough that a competent person who was not at the planning could carry out the step in the intended order. Beyond that, extra detail costs you readers, and an unread method statement controls nothing.