A ladder is not banned as a way of working at height. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) treats it as one of several acceptable pieces of equipment, suited to work that is short and carries a low risk of a fall.

Window cleaning often falls into that category, because a single window or a short run of windows can usually be reached and cleaned quickly. Where the work takes longer, or the height or surroundings make a fall more likely, other equipment is the better fit.

Whether a ladder is the right choice for a particular clean depends on the task in front of you, not on a blanket rule against ladders themselves.

A window cleaning round usually means moving up and down a ladder many times over the course of a day. HSE's guide is around 30 minutes at a time on a leaning ladder or a stepladder, and that figure is built around work of that kind.

The guide applies best to a task where you are repositioning the ladder, climbing to one point, coming back down, and moving on. Staying up for longer than that is usually a sign that the task has changed shape, and that a ladder may no longer be the right piece of equipment for it.

What counts as competence

Nobody needs a certificate to climb a ladder to clean a window. HSE describes competence as having the skills, knowledge and experience to carry out the task safely, which can come from training, from working alongside someone more experienced, or simply from having done the work before.

In practice that means knowing how to check a ladder before you climb it, how to set it at the right angle and on the right surface, and when a particular window or height calls for something other than a ladder.

The Federation of Window Cleaners runs its own accreditation scheme called SAM, and it is the Federation that sets out what the scheme covers, who can join it and what it asks of a window cleaner. Because the scheme belongs to the Federation, the account of what it involves comes from the Federation itself.

Anyone deciding whether the scheme suits their business should read that description in the Federation's own words before relying on it.