Welcome to the latest issue of Connect
Hello, and welcome to Connect.
A third of you who took part in last issue's poll revealed how
the economic slowdown is biting at your budgets. This is what some
of you had to say:
"Two of my fellow practitioners have lost
their jobs this week alone, due to the recession cutbacks."
"I was made redundant last week from a health
and safety management post. My employer is now relying solely on
one consultant visit a month to each of its 35 sites."
"My position as the health and safety advisor
for a company currently employing 80 operatives working nationally
within the construction industry has been reduced from a full-time
position to 2.5 days a week spent on health and safety, and the
remainder spent on contract support. The reason given for this is
that the position of a health and safety advisor is a "non-fee
earner" and in the current climate the company review identified
all non-fee earners as potential redundancy candidates."
"A large building site in the heart of London
had a permanent H&S manager, but due to cutbacks he was laid
off and now the site gets a once weekly visit."
Please continue to send
us your experience of what's happening in the industry in the
present financial crisis.
Away from the doom and gloom of world markets, the newspapers
managed to find space in their main pages to feature the World
Conker Championships, sponsored by IOSH, earlier this month.
Despite both IOSH teams failing spectacularly, with most suffering
defeat in the first round, the event proved a huge success judging
by the amount of IOSH T-shirts and flags in the crowd. Read what
the media had to say in this issue's Quote Me.
In this issue Nigel Wilkinson,
Communications and Media Group committee member, explains how
a telemetric-based driver safety system has helped cut accidents
and repair bills for his business, T-Mobile. Nigel will be in
Glasgow for a group networking event in December to talk about the
project, so if you want more information, and details of other
events up and down the country, visit our
events page.
This issue's Dangerously
Safe slot is occupied by Ivan Piggin from Leicestershire
Constabulary who talks about protecting Bobbies out on the beat and
a new online risk management system he's introduced.
As well as these features, we have all the latest news,
including how membership of IOSH is on the increase and why we've
launched a national photography competition. Remember,
Connect contains all your branch and group events in
MyNetwork, as well as CPD and IPD news.
I hope you enjoy browsing this issue of Connect. If you
have any comments, or want to be featured in one of our articles,
please drop me a line.
Shaun Gibbons
e-Editor, IOSH
Good practice: improving driver safety
Nigel Wilkinson, Head of Health, Safety and
Environment for T-Mobile and IOSH Communications and Media Group
committee member, tells Connect how the introduction of a
telemetric-based driver safety system has helped cut accident rates
and the cost of vehicle repairs.
One of the highest risk work activities in any organisation is
driving. Nearly 1,000 people a year are killed in work-related road
accidents. In the case of T-Mobile, with 200 field technicians
regularly out on the road, the frequency of traffic accidents was
traditionally high, costing the business significant amounts of
lost time in injuries and money, both in liability claims and in
extra training and rehabilitation.
Before the launch of a fleet safety telemetric system, the
company provided a training package made up of one-to-one driving
assessments, online tutorials and extra coaching for drivers who
had multiple accidents in a given 12-month period. Despite seeing
accident levels drop, the company decided to introduce new
technology which electronically monitors an individual’s driving
style in an effort to make more of an impact on its road accident
figures.
So how does the technology work? In a nutshell, the system
provides drivers with the information they need to modify their
driving. It monitors the driving style every minute that the
vehicle’s engine is switched on, measuring 120 calibrated
manoeuvres from speed, corner handling, lane changing and braking.
The system then feeds information to the driver via an LED display
which sits on the dashboard. Manoeuvres are labelled green for
‘safe’, amber for ‘room for improvement’ and red for ‘cause for
concern’.
“Before we actually launched the system
properly in January 2007, we carried out blind profiling with 250
of our field operations technicians and managers,” explained Nigel.
“The statistics weren’t visible to drivers and the results showed
that there was an average of 81 red manoeuvres per every 10 hours
of driving.”
Nigel added: “We wanted to implement a new
scheme that identifies high-risk drivers and then try and achieve a
change in their driving behaviour.”
Each unsafe manoeuvre made by a driver registers on the LED
dashboard device within a fraction of a second, so that they get
instant feedback. The information is then transmitted by GPS and
logged on a central database. All drivers have their own account
log-in and can check their data online, giving them the opportunity
to analyse each journey they make and exactly when and where they
made unsafe manoeuvres.
“Understandably, the workforce had some very
real concerns over this system, with many fearing that the data
could be used in some form of disciplinary way, so we spent a huge
amount of time and energy talking with them. One of the ways we
eased fears in the first phase of introducing this system was not
to use individual scores, but to split drivers into teams that were
listed in a league table of the best through to the worst
performers. We plan to use individual scores in our next roll-out,
which is happening soon.”
Since the technology was launched in January 2007, the results
show that:
- the road traffic crash rate is down by 14 per cent compared to
2004–2006 figures
- compared with 2006 only, there’s been a 20 per cent reduction
in traffic accidents
- the cost of accidents has been reduced by 26 per cent compared
to 2004–2006
- compared with 2006 only, the cost reduction is 49 per cent
- fuel consumption has improved by 3 per cent, saving the company
more than £20,000
- there has been a cut in carbon emissions.
“As well as seeing actual road traffic
accidents down, we’ve also seen the number of unsafe manoeuvres per
driver halved in the 12 months since we introduced the system,”
said Nigel. “The number of instances of speeding has also been
reduced by 25 per cent, and the amount saved in repairs during 2007
totalled £400,000.”
To try and get more buy-in from company drivers, T-Mobile has
introduced a number of incentives, including high-street vouchers
that are earned for all ‘green’ journeys – called ‘Safety
Stars’ – and a league table of departmental results
published every week.
Nigel says that there are still a number of hard-core ‘red’
drivers who don’t drive responsibly and cause the majority of high
cost accidents and contribute most to fuel costs. Thirty-nine per
cent of all drivers are ‘red’ and cause 51 per cent of accidents.
Action will be taken to influence these drivers to change their
driving behaviour.
But on the plus side, the majority of drivers and teams have
taken it very seriously and enjoy using the system and competing
with other teams. As Nigel comments: “It’s made most drivers think
about their driving style and significantly modify their behaviour
behind the wheel.
“The system has been a huge success and we’ve
definitely seen a significant return on our investment,” said
Nigel. “At the end of the day, it could be argued that we’ve saved
lives. Of course, this can’t be demonstrated but such a large
reduction in road traffic accidents has reduced our fleet risk
level.”
If you’d like to find out more about the technology T-Mobile is
using, or information about how your organisation can improve its
driver safety, Nigel will be speaking at a Communications and Media
Group event in Glasgow on Wednesday 3 December.
Factfile:
- Nigel is a Chartered Member and belongs to the IOSH
Communications and Media and Environmental and Waste Management
Groups and the London Metropolitan Branch
- T-Mobile has 101 million subscribers worldwide, making it the
world's sixth largest mobile phone service provider
Dangerously safe: keeping the beat on the street
Health and safety professionals don’t like
risks? We think not. In Connect, we’re running Seriously Fun,
Dangerously Safe, to profile the extreme sports and high risk jobs
our members are involved in.
At least one police officer is attacked on duty every hour,
according to the Home Office. Ivan Piggin, Health and Safety
Advisor for Leicestershire Constabulary, talks to Connect about the
work he does to tackle this and other issues his force faces.
Ivan is part of a team of two keeping a close eye on assaults on
police officers on the beat to try and find a way of preventing
them.
“If an officer has been assaulted, we capture
the details of what happened so that we can look for trends, for
example whether the attacks are carried out at similar times or in
similar places and to see if we can learn any lessons. We can then
advise whether stab vests or general extra protection needs to be
worn.”
If an officer is injured in an attack and placed on restricted
duties, Ivan will make sure that their injuries can’t be made worse
by routine or new tasks by carrying out specific risk assessments.
The team works with the occupational health unit which is on hand
to carry out check-ups and offer advice.
Ivan got involved in health and safety by chance. After starting
within the scientific support unit for the police, he worked as a
health and safety representative on various jobs.
“I really enjoyed the work I was doing so I
decided to take the job when the position became available – I’ve
now been with the police for 14 years."
Ivan is currently setting up an online risk
management system.
“With some 56 buildings spanning 46 sites
across the whole of Leicestershire and 4,000 or so members of
staff, we never know what could crop up and we always need to keep
on top of things and make sure that our risk assessments are up to
date and acted on.
“We’re hoping that the new risk system will
be really helpful by giving people accountability. With the old
paper-based system it could be easy for assessments to get lost in
the process and that’s when things don’t get improved on patrol.
The new version automatically alerts people as to who is
responsible, what actions need to be carried out and what’s
outstanding.”
The health and safety team carries out internal training but
sometimes where specialist police training is required, they use
external trainers. One training session is on public order –
complete with petrol bombs. The team helps to assess how things
work to see how they can improve protection if officers have to
tackle a real riot, including looking at protective clothing to
check that it’s being worn properly.
“But it can be hard as there’s often a rush
to get the gear on in time.”
Of course, the job isn’t all about the more extreme side of
safety. Ivan finds working with computer equipment satisfying
because it can completely change the way someone works.
“There are a lot of computer users within the
force and to them, that’s their working life. If someone has a
special requirement or certain adjustments need to be made to their
work area then it’s great when I can make positive changes to help
them work better.
“We’re fortunate to have a very strong health
and safety culture. It helps that our Director of Health and Safety
is the Deputy Chief Constable, so he chairs the main health and
safety committee and when he gets involved things happen and people
listen.
“The officers and staff never look down on us
for what we do as they understand that we’re trying to help.
Ultimately we’re not here to ban things – we’re here to save the
lives of the police which in turn keeps the public protected.”
Factfile:
- Ivan Piggin has been a member of IOSH since 2005 and is a
member of the Midland Branch
- Across Leicestershire there are over 40 police sites with a
combination of around 2,300 police and 1,550 police staff,
including police community support officers
Links:
60 second interview
Roy Featherstone, Health and Safety Officer
for Buckinghamshire County Council, talks to Connect
What’s one of the most memorable experiences you have
had in your health and safety career?
One of them was when I passed my diploma. But it was a great
moment when we were mentioned in an HSE publication because of our
management involvement in health and safety.
What do you get out of your job?
The role is enormously varied - you never know what you could be
faced with, but I get great satisfaction from solving problems.
What issues can you see coming up in your
sector?
We are currently undergoing massive changes which have caused a
few problems already, but the issue most likely to come out of it
is stress.
Would you like to see any legislative changes in your
sector?
The issue with legislation is that it can often be hard to
implement it and apply it to all sectors as many places vary.
COSHH, for example, is aimed at higher level and more technical
places – not a local authority that deals with washing up
liquid!
What approach to your job sets you aside from the
perceived public image of health and safety people being
bureaucratic busy bodies?
From working in agriculture I’ve experienced many different
things which could perhaps be deemed unsafe!
Do you think the Health and Safety (Offences) Act
will address concerns over what some critics have labelled derisory
penalties?
It remains to be seen.
Do you want to be considered for a 60 Second Interview?
Contact the e-Editor.
The English media tend to be very negative
about stories involving health and safety. How do
Scottish journalists treat it?
Much the same – we get very similar views.
Do you want to be considered for a 60 Second Interview?
Contact the e-Editor.
Quote Me
IOSH gets its message across...
This month IOSH sponsored the World Conker Championships to show
that health and safety isn't about being a killjoy or issuing
pointless bans. Our sponsorship has really been picked up by the
media, with 15 radio and TV mentions, seven pieces of national
newspaper coverage and 20 online stories.
Daily Telegraph
Before the Championships, IOSH President Ray
Hurst told the Daily Telegraph:
“We like to have fun like anyone else. You
just have to manage the risks, not ban them into oblivion.”
Radio 5 Live Drive programme
Ray again hammered home the sensible safety message on BBC Radio
5’s Drive programme.
“The main reason we’re sponsoring the
Championships is to dispel the myths about health and safety
stopping people having fun. If you speak to a professional health
and safety adviser, like a member of our Institution, they’ll give
sensible, pragmatic advice. We get fed up with people banning
pancake races, throwing sweets into pantomime audiences or even
conker games.”
Northampton Chronicle and Echo
IOSH President Ray Hurst spoke about how sponsoring the
Conker Championships was a chance for IOSH to challenge
the media over its reporting of health and safety issues.
“We're always happy to sponsor something
which is for a good cause, but the main reason for us is to dispel
the myth that health and safety stops you from having fun. It [the
Conker Championships] was good quirky British humour. Where else
could you find yourself in a ring with someone dressed up as a
crocodile?”
Bolton Evening News/Radcliffe Times
It wasn’t just Ray who was making the headlines. IOSH Council
Member John Holden not only appeared on the front cover of his
local paper, the Radcliffe Times, but also the Bolton
Evening News. He said:
“Health and safety is about keeping people
safe at work - it’s not about stopping people having fun. You can’t
make everything absolutely safe. If you wrap people up in cotton
wool, they’ll probably just inhale the fibres and develop asthma
anyway. We’ve got workers being killed in industrial accidents, and
that’s what we want to stop.”
BBC Radio Lincolnshire/Spalding Guardian
IOSH’s e-Editor Shaun Gibbons also took part in the
Championships and appeared on BBC Radio Lincolnshire and in the
Spalding Guardian.
“I’m hoping to set the record straight – you
don’t need goggles to play conkers. I hear about kids being banned
from playing games in playgrounds, clowns forbidden from making
balloon animals and theatre actors being stopped from throwing
sweets into the audience on health and safety grounds. The reality
is that these decisions, along with the ridiculous requirement for
kids to wear goggles when they play conkers, are not made because
of health and safety concerns.”