Health & Safety
Governance of health and safety is the responsibility of the managing director, Tony Morland, who produces a health and safety policy statement on an annual basis. This is supported by a detailed health and safety policy that clearly defines the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved in the business and sets out the expected standards to maintain a safe working environment. Health and safety is the first agenda item on all WW Martin (Thanet) Ltd board meetings.
We believe that formal accreditation of policies, procedures and monitoring technique, supported by regular audit of systems, is one of the key elements to safe operations.
The company qualification with respect to health and safety is:
BS OHSAS 18001:2007, CHAS, Construction line health and safety assessment scheme, EXOR and Gas Safe.
To ensure compliance with legislation, Tony has appointed a health and safety manager, Jean Humphrys, to coordinate activities across all company operations and places of work.
Jean is competent through experience and training to manage our activities to comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, ‘The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999’ and CDM 2007 Regulations.
Jean manages a total of two administrators and our external health and safety consultants, to ensure our compliance with legislation.
The monitoring and enforcement of the policy is percolated down from the board of directors via Jean to our operational sites. She co-ordinates our health and safety consultants H and K safety consultants to:-
- produce and update construction phase health and safety plans as required under the CDM regulations 2007
- monitor and audit the performance of operational sites
- investigate accidents and produce reports and recommendations in line with their findings
- provide site training.
- identify training requirements of staff and instigate training for staff
- advise on changes to legislation.
- assess the competence of existing and potential supply chain partners with respect to health and safety.
- make suggestions for the improvement of our health and safety performance
- produce a monthly report identifying the performance of the region for the review of the board of directors.
The regional safety report, compiled by the H & K, details compliance with policy objectives and recommendations for improvement. The report references all information gathering streams available to the company, which include:
- accident investigation and analysis
- surveillance monitoring reports
- near miss reporting
- employee suggestions
- supply chain feedback on operations
- client feedback on operations
- health and safety officer observations
- third party consultants’ advice on legislation and best practice
The report is reviewed by the directors during monthly board meetings and quarterly by the Company health and safety committee. Areas targeted for improvement are achieved via site inductions, toolbox talks, health and safety training, safety alerts, poster campaigns and newsletters distributed to all company stakeholders. Revision to our policy is considered in line with operational experience and changes to legislation.
An example of implementation is our recognition that the largest category of accidents that are recorded on our sites is 'handling, lifting and carrying'. We have introduced mandatory hand protection and provided toolbox talks on the subject. As a consequence, we have reduced the number of occurrences by 78%.
Day-to-day responsibility for compliance with legislation falls to the project teams who are competent staff to manage projects. Each major project has an elected health and safety committee and is chaired by the project manager responsible for the scheme supported by the health and safety manager and the consultants. In this way, we transfer the knowledge and focus of the health and safety department to the operational team. The health and safety committee is obliged to formally review safety on a monthly basis and manage any risks that have become apparent.
Training is an important aspect of accident prevention and we provided 123 training days to staff and supply chain members during 2008. Subjects covered include CITB 5 day site management scheme, CITB scaffold inspection course and first aid. We completed 107 sets of toolbox talk presentations across the raft of schemes completed.
Accident reporting and investigation is also a requirement of legislation and we have a specific procedure that is part of our ISO 18001 accreditation, to be used when required. We use these as opportunities to provide information to all of our stakeholders as to the history behind the event, the reasons for it and precautions to be taken to avoid any recurrence.
The communications process for all employees is:-
• Induction at commencement of employment including the issue of a Company Handbook containing the Health and safety policy statement and policy. Signatures are required to confirm that the handbook has been read and understood.
• Safety training for both off site and on site operatives identified as being necessary by the Health and Safety Manager
• Production of a detailed health and safety plan for all live projects, updated as required, including method statements and risk assessments which are communicated to staff via a site specific induction programme conducted by the contracts manager responsible for the contract.
• Monthly un-announced site visits which are carried out by the Health and Safety consultants to monitor and audit health and safety performance, note non conformance issues and close out all recorded items through a documented process within acceptable time scales.
• Display the Health and Safety policy statement on notice boards at every location of work.
Tool box talks are undertaken monthly at site level on subjects identified as requiring attention from the unannounced surveillance visits.
Three monthly review of Health and Safety by the Health and Safety committee to identify areas requiring change.
An annual safety meeting with all staff to discuss health and Safety Issues and update the Policy document.