Welcome to undercover health and safety clips where we use real examples of health safety and work  – good and bad – to highlight universal lessons helpful to us all.  My name is Ian Pemberton and I am managing Director of Human Focus – I am a health and safety specialist and I hope you find these insights helpful

If you are based in the UK you may well have seen recent press coverage of the so-called Walpole boating lake incident where emergency services where called out in March 2011 to recover the body of man who had fallen in to the water and drowned. Hampshire Fire Brigade have been pilloried by the press for their approach to this incident with headlines to the effect of “Health & Safety Has Gone Mad”

The facts are these.  Walpole lake is actually a shallow pond in an urban area of Gosport, Hampshire.   It’s home to the local wild life and used, amongst other things to sail model boats.  Simon Burgess, 41, was feeding the swans when it is believed that he had a seizure and fell into the water.  The fire brigade was called and they arrived within five minutes to find Mr Burgess floating face down some distance from the shore.

However, the firemen attending decided not to enter the waist deep water.   They told the inquest that they were complying with guidelines they had been given by Hamphshire Fire service which stated that their ‘Level 1’ training only allowed them to go in the water up to their ankles.”    A key part of this decision was that they decided that Mr Burgess was already dead.   But the coroner concluded that there was a chance, ‘albeit a slim one’, that Mr Burgess could have been saved had the emergency services intervened sooner.  Let me repeat that, there was a chance, albeit a slim one, that Mr Burgess was still alive.

And so they waited some time for a specialist water rescue team to arrive. These officers were ‘Level 2-trained’, meaning they could ‘go in chest- high’. Using specialist equipment, these highly trained officers finally recovered the Mr Burgess’s body.  After the event an enterprising journalist was photographed wading into the pond to demonstrate which added further fuel to the press coverage of this incident.

Later that year in August I was on holiday with my family in the United States staying at a beach house on Lake Michigan and was involved in a second incident I would like you to consider.     Here are my kids in the lake.  For those of you who don’t know – as you can see – this is not a small lake – it’s huge and is more like an inland sea.  Literally moments after these photos were taken a man came running up the beach and shouted to get everyone out of the water – two men, about 200 yards up the beach, had just been dragged into the lake by the waves and a strong rip current and were missing!  We were later to find out that both were young and strong swimmers – we suddenly realised the conditions were extremely hazardous.

The local fire brigade and life boat services turned-up very quickly and went straight into the water.   The fire men searching in-shore were highly trained and used specialist equipment to  prevent them from being dragged out.  The search went on for 2 days – there was tv crews every where and the emergency services were treated, quite rightly, as heroes.  The red cross even turned up to provide them with refreshments and support.  Unfortunately, the bodies of  Brad Stoner, aged 22, Dan Reed, aged 46, were eventually recovered 2 miles further up the beach.

As part of this I got chatting to the local sheriff and I asked him about water safety in the lake – his response was – “anyone who goes swimming in the lake when its like this, doesn’t know lake Michigan”.   So, I enquired, does he or his family go swimming in the lake – he looked at me surprised – “of course, all the time – just not when it’s like this.”

So, here we have two incidents, involving health and safety and work, where the emergency services responded in very similar ways – both employing highly trained officers with specialist equipment and carefully designed rules of operation.  The difference of course is that at Walpole lake the rules did match the situation where as on Lake Michigan they clearly did.   It transpires that Hampshire Fire had based their system of water rescue on government guidelines designed to cope with fast moving flood water – but had decided to apply them to all water conditions.  And so as we have noted in other presentations, these officers were literally set-up to fail by inadequate organizsational arrangements.

I have the greatest respect all emergency service personnel and I am sure that every single one of them has put their life on the line for others in the course of their work.   This incident was not their fault.  Indeed, as you can see with the supervision of my own children – when it comes to managing risk we are all fallible!   To their credit Hampshire Fire have accepted the criticism and have said the following:

“After this incident and subsequent internal debrief, we reviewed our water rescue policy and made changes based on our findings. These changes are in response to identified gaps in the existing policy and suggested changes by our staff.”

Safety Rules

One interesting point, which was certainly true in the Walpole lake case, is  that it is often “safety rules” that are used to justify crazy decisions.   Like banning children from playing conkers in the playground, or indeed, preventing emergency services stepping into a shallow boating pond.  But the fact is, there are very few prescriptive rules in health and safety legislation.  All of Europe now has the same so called ‘risk-based health and safety regulations’.   This means employers decide for themselves, via risk assessments, what controls are appropriate for their operations.  Any rule book that exists, is almost entirely formulated by the employer themselves  – rules come from their risk assessments.  So, if health and safety looks stupid – the problem is not the government or regulations but how employers interpret them.

Stupid rules are not just bad press – they are also dangerous.  As we have seen, rules can prevent those at the sharp end from taking appropriate actions.   So how can employers get this balance right and develop intelligent rules?   Well, it begins by recognising 5 common pitfalls…

1. Rules can be too broad – covering to many different operations or situations – as in the Walpole Lake incident – there was one approach to any water rescue over ankle depth.
2. They can be too detailed   - I have seen situations where you would need a wheelbarrow to carry the rule book around – it just overwhelms employees with finite detail that they don’t have any hope of remembering.   Rules need to be kept simple
3. To vague – this is different from pitfall 1 – here a rule is focussed on a specific process or operation but does not give sufficient guidance to the decision maker
4. They can be Past their sell-by-date – the world changes and so must rules – you have got to have a way of monitoring them
5. Finally – they can be mindless – where they have just evolved without thought.  No one has asked if they make sense

2 Practical Principles fo Intelligent Safety Systems

Now, you maybe be thinking, particularly if you operate in a smaller organisation – how on earth do you get this right? It’s all too complicated.   Well, the good news is that for those who know what they are doing there is a couple of very simple principles that can almost effortlessly avoid these pitfalls and develop intelligent rules – which by the way – not only power high standards of health and safety, but also quality, productivity and staff morale.

The first is really simple and is based on this question – if those emergency services had been left completely to their own devices do you think they would have waited or gone straight into the boat pond?    I am guessing they’d have gone straight in which would have been entirely appropriate.  The point is there’s often a disconnect between t front line operatives and the rules.   And so the first principle is simply to connect them by getting them involved!  They are the experts and they know when a rule is mindless, or past it’s sell-by-date.  If you ask them they will tell you.  If you involve front line operatives then you will get a living breathing system that effortlessly adjusts itself.

But employee involvement alone is not enough.    So, the 2^nd principle is – there also have to be effective risk assessments – and unfortunately the general standard out there is very poor.   And, if you want effective risk assessments – you need people who know what they are doing – they need a high standard of risk literacy.   Risk literacy – what does this mean? Well, for example, if I had said to my kids – you can never swim in Lake Michigan because 2 people drowned – that would have been an illiterate decision about risk.  It would fail to understand the hazard and the fluctuating nature of the risk – some days there is virtually no risk – others it is significant – what’s needed is different responses – today you can’t swim, tomorrow you can.

And yet, this type of   “all swimming is banned” decision is all too common – its what’s at the root of so much of  the “health and safety has gone mad” press.  And so the next time you see this type of headline you will now know that it’s not health and safety regulations that are to blame, but rather  someone who with low risk illiteracy has made a bad decision.

But it does not have to be like this.  Take as a case in point the following example (see video above) where a uk manufacturing company has implemented these simple principles – employee involvement and effective risk assessment.  They’ve found that if they get those at the sharp end involved, and provide them with training, then the rules of operation come naturally; are intelligent; and best of all, everyone is signed-up to making them work.

Implementing This Knowledge – Training From Human Focus

So what is the standard of risk literacy in your organisation?   Do those at the sharp end understand how to get involved?   Do they know what to look for and how to help develop intelligent systems of work?  Do those with overall responsibility for systems of work and rules of operation have good risk literacy?

If the answer to any of these questions is – “there is room for improvement” then why not consider getting everyone to take the full version of this training session which includes knowledge tests?  From there, the Human Focus E-learning system can provide an unrivalled library of ROSPA accredited video training courses in this area.   This presentation has given you a brief taster – these courses can now take you many steps further with your health and safety and work standards.      For example, they can help recruit the involvement of all employees as well as developing high standards of risk literacy amongst those charged with undertaking risk assessments.

Contact us and we will be happy to talk you through your options.  Finally, if you have found this presentation helpful, please tell others – you can easily email the link to this page using the Share button underneath this video.

Skanska Facilities Services (FS) has recently achieved full operational status with the Competent Contractor system across many of its sites.  This is the culmination of considerable preparatory work by both Skanska FS and their contractors.    Charles Harrison says: “As the  Skanska FS coordinator of our contractor management system (Human Focus Competent Contractor) for Healthcare, MOD, Schools and Scotland,  may I take this opportunity of thanking all of our contractors for the significant effort they have put in and for the improvements we are seeing during the first few months of the live running of the  Human Focus card swipe system at these sites.   Our best performing contractors are now consistently attending site with their Human Focus training card which is helping to save time and effort for all concerned.    Last month we swiped 31% of the entire previous year’s total – which is  excellent.    This is an important part of our contractor compliance system and helps us ensure that we know who is working on Skanska FS sites and what training they hold.   As we have a joint responsibility for health and safety, I am sure you can appreciate it is in all of our best interests to  seek further improvements, and with your continued help I am sure we will achieve this.”

It is planned that the remaining Skanska FS sites in the South of England will shortly achieve the same performance improvements.  Charles Harrison explains -  “In the very near future we will have appointed Lloyd Smith to coordinate our commercial business in the South of England, who will be endeavouring to put into practice live running contractors to ensure compliance with the Human Focus system, that has been widely successful in the other sectors of the FS business.  I trust that the contractors on these sites will support Lloyd with implementation of the scheme.”

Safety online course certificate

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has just completed an extensive technical review of Human Focus online health and safety courses and has renewed it’s coveted badge of approval.  This means that you can be assured that these courses:

• Remain of  a high technical standard providing you with peace of mind that you have made the right decision
• Provide nationally recognised qualifications that are listed on the National Core Competence Benchmark (NCCB).   This means that you are able to easily demonstrate to third parties the content and level of the training taken by your employees and it is much more likely that they will be accepted during competency assessments.

There are only a few health and safety E-learning providers in the UK that have this type of independent verification of the quality of their training content.  Ian Pemberton, Human Focus Managing Director says “the health and safety training market is unregulated.   Employers have been caught out during prosecutions and civil claims after purchasing training courses from organisations they thought were reputable, but, whose training content was found to be inadequate.   Our advise is to make sure you look for some form of independent approval of the training content by an outside organisation of suitable expertise.  If you do not see this then why take the risk?”

Human Focus have now had this RoSPA accreditation of their courses for over 3 years and was the first health and safety E-learning company to gain this quality recognition.  This latest review of its course occurred over a two week period when RoSPA’s health and safety specialists spent considerable time watching and reviewing the content of the courses.   We are pleased to say that apart from a few minor updates, which have now been implemented, Human Focus passed with flying colours.

If you have not yet seen or used the Human Focus E-learning system then contact us and we will be happy to provide you with free access to a guest account to let you evaluate how thus system can help you.

Human Focus has been a pioneer in the field of video-based health and safety E-learning in the UK.  The company has been able to demonstrate to its customers that video-based courses have highly significant benefits over still picture and text formatted E-learming courses.   These benefits incliude:

• Significant cost savings in training course delivery – trainees can cover the same training content via video courses in a fraction of the time it takes to study lots of text and still images
• Improved trainee accessibility – 12 million adult workers have the reading age of children.   Many employees struggle to learn effectively via text and picture.   With video it’s no problem for those with even minimal literacy skills
• Improved trainee learning – our research has shown that many employees are turned off by text and picture E-learning courses – describing them as “boring” and “like a book without the benefits“.  Video is not only more engaging but it can convey messages far more powerfully and in ways that are just not possible via still images.

Welcome to undercover health and safety clips where we use real examples of where health and safety has gone wrong to highlight universal  lessons helpful to us all.   We begin a harbour where a car has fallen into the water, and,  a mobile crane has been brought in to lift it out.  Even before the car is out of the water you’ll notice that the lorry has started to lean over at a dangerous angle – so you can perhaps guess what is going to happen next .

Or, perhaps not – success?  No!  You were right.  Ok, so what would you do now?   Bring in a bigger crane?  Well that’s what they did.   It would seem to be a better option – it’s larger – and has out riggers for stabilisation.  And sure enough it has lifted the car out safely!   But of course there is still the lorry in the water to deal with.

You can see here that the lorry in the water has suddenly shifted.   Now, given that this mobile crane is lifting — well —-  a mobile crane that has just toppled over – do you think that any lessons have been learnt?  Apparently not!   It would easy to look at this example and say something like – the people involved are just really foolish – they should have been more careful and they are to blame – right?   Well, you cannot say that and in fact the probability is that they, like thousands of other workers, have been set-up to fail.  Yes, all workers have individual responsibilities but without the right training, equipment and safe system of work they don’t stand a chance.

Take as a case in point Leslie Brown, a 43 year father from Haile in Cumbria who was killed in an accident at work in April 2010.  Leslie was helping to unload a vehicle from a low loader trailer when the ramp failed, fell and  killed him.  The subsequent police and Health & Safety Executive investigation found that there had been previous problems with the ramp.  However, at the inquest, the director of the company involved,  and the transport manager told the inquest that they had not been told of the earlier problem.  The transport manager said:

“If there had been a report I would have seen it, but there wasn’t a report”

The transport manager also said:

“We didn’t have a risk assessment for that particular trailer, but we did have general assessments.”

When questioned, she also said the manufacturer’s instruction manual was not given to those using the equipment  So what general lessons can we draw from these examples that would be helpful to us all – regardless of our work area?

Lessons

• Well, People at the sharp end need to know and understand what is involved in undertaking risk assessments, because …..
• Risk assessment is a practical and dynamic activity that is all about keeping people safe.   It should  NOT be a red tape exercise in a box ticking – there is no point having a copy in a file that no one knows about or understands.  We all undertake risk assessments instinctively everyday – it’s what keeps us safe during mundane daily activities.  But this type of risk assessment should not to be confused with assessments at work, perhaps involving dangerous machinery – this requires know-how, skills.

And so..

• People at the sharp end need training so that they are competent in risk assessment principles
• And, they need safe work systems — which they have also been trained in – maintenance reporting for instances, so that if things change or problems arise – the appropriate action are reported and actions taken

Of course none of this will happen unless managers make sure that..

• There are proper risk assessments and everyone knows about them
• They provide appropriate training and information
• And, they have systems for detecting problems as they arise – and deal with them – otherwise there is no chance that accidents are work will be prevented.

So this is what we mean by workers being set-up – these are often not provided and without them they don’t stand a chance.  You can easily develop your risk assessment skills via the Human Focus E-learning system. We believe that knowledge is one of the best ways of keeping people safe at work – ignorance can literally kill.  Regardless of whether you are a manager or frontline operative these courses can help.

They are nationally recognised qualifications and are accredited by the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents.    They begin with basic risk assessment principles. You can then extend your knowledge via an extensive library of courses that cover risk assessment principles in a wide range of subject areas – such as fire, hazardous substances, work equipment, work at height and many more.

Finally, we would like to hear from you – tell us about any breaches of health and safety you have come across and the lessons you have learnt about how to prevent accidents at work in the comments box below.   Remember to leave a contact email.  We will mention all contributions in future presentations and with your permission highlight the best of them.

For more details, including joining instructions click here.

Errol Taylor (left) Managing Director of RoSPA presents Simon Shaw (right) of Skanska FS with Best Practice Recognition

Skanska Facilities Services have been recognised by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) as having made a significant contribution to setting best practice in the field of contractor health and safety management.   RoSPA said: “It is vital for contractors to be managed effectively by companies, and it can be a challenge for SMEs to manage them in their own right. Large firms need to lead the way in this field, and Skanska FS has been a shining example.”

This best practice has been achieved by working closely with Human Focus to implement the contractor management service called Competent Contractor.   Over the last 4 years this has involved:

• An enhanced contractor assessment process that extends to checking the competency of each individual worker. More than 1,100 contractor companies have undertaken this new assessment which has involved analysing the training records of more than 10,000 workers. Training gaps were identified and improvement action plans have been agreed. These contractors are now being supported in ongoing improvement work
• Providing RoSPA-accredited training to contractors via a web-based e-learning system. The Core Criteria e-Learning Kit (formerly the Growing Business Kit) was made available for a small fee to workers identified as having gaps in their health and safety training. The video-based training covers a wide range of contractor tasks such as working at height, hot works and confined space entry. These bite-sized online training programmes mean that employees receive training in the areas where it is most required, in the most cost-effective manner
• The introduction of smart card training passports which are used to log each worker in and out of more than 60 sites around the UK. The cards, which are embedded with an electronically-readable chip, are not issued until the worker has undertaken the relevant training. Cards are linked to an online program holding training records for each worker.

Simon Shaw, Skanska-Facilities health & safety manager said “we are delighted to receive this RoSPA best practice recognition.  This initiative is a key aspect of our contractor management system and is helping us to assess the competency of each contractor employee as well as providing our contractors with practical support”.  We also hope that it will help industry best practice in this area move forward”

1.    What training has an employee  received? This sounds obvious – but it’s often an administrative headache to simply collate and make sense of a wide range of safety certificates for each worker.  For many employers this is a major administrative burden.

2.     Is the training recognised / of a reasonable standard? There are literally tens of thousands of health and safety training courses provided by an unregulated market.  Quality standards vary significantly.

3.     Is the training current? Most course have an expiry date and will have to be repeated at anything between 1 and 5 years intervals – if you have lots of pieces of paper in a filing cabinet who is keeping an eye on when qualifications have expired

4.      What does the training cover? Even if the course is reputable – it is often difficult to judge it’s content and extent – for example there is a big difference between a course that last 1 hour as opposed to 3 weeks.

5.      What training do you need to provide? Even if all the certificates are available and it’s clear what the courses cover, employers must still judge if the training fits task in hand. Again – this is an administrative headache that is both costly and time-consuming

The new Human Focus safety training on line tool provides the following features – it:

1. Stores training records (from any source or provider) for each employee in a web-hosted application – all of your organisation’s training records can be stored securely in a single web account

2. Analyses these records to identify health & safety training gaps – it has built-in artificial intelligence so that it can analyse any recognised health and safety  training qualifications against the needs of a given job  - this is training needs analysis at the push of a button.

3. Administrates these records – for example, it flags when a training qualification  has expired, sends email prompts when training needs to be taken / re-taken

If you would like a free, no-obligation trial of the Human Focus system and this new health and safety training compliance tool just drop me a line at

Wayne Priestley had assured Quarnmill Construction that the removal of asbestos was within his capability.  However, once the job began Priestley employed workers who had not received suitable asbestos safety training and they were not appropriately managed.   During the court proceedings Priestley claimed  that he had not deliberately mislead Quarmill Construction.

This case highlights two important points:

1. Both the Principal and contractor have a shared health and safety responsibility for work undertaken on the Principal’s site – if something goes wrong the principal must be able to show what they did to manage effectively the contractor
2. When it comes to health and safety competency, as this case shows, it is risky to simply take the word of a contractor or look just at previous work undertaken.  The only way a principal can be sure that workers are competent is to check the training records of each individual involved.   Employers do this with their own people, and when it comes to health and safety, the same checks have to be extended to contractor employees because of the shared duty of care.