Inspiring Safety Award 2013 Winners

The standard of entries for the 2013 was astonishingly high. The judges picked out some of the most inspiring and effective safety work going on anywhere in the world. The 2013 winners are:

Most inspiring individual

Gary Piper, ESH Technician, Wrigley Company

Gary Piper receiving his award from Ken Woodward

When the HSE’s Estates Excellence Programme reached Plymouth, Gary spotted an excellent way for his company to support its local community. And he got involved with gusto.

The HSE programme encourages safety experts from large companies to help smaller organisations and commercial landlords. Gary lead a team which visits other businesses around Plymouth and helps them assess their health and safety. They look at COSHH, manual handling, fire and noise and suggest practical and cost-effective ways to improve.

Gary also provides free training where people are struggling and offers advice and procedures based on his health and safety experience.

Joy Jones of the HSE says of Gary: “Wrigley’s involvement gave huge credibility to the programme and his personal enthusiasm, commitment and confidence was inspirational.”

Recently, Gary extended the initiative, offering the same sort of help to the charities Wrigley works with.

Highly commended: most inspiring individual

Most inspiring team or organisation

GE Power and Water Irl, Whitegate Power Station

Timmy Cary of GE’s Whitegate power station receiving his award from Jennifer Deeney

Whitegate Power Station in County Cork, Ireland is all about the numbers. It has a zero injury rate over the last four years. That period includes the time 400 people were employed building it.

How they’re achieving this safety record is also down to numbers: 27 risk-reduction projects in 2012, another 42 by the summer of 2013. But the numbers tell the story of an extraordinary commitment by the people at the plant. There are weekly safety meetings where everyone is encouraged to get involved. Hazard hunts reward improvements in safety and trigger the risk-reduction projects. Above all, there is a commitment to ensure everyone goes home safe every day.

One risk-reduction project made sure vehicles were ready for winter. But it didn’t stop at company and contractor vehicles, it was also applied to employees’ own cars. This made site traffic safer but also reduces the chance of an accident when people are on their way to work.

The site is planning OHSAS18001 audits by the beginning of 2014.

Highly commended: most inspiring team or organisation

Most inspiring initiative or campaign

Crossrail Ltd (for Crossrail Gateway)

Hamza Shuaib from the Crossrail Gateway programme receiving the award from Jennifer Deeney

Crossrail Gateway is a scheme to evaluate the standards of contractors for leadership and behavioural safety. By measuring and recognising excellence, it helps them become (and remain) world class in health and safety.

Europe’s largest construction project, Crossrail will provide a 100km link between East and West London, including 42km of new tunnels. More than 10,000 people work across 40 sites. Work on the project peaks between now and 2015.

Ensuring consistently high safety standards across a network of contractors and partner companies is a major challenge and Gateway has been central to that. But it aims to do more than simply check safety standards. It creates a healthy competition among suppliers to maintain their zero injuries goal. It allows them to benchmark their performance against each other and share best practice.

This mixture of assessment, competition and reward is encouraging companies in the scheme to explore better ways to achieve safety and adopt innovative solutions.

Highly commended: most inspiring campaign or initiative