Getting safety on Board Agendas

Version 1

2011

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Health & Safety for senior personnel

• Basic premise:• If you don’t lead - they won’t follow

• Health & Safety, like all other business issues, requires effective leadership for it to work effectively in a business setting

• Even the Institute of Directors (IoD) are involved- it’s about being able to demonstrate leadership

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The legal stuff

• HASAWA • Responsibilities - starts at the top and devolves

down• CEO (or equivalent) is ultimately accountable• Board have responsibilities to report to CEo• Senior managers are accountable to report upwards

scary stuff

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Recent joint IoD/HSC guidance for Directors also underlines the new ‘public domain’ nature of Board-level involvement expectations

(we’ll come back to this later)

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Moving goalposts

Safety as a part of Business Risk Management

Changes to safety law

Corporate Manslaughter & The Health and

Safety (Offences) Act

Changes to safety

best-practice

(Enforcement, Litigation,Settlement of Claims)

Importance of Core Values as key driver

of ‘Behavioural’ Safety

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Corporate manslaughter

• Note, particularly, the emphasis on the role of ‘senior managers’

• High levels of projected fines (2.5%-10% of turnover?)

• The availability of ‘the publicity sanction’

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Corporate manslaughter and you

• Accountability will be an important factor:• Will need to offer evidence of what “good” looks like• Provides a framework to challenge behaviour

• It is about:• Avoidance• An effective system

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Where do we want to be?

Legally Compliant(happy with the least we have to do)?

World Class?

Best in the Sector?

Average in Sector?

Happy to act illegally if we can get away with it?

Happy to be the poor relation in the Sector?P

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Time

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Relaxing too early

Improvement phase

Time

Pe

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ceSuccess!

Top Quartile! Maintenance!

Deterioration!

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Going too far

Improvement phase

Time

Pe

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Success!Maintenance!

Deterioration!

Success!Top Quartile!

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‘Safety is the number 1 priority!’

• But often, it’s not! And often (although it’s seen by some almost as a heresy to say so) it shouldn’t be

• Safety has it’s place - it has to earn that place

• When should safety be number 1?• Corporate risk management provides for prioritisation

across the whole range of business risks so that we understand when and how far to act

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Overcoming ‘silo’ thinkingC

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The ‘Toolkit’ for Effective Safety Leadership

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Core values

• Core values provide the moral, ethical and business basis for all aspects of management

• The primary management driver has to be an agreed set of core values (exactly as we do about everything that we are or set out to be as a company)

• The Board (and all managers) have to buy-in to and be seen to be guided by the values (for safety) - or nobody else will be

• Are these as sufficiently explicit?

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Core values - the Fire Service

• We may risk our lives a lot, in a highly calculated manner, to protect saveable lives

• We may risk our lives a little, in a highly controlled manner, to protect saveable property

• We will not risk our lives at all for lives or property that are already lost Source: Home Office Guidanc

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Actions

• Revisit core values

• Check they define and drive what you expect

• Live them yourselves!

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Understanding the implications of the legal framework

• Undertake a “suitable and sufficient” assessment of risk

• Record “significant” findings• Reduce risk so far as is “reasonably practicable”• Overall, ensure the health, safety and welfare of all

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Actions

• Process for assessing and recording significant risk

• Ensure that actions are proportionate and appropriate to the risk

• Maintain an audit trail to show what you have done, are doing and plan to do

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Safety management systems

Plan Do

CheckReview

Help managers to understand their responsibilities AND what they have to DO to deliver their accountabilities

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Actions

• Are accountabilities for H&S clear and unequivocal at Senior Management and all other levels?

• Is the Health and Safety Management System functioning as desired?

• Is the capital spend for H&S demonstrably well-targeted and audited?

• Are we appropriately benchmarked (e.g. to 18001)• Are we appropriately up to speed with developments

in H&S?

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What is risk management?

• Assess risk - suitable and sufficient, significant• Reduce risk - reasonable practicability• Monitor risk - process and audit

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Risk ManagementRisk Assessment

Risk Management Risk Management

Risk Management

A risk management process

Risk ManagementRisk Assessment

Risk ManagementRisk Assessment

Risk ManagementRisk Assessment

Reliable

Comparable

Valid

Audit

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The ‘Top X’ Principle

Risk ManagementTop ‘X’

Risk ManagementTop ‘X’

Risk ManagementTop ‘X’

Risk ManagementRisk Analysis

Top ‘X’

Risk ManagementRisk Analysis

Top ‘X’

Risk ManagementRisk Analysis

Top ‘X’

Risk ManagementRisk Analysis

Top ‘X’

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Top X principle

• What are your Top X (e.g. 3) risks?

• Assure me that they are the most significant risks

• Demonstrate that you have a process for identifying & quantifying risk

• Show me you have an action plan

• Show me that the plan has changed for the better

• Show me the behaviour of the organisation, the manager or the individual is improving over time

• Show me that you have a new Top X list

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Actions

• Local tailoring of generic assessments provided from the centre

• Risk registers, reflecting local significant ‘Top X’ risks• Maintain and audit risk registers• Use them as a business tool• Know what matters and seek ‘controls assurance’

that the right things are being managed by the right people in an appropriately proportional and timely way

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Risk control

• Risk control• Risk avoidance?• Risk reduction?• Risk transfer?• Risk tolerability?

• Residual risk? • Reasonable practicability

• ‘Risk v cost’ judgements supported• Act in a manner appropriate to the level, spread and

trend of risk faced

‘As low as is reasonably practicable’

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Actions

• Can we evidence risk controls?• Do the controls relate to risk assessments?• Are we satisfied that ‘reasonable practicability’ has

been applied?• Do we understand and can we evidence ‘residual

risk’?

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Working safely

• Most personnel never need to know about risk assessments. They need to know what the assessment reveals and how to spot and act on anything we’ve missed

• They need to understand:• Why to work safely• How to work safely• When to work safely• How H&S is consider when doing the job

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Actions

• Understand (often this means ‘being trained in’) the actions that drop out of the risk assessments

• Ensure the capability to account for local conditions at each work location by being able to tailor risk assessments

• Understand how to act when ‘new’ risk circumstances occur; and to learn from experience if incidents/accidents DO occur

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Competence

• Any safety system relies on competent people

• At all levels of the organisation, we need the assurance that all of our people have the skills, knowledge, ability, and experience to discharge their roles safely

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Actions

• Define competencies for job roles/functions

• Establish a systems of delivering and maintaining competence

• Audit and review competency needs

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Reactive safety

• So far we’ve only considered ‘pro-active’ risk evaluation, but what about learning from experience?• Need for effective reporting• Need for effective investigation• Ensuring statutory reporting of injuries

• What really caused them?

• Prevent recurrence by understanding the Root Causes

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Actions

• Do we have competent people involved in accident investigation?

• Are ‘root causes’ being identified?

• Are we learning from our accidents?

• Are risk assessments being updated appropriately?

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Risk monitoring

• Appropriate to the level of residual risk

• Making sure the planned risk controls are actually effective in the real world

• Looking to see if risks change significantly over time or if new risks arise

• DON’T just do reactive monitoring• BP were heavily criticised for this - ‘…the managers

gave undue importance to acting only on that which they were measuring’

• For the Board, ensure move to ‘lead’ indicators - become forward looking

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Actions

• Do we have appropriate monitoring?

• Are we sure that our documentation is up-to-date?

• Can we demonstrate that monitoring occurs and is effective?

Safety leadership

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So let’s look at the 10 key questions about effective H&S leadership

Be as honest as you can. Rate whether you’re red (worried); amber (not sure); or green (happy) about each issue

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Questions

1. How well do you demonstrate - explicitly - our commitment to H&S (as covered in the HSMS)?

2. Are you effective in ensuring appropriate review of H&S matters?

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Questions

3. Have you done enough to ensure that you receive competent H&S advice, at all levels?

4. Do you ensure that all staff are sufficiently trained and competent in their H&S responsibilities?

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Questions

5. How confident are you that your workforce, particularly safety representatives, are consulted properly on H&S matters and that their concerns are reaching the appropriate level?

6. Are there systems in place to ensure that the organisation’s H&S risks have been properly assessed and that sensible control measures are established and maintained?

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Questions

7. DO you know what’s happening on the ground with H&S? • Are audits undertaken to inform you about what your

organisation or contractors really do? Do you act on them?

8. Do you regularly receive information about H&S performance as well as reports on injuries and work-related ill-health?

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Questions

9. Have targets been set to improve H&S performance and do you benchmark against others in your sector or beyond?

10. Are changes in work arrangements that may have significant implications for H&S being brought to your attention?

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Where do we go from here?

It all depends how you scored:

• If you’re mainly green - we’re doing well (but check that you’re not kidding yourselves)• There’s always room for improvement

• If it’s ‘some ambers’ - we’re well on the way• The plan is now obvious

• If it’s ‘some reds’ - there’s lots to do• The plan is both obvious and urgent!

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Contact details

Human Applications

The Elms

Elms Grove

Loughborough

Leics

LE11 1RG

UKe-mail: enquiries@humanapps.co.uk

website: www.humanapps.co.uk