Where Next In The Revitalising Challenge?

Bill Callaghan, chair of the Health and Safety Commission, presented this keynote address at the Institute of Quarrying’s annual conference symposium on 8 October 2004

Five years and five days ago I took up the post as chair of the Health and Safety Commission, and since October 1999 I and my colleagues in the Health and Safety Executive have had much to do with the quarrying sector. With a fatal accident rate 12–15 times the national average in 1999 you can understand why. In this address I want to relate the work we have been doing with you to the national picture.

I remember very well a conference in Bristol to launch the Quarry Regulations very early in my term of office and visits to quarries in the South West. It has been an eventful five years.

In June 2000 the Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, and I launched the Revitalising Strategy. We challenged industry to set itself targets to improve the health and safety of this country.

The key targets we set were:

• reduce the number of  working days lost per 100,000 workers from work-related injury and ill health by 30% by 2010
• reduce the incidence rate of fatal and major injury accidents by 10% by 2010
• reduce the incidence rate of cases of work-related ill health by 20% by 2010.

We aimed to achieve half the improvements under each target by 2004. In July 2000 I was pleased to launch the quarrying industry’s Hard Target initiative, to cut accidents by 50% over five years. The industry rose to the challenge.

Overall, how well are we doing? We won’t know the full picture for 2004 until November 2005, but the information we have so far (up to 2003) shows that we have been on a plateau.

How well is the quarrying industry doing? In contrast to the national picture, each year you have been ahead of your target and by last year you had achieved a 38% accident reduction in three years. I hope that when the statistics for last year are released that they will show another major step towards your ultimate target.

All in all, it is a substantial record of achievement and I believe you have every reason to be proud of what you have achieved so far.

The success of the Hard Target is an example to other sectors of British industry and is being adopted as a model by the extractive industry in other countries. I know that you are now starting to think about the targets you will set yourself for 2005 and beyond.

Strategy

Earlier this year [2004] the Health and Safety Commission launched its strategy for 2010 and beyond. It stemmed from the Commission’s view that it had to do more to prioritise if it was to meet the Revitalising targets.

Some of the key themes stressed in the strategy were:

• First, working in partnership; this is absolutely vital if we are to address the challenge of     improving occupational health and rehabilitation.
• Secondly, making sure that both employers and employees see the benefits of sensible health     and safety; involving the workforce is crucial in this respect.
• Thirdly, concentrating our resources where they can be most effective.   
• Fourthly, communicating our work more effectively; we are about managing risks, not eliminating them.

These are recurring themes in the work of this industry and are important elements of your success so far.

As well as working together to prevent accidents and work-related ill health, it is also essential to work to assist those who are injured or suffer occupational ill health in returning back to health, and returning back to work. I was struck by the point made by Foster Yeoman, who found that once someone had been away from work for six weeks they were likely never to return. That is a tremendous price for the individuals and their families, for their employers and for the community as a whole.

I am very pleased that an increasing number of companies within the industry are taking up Foster Yeoman’s example, following their success in last year’s Quarry Products Association best-practice awards. I am sure that, like Foster Yeoman, you will also find that making rehabilitation a central part of your occupational health strategy makes good business sense.

But there is still more to be done. Ill health from exposure to dust, manual handling, vibration and noise remains a major issue for this industry. The latency periods are such that it can be many years before exposure affects individuals and by then it is often too late. I hope that in considering your targets for the future you will address not only accidents, but all forms of injury including work-related ill health.

I hope also that you will be making the maximum use of the Quarries National Joint Advisory Committee’s guidance on occupational health.

Partnership

In the Commission’s strategy we have emphasized the importance of partnership in reducing accidents and improving occupational health. The success of the quarrying industry is a good example of what can be achieved through working in partnership, whether the partnership is between the HSE and the industry, between firms through the Quarry Products Association and other trade bodies, partnership with professional associations and with education and training providers, or partnership with the trade unions and the TUC. The QNJAC itself is an example of partnership working, where many different stakeholders come together to find solutions to the industry’s health and safety challenges.

I could go on to mention how you are involving the community around you to promote better local relationships, and how you are working with suppliers to develop safer equipment, and with schools at primary, secondary and tertiary level.

Involving the workforce

The Commission also stresses the need to involve the workforce. As we say in our strategy: an organization’s greatest asset is its workforce. Employees are often best able to spot issues and bring about improvements. They can also influence health and safety through their own actions and by accepting personal responsibility.

In particular, I welcome and applaud the innovative partnership you have developed with the TUC and Open College network to promote the training of workplace safety representatives. This is a unique initiative and I hope that everyone who sits on a workplace safety committee will have the opportunity to take part in this or an equivalent course.

Last year I was happy to open the events for European Week of Health and Safety. These events are an excellent example of co-operation and working together.

A great deal has been achieved but I am sure you will not be surprised to hear me say that there are new challenges ahead. Perhaps the most fundamental challenge is to lay the basis for long-term self-sustaining improvement.

The key to this is ensuring that you have a skilled and involved workforce. A workforce which, from director level to the quarry floor, understands not just the risks involved in their work, but also how to manage those risks in a sensible way.

A partnership between the Institute of Quarrying, EPIC, the trade associations and the HSE has put in place a framework for competence assurance.

Competence assurance is jargon for an inventory of our skills and capabilities; a chance to remind ourselves of the things we have forgotten and a chance to identify any gaps. Identifying the things we didn’t know we didn’t know means that we have a chance to fill those gaps before they are exposed the hard way in an accident.

I know that those firms who have already adopted this framework and put it to work are seeing benefits to their businesses and in their accident records.

Competence and training

This will be testing for some. As an industry you have a lot of very experienced people:

• 46% of managers have more than 20 years’ experience
• 34% have between 11 and 20 years’ experience.

Experience and competence go hand in hand but there is no simple ‘equals sign’ between experience and competence.

Access to training and education will be fundamental and, like you, I am concerned about the fall in the provision of higher education. Within the last year course closures have reduced the number of student places by 80 percent.

At the same time there are welcome new initiatives including the new foundation degree established by EPIC, which will provide an excellent opportunity for quarry managers to combine work with supported distance learning, giving them knowledge that they can apply directly in the workplace.

These positive and negative developments underline the need for you as an industry to strengthen your links with the higher education sector.

Conclusion

As an industry you have come a long way in recent years. You had to improve. Some of the most fundamental challenges still lie ahead but your success so far suggests that you are more than capable of rising to those challenges. My hope is that you will do so, despite the many organizational changes that affect this industry.

The benefits of doing so, in both health and safety and financial terms, are immense. Health and safety is part of good business management, not an add on. A competent manager or worker will do the job right in the first place, the business will be more efficient and you as an industry will be more profitable.

Health and safety is not about following a simple rule book that tells you what you can and cannot do; it is about managing the genuine risks and doing things well. The companies who have embraced this are now reaping very real economic benefits.

This is where we want to be in 10 years’ time:

• The Revitalising targets have been met and a culture of continuous improvement is more widespread.
• The contribution of health and safety management to society is better understood.
• There is broad agreement about the economic and moral case for occupational health and     safety among the social partners and the public at large, and confidence in the regulators.
• Risk assessment and employee involvement and consultation are the norm and the regulators     are no longer the principal drivers for improvement.
• High-quality channels for business support and advice are well used and highly regarded.

I hope you share our vision.