Philosophy
The directors of Canary Wharf Contractors Ltd (CWCL) are fully committed to the continuous improvement of our health and safety management systems, procedures and performance. CWCL subscribes to the belief that all accidents and incidents are preventable, and are working towards the aspirational target of zero accidents and incidents. To encourage good compliance with our health and safety standards and procedures and long term health and safety objectives, CWCL looks to form long-term relationships with our Trade Contractors and encourages a mutually beneficial partnership approach.
The directors of CWCL accept that high level demonstrable commitment is required to drive the company's health and safety performance forward. With this in mind, the Institute of Directors 'Leading Health and Safety at Work' guidance is used to benchmark the Directors’ commitment to health and safety performance and initiatives.
Implementation Strategy
CWCL have developed a safety management system (SMS) which is designed around the life cycle of a construction project. The SMS has four stages: pre-construction, procurement, active project and project close out. The SMS has been developed to meet the requirements of ISO 18001, and is audited twice-yearly by the British Standards Institution, and also internally, to ensure compliance. A comprehensive auditing regime of the SMS and our Trade Contractors' performances is key to our aim of continuous improvement.
CWCL has identified the provision of a high level of health and safety training as a key requirement in delivering our health and safety performance objectives. All our construction management personnel have attended the four-day Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) Managing Safely in Construction course. We have an in-house department of experienced health and safety professionals and CDM Coordinators who help drive and manage the SMS and health and safety related training and initiatives.
To reach the levels of health and safety performance we require over the coming years, we need to focus on positively engaging the workforce, encourage and reinforce safe behaviours whilst trying to amend unsafe behaviours. To help do this CWCL have developed an in-house Behavioural Safety Initiative (BSI) training scheme that will be delivered to all our Project Management teams. The aim of the scheme is to equip our managers with simple psychology based conversational tools that will help them to increase or amend behaviours when talking to members of the workforce. The fact that scheduled management / workforce engagement sessions will take place will in itself help improve our health and safety culture and perception of our health and safety related aims and objectives. Building effective relationships with both our Trade Contractors and the workforce is the key to our future health and safety success.
Awards
In 2011 we were awarded a Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Gold Award for Occupational Health and Safety, our fourth consecutive Gold award. A number of our projects were also awarded RoSPA and Considerate Constructors Scheme awards for their commitment to health and safety performance and issues.
Results
Year by year we see an improvement in our overall performance as our accident statistics data shows. Our 2011 Accident Incidence Rate (AIR) for over three day reportable injuries stood at 673 per 100,000 workers as opposed to the construction industry rate of 1,100 per 100,000 workers. Our aim is to substantially reduce our AIR over the coming years.