So she wrote him a letter. I read this article with total dismay, she tells David Cameron. For me, the lack of understanding and the confusion between a safety culture and compensation culture is baffling.

Jen is the subject of a moving Lattitude film where she talks about her husband’s death and the effect it had on his colleagues and his family. So we wanted to support her efforts in pointing out that Mr Cameron has got things wrong.

The full text of Jen’s letter to David Cameron is shown below. You may consider letting people know about it. David Cameron gets a lot of publicity when he speaks. Other voices have more difficulty being heard.

So if you agree with Jen, consider what you can do to explain the good that a safety culture does. You may even want to write your own letter to the Prime Minister.

To David Cameron, 10 Downing Street, London.
Dear Mr. Cameron,

I am writing in reply to an article I read in the Independent Newspaper in January this year, titled, “David Cameron: I will kill off safety culture”

My name is Jennifer Deeney and I am 37 years old. I work in East London as a Matron of a busy Neonatal Unit within the NHS. On the 8th of May this year I will have been married 8 years. However, I have never celebrated a wedding anniversary, a Christmas or a birthday with my husband. I have not had the chance to have children.

My husband Kieron was a construction worker, a steel fixer, the best in London if he was writing this! He helped build an airport, schools, banks, hospitals and hotels all the things that are needed to keep a country living and developing. He didn’t go to Oxford, Cambridge or Eton. He didn’t go to University, he wasn’t afforded that privilege. But he loved his job and was proud of what he did and what he had managed to achieve.

Thirteen weeks and two days after we married, with plans to have a family, move back to Ireland and just the excitement of things to come, Kieron was killed in an accident at work. He fell over 30 feet and died in a lift shaft in Canary Wharf.  He was 25 years old.

I cannot begin to explain the utter devastation. Part of me died that day too. Hope and dreams were gone replaced with grief and solitude. And why… because someone took a shortcut, someone didn’t follow process because nobody thought about health and safety, it wasn’t their responsibility.

I didn’t want Kieron to become another one of the 50-70 people who are killed in   construction every year get forgotten. So I have chosen to stand up and make a difference. I am not doing this because I am angry and want retribution. I am not doing this because I want the limelight. I am doing this because somebody needs to care and somebody need to say enough is enough and show that you can change things and change them for the better. I am doing this because it may save a life.

I read this article with a tear in my eye and with total dismay. For me the lack of understanding and the confusion between a safety culture and compensation culture is baffling.

Safety culture is about teaching and empowering workers in all industries and services to look out for each other, to follow the processes that are there to protect them. For them to understand that they have the support of the executive management team and that they want everybody to go home safe. The “albatross“ is not that of the safety culture but the picture and memory of a man lying in a lift shaft dying because process wasn’t followed, because the short cut was taken or maybe something was just more important. That “albatross” never leaves.

Risk is everywhere, just walking out the front door is a risk, but I ask you Mr. Cameron to tell me of one accident that was not unavoidable?
Rules and regulations are there to protect us, keep us safe and if we choose to ignore them we must accept the consequence. If as you say health and safety is “common sense”, and I agree, then why do we need to protect companies from it? Surely, this should be the minimum we should expect?

From personal experience both on a personal level and as a Health and Safety Inspector with the HSE, I believe they do a great job. I think their skills are under utilised and this is because Government do not understand the hows and wherefores and have turned a service that should be proactive into a reactive service. Again, I challenge you to show me a company that has done everything “reasonably practicable” that has been punished.

I choose to stand up in front of industry and say you can change things. I choose to challenge. I choose to care. I choose to stop a child cry for his/her father, a mother cry for her son or a wife cry for her husband not because it’s the easy thing to do but because it’s the right thing to do. Because our Country, our Government our Queen tell us we have the right to family life and that is what we must cherish and protect.

In your words “Building our economy up to strength requires real pioneering, risk-taking spirit” and our construction industry has shown us the way. For the first time in history we have built an Olympics that has not taken a man’s life that has come in on budget and on time, something that we can stand up and say we are proud of. Is this not the way forward? Have we not just set the gold standard?

I’m proud of the industries that have embraced safety. I’m proud that they have taken their responsibilities above and beyond what is expected. I rest easy knowing that there will be one less Kieron somewhere. But, I’m disappointed that you don’t understand why it’s important. I’m disappointed that you don’t understand the power of your words. Nine months before Kieron died we attended the funeral of one of his colleagues, Kieron turned to me and promised that it would never happen to him, I suppose you think, Mr. Cameron, it will never happen to you.

Health and safety is not the “monster” Mr Cameron it is the thing that ensures you go home safe and sound each night to your family. It protects you, it protects your family it makes sure you get to say goodbye, goodnight and I love you. The “monster” took away my goodnights, my goodbyes, my I love ones and my dreams.

Our government’s job is to protect its people; “killing our safety culture” will kill our people.

I would kindly ask that you consider this letter and I would appreciate your reply.

Yours Sincerely

Jennifer Deeney

First prize went to: Giants of Leadership — the Nature of Safety, from Lattitude Productions.

It’s a ringing endorsement of Lattitude’s approach to safety training. We believe that, rather than telling people what’s good for them, it is better to inspire them to behave more safely. It seems like the jury at the World Congress on Safety and Health at Work agrees.

Excellent leadership skills are vital in organisations that aspire to a world-class safety culture. But it is hard to tell someone they are a poor leader. So Giants of Leadership takes a novel approach, moving away from the workplace and into the African savannah. There we find that elephants are, by nature, wonderful leaders, keeping those around them safe and healthy.

Viewers get to spend time watching spectacular footage of elephants — a refreshing change from many health and safety training sessions. In the process, they learn about the essential components of leadership:

• Respect
• Leading By Example
• Constant Communication
• Caring
• Consistency
• Learning From Mistakes

The World Congress on Safety and Health at Work is held every three years and, since 1990, has included a festival celebrating the best films on the subject. Giants of Leadership — the Nature of Safety was among those entries shortlisted to be shown to delegates at this year’s World Congress and was awarded first prize at the end of the event.

Find out more about the award-winning Giants of Leadership — the Nature of Safety and watch a preview of the film.

Find out more about the World Congress on Safety and Health at Work and its International Film and Multimedia Festival.

Or to talk through how Giants of Leadership — the Nature of Safety may be able to help your organisation, call us on +44 (0)1435 831500

Cost of bailing out Greece €109billion*

Cost of lost production because people cannot work owing to health or disability (EU annually): €3000billion**

But that is not the real story.

This is the real story of the cost of health and safety . . .

SHUTDOWN is a film about the financial and human costs of one accident at one factory. You can guess from the title how bad things get. But the real lesson is who pays. It’s not the insurance company. It’s the people who work at the factory and their families.

The business case for health and safety

The film is a graphic illustration of how expensive accidents in the workplace can be. Owners and investors lose dramatically. But so do the people who work there. It even affects other companies: suppliers and customers have to cope with the consequences too.

Find out more about SHUTDOWN and how it can help convince people of the costs of poor health and safety. There you can watch a preview of the film.

We would also be happy to send you a preview copy of the entire training package. You can request this through our website or give us a call on +44 (0)1435 831 500

* http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14245250

** http://osha.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/eu-osha_annual_report_2010_healthy_workforce_key_sustainable_economic_recovery

Previewing: Shutdown

• An inspiring real-life story
• A reminder of possible economic consequences

If you would like to preview the complete training package click on Request Full Preview (above right) and we will happily send one to you.

For a business, for its people, a single accident can be devastating

It’s a business that’s ticking along quite nicely, starting to make decent money and we’ve got a good working crew there, says Toby Hill. Suddenly, literally overnight, the place is gone.

Toby used to work in a company that employed 350 people and turned over £24 million. One day there was an accident. They had had similar accidents before. But this one resulted in a fire that burned the factory to the ground. And the company ceased to exist.

Poor health and safety has enormous costs. But in this film we see the devastating consequences from one man’s point of view.

The costs of an accident are not covered by big business or insurance companies. Mostly, it’s the people who pay. It’s lost wages. It’s lost jobs. It’s lives ruined.

This film makes the business case for good health and safety. But it also shows the human cost of getting things wrong. Here’s how it can help you:

• A vivid demonstration that accidents have consequences: economic and personal
• A convincing argument that good health and safety practices are crucial for good business
• An attitude changer: eliminate the false logic that because we’ve not had an accident yet, we won’t have one today
• Understand that insurance doesn’t cover the worst effects of an accident
• See how improving your approach to health and safety also improves business performance
• But that health and safety is also about job security and about people’s well-being

When an Aluminium factory wanted to imbue a safety culture that went beyond the workplace, it turned to a comic-strip hero.

Belgium has a long and prestigious association with cartoons. Herge’s boy detective Tintin is famous around the world, as are the squeaky-voiced Smurfs. But there are thousands of other characters that everyone knows locally. Comic books are part of the culture here.

Phew! That was close. A Safety Bob poster campaign encouraging people to report near misses.

Now there is a new comic-strip hero. Safety Bob. This cartoon character is the idea of Claudia Eickhoff, the HSE Coordinator at Hydro Aluminium Raeren in south-east Belgium.

“Safety is the most serious subject,” she explains, “but we wanted a way of getting the message across that was not, itself, too serious.”

And the approach is working because Hydro Aluminium Raeren has, at the time of writing, gone 230 days without an accident. It has one of the best safety records of any Hydro plants around the world.

“We have a vision that safety is not only something you do in the workplace”

Safety Bob was designed by Dirk Vandriessche of Talking Circles and he has used the character to create lapel badges and t-shirts. There are Safety Bob safety posters and a big Safety Bob cut-out in reception. It’s all a lot of fun. But every time people see Bob, they are reminded of the serious message: look out for yourself and for those around you.

The idea for Safety Bob came to Claudia while she was watching Lattitude’s training film All For One — The Meerkat Way. Meerkats are adept at looking out for one another. They stay safe because they naturally work as a team and we humans do well to learn from them. Safety Bob is a Meerkat, so he reminds people that safety is about co-operation.

But this story isn’t a plug for Lattitude’s films — that’s not why we wanted  to tell it. What is inspiring is how Claudia and the team at Hydro have used Safety Bob to create a safety culture with the widest possible impact.

“This cartoon meerkat is a symbol of safety,” says Claudia. “He is approachable and interesting. Why? Because we have a vision that safety is not only something you do in the workplace.”

Claudia admits that if someone has an accident at home, it affects their ability to work. But there is more to it than that. People are safest when thinking about safety becomes part of their whole lives. It shouldn’t be something they turn on and off at the factory gates.

“Now the children are pushing mum or dad to take care when they go to work”

One day, Hydro’s MD had an idea. He gave every employee a copy of the meerkats film for Christmas so they could show it to their families. Now when the children see a Safety Bob t-shirt or lapel pin they understand what it means.

Larger than life Safety Bob (made in the plant from aluminium) welcomes people at the factory’s reception and proudly displays its safety record.

“Now the whole family has a safe way of thinking,” says Claudia. “And the children are pushing mum or dad to take care when they go to work.”

Claudia knows the message is getting through at home. In a recent art competition for employees’ children at Hydro, there were several meerkat pictures.

And Safety Bob is helping the adults at work too. Each month there is a new safety theme and a poster to go with it. And because the posters are fun, people actually stop and read them.

In a recent employee safety questionnaire, responses on communication, learning and trust achieved close to a perfect score. It turns out that Safety Bob is doing a pretty good job.

The cartoon meerkat has made safety interesting and fun. That has spread the idea of a safety culture (where we all look out for one another) from the factory and out into the wider community. Thanks to Safety Bob, the comic-loving Belgians are thinking about safety at work with their colleagues, at home with their families, and everywhere in between.

Hydro is a Norwegian aluminium company which employs 23,000 people in more than 40 countries. Hydro Aluminium Raeren in Belgium make extrusions for vehicles, shop fronts, light fittings, concert stages, window frames, greenhouses, and all sorts of other things. www.hydro.com/en/subsites/raeren/

Talking Circles which created the Safety Bob illustration is based in Eupen, Belgium: www.talking-circles.eu

This story is part of Lattitude’s Inspiring Safety Campaign.

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Trumpeting Success Brings Everyone On Board

The Day I almost Killed Colin Morgan

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Presented By Ken Woodward

Ken Woodward lost his sight in a chemical explosion. It’s the kind of catastrophe from which most never recover. But Ken resolved that some good should come from the disaster that afflicted him.  Put simply, he has become the world’s best motivational safety speaker – determined that we should all learn from his accident so that it may not have been in vain.

His goal is to inspire us to do better.

In that same spirit, we are starting the search for individuals and organisations who inspire the ultimate in safety performance. We are looking for those who motivate, who lead by example, whose efforts are central in creating a culture of safety excellence. We are looking for people whose ideas and imagination have taken them far beyond the tick-box approach to health and safety.

In 2012, for the first time, the Inspiring Safety Awards will recognise the highest achievements in behavioural safety.  They will acknowledge and celebrate the efforts of those pushing the boundaries. They will represent the future of health and safety.

And Ken will be there to present the awards.

We are announcing the awards at the 2011 SHE Show and we will be asking for nominations towards the end of 2011. Ken will present the awards at the 2012 SHE Show.

We will be making awards to Inspirational Champions and those Highly Commended in three categories:

Most Inspiring Individual: awarded to an individual at any level within their organisation in recognition that they have:

• Inspired safety.

• Inspired a safety culture in which everyone looks out for one another.
• Inspired change which has prevented accidents and may have saved lives.

Most Inspiring Team or Organisation: awarded to a group in recognition that they have:

• Created an imaginative and effective approach to safety excellence.

• Inspired an interdependent safety culture within their organisation where people look out for one another.

• Inspired demonstrable change which has reduced accident rates and may have saved lives.

Most Inspiring Campaign or Initiative: awarded to a person, group or organisation in recognition of a programme which has:

• Inspired safer behaviour.

• Motivated people towards world-class safety performance.

• Inspired a more effective safety culture.

Judging panel

We will be announcing a world-class judging panel made up of safety experts, academics and industry specialists.

Nominations

We will be asking for nominations at the end of 2011.  If you wish to receive our call for nominations, please contact us.

Communication, communication, communication and communication. These are the top four on Adrienne McKenzie’s list of priorities. And the SailSafe project manager at BC Ferries in Vancouver uses everything from workshops to a special intranet site to get the safety message across.

Working safely again: Francesca Sawyer standing by the doors that she ensured operate correctly

But it is important to Adrienne that the message is a positive one. In too many organisations, health and safety has a negative connotation. Yet safety works best if everyone is involved and everyone feels good about doing it. So at BC Ferries they make a big fuss of the things they get right.

“It’s clear,” she says, “that everything we’ve accomplished so far has been a direct result of the commitment and involvement of all employees.”

SailSafe is a sophisticated programme designed to ensure passengers and employees of the ferry company stay safe. Getting everyone thinking and talking about safety is part of that. Among other initiatives, a system of alerts allows people to easily report concerns knowing that colleagues will take speedy action.

This has resulted in some big changes over the last few years, including better systems and improved reporting. But it is just as important for Adrienne that BC Ferries people celebrate the actions of individuals.

“A deckhand noticed how slippery and awkward it was to get into the ship’s rescue boats – he suggested a change“

Francesca Sawyer, for example, works as a ticket agent for foot passengers in the Tsawwassen ferry terminal. She noticed that the automatic doors leading to the waiting area closed while people were still passing through. She was worried that a child or an elderly person might be trapped.

Francesca used the alert system to ask for an immediate check of the door sensor. In two shakes, a repair man was there. He adjusted the sensor and the risk of a passenger being hurt was removed.

A deckhand on the Skeena Queen also submitted an alert when he noticed how slippery and awkward it was to get into the ship’s rescue boats. He suggested a stepping stool chained to nearby railings.

The very next day, a senior officer was out looking at the problem. He decided there wasn’t room for a  stool, and that it might be a hazard in itself. Instead, he suggested converting a section of the railings around the rescue boat into steps. Between the two of them, they have reduced the chances of a sailor slipping and being hurt around a critical piece of equipment.

“BC Ferries has 23 different ways of communicating about safety – that’s how seriously they take it“

But communication works both ways. By publicising these alerts and other safety successes, BC Ferries fosters a culture where people feel good about getting involved. When they read about others being celebrated for spotting hazards and preventing accidents, it helps them understand where safety problems may lie in their own working environment.  They see what they can do about them and, importantly, they feel happy to engage.

BC Ferries has 23 different ways of communicating about safety – that’s how seriously they take it. Bulletins, regular town hall meetings, newsletters, special noticeboards, websites – you name it, they’ve thought of it.  One of these is the Communicating the Wins Bulletin – dedicated to trumpeting the company’s thousands of safety success stories.

BC Ferries carries people and goods on 25 routes along the coast of British Columbia in Canada.  It began in 1960 as a two vessel, two terminal operation and has grown into one of the largest, most sophisticated ferry transportation systems in the world, with 36 vessels and 47 ports of call. http://www.bcferries.com/

This story is part of Lattitude’s Inspiring Safety Campaign.

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Previewing: Mindful Leadership – Communication Skills

• Suitable for all manager levels
• Featuring Prof Hopkins

If you would like to preview the complete training package click on Request Full Preview (above right) and we will happily send one to you.

Professor Andrew Hopkins focuses specifically on the communication skills of safety leaders.

Mindful Leaders are acutely aware that the best of systems can fail, even though auditors might be reassuring them that all is well. They know that they need to go and undertake non-systematic auditing of their own. In order to do so, Mindful Leaders need to be able to communicate effectively with workers.

This program provides guidelines on face-to-face communication with workers on site, and is suitable for supervisors and managers at all levels.

The training package includes the main 16-minute programme on DVD and extensive support and training notes on an accompanying CD-Rom.

Recommended Prior Viewing

‘Mindful Leadership – With References to BP Texas City’

Previewing: Mindful Leadership – With References To BP Texas City

• Suitable for all manager levels
• Featuring Prof Hopkins

If you would like to preview the complete training package click on Request Full Preview (above right) and we will happily send one to you.

Professor Andrew Hopkins identifies the key aspects of ‘Mindful Leadership’ and illustrates how lapses in leadership contributed to the BP Texas City disaster.

Leadership is important because it is the leaders of an organisation who determine its culture. This package is suitable for all management levels, and illustrates how the participation, competency, training, behaviour and attitudes of individual workers contribute to developing the safety culture of an organisation.

The training package includes the main 24-minute programme on DVD and extensive support and training notes on an accompanying CD-Rom.

Recommended Follow-Up Viewing

‘Mindful Leadership – Communication Skills’