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Health and Safety Best Practice Exchange - 5 September 2006 at the adi Centre
Stockport
On Tuesday 5 September 2006, 100 British Safety Council clients arrived at the adidas site in Stockport for the second of the British Safety Council's Health and Safety Best Practice Exchange events.
The adi-centre hosted a huge variety of discussion groups, workshops, presentations and meetings on the day, to the great satisfaction of attendees. The day began with an informative introduction from David Ashton, Director of Operations for the North West at the HSE, who officially supported the event. Delegates then got stuck into discussion topics ranging from 'Integrating Risk and Safety Management' to 'Occupational Road Risk' and 'Helping Staff Minimise and Deal with Stress'. 84% of delegates rated this unusual form of information sharing as being good - excellent.
The range of workshops available to delegates included 'How to Cope with the New Working at Heights Regulations', 'Controlling Noise in the Workplace' and 'Requirements of the New Fire Regulations' and there were presentations on 'Corporate Killing and Directors Responsibilities', 'Safety Network Online 2006' and 'Corporate Wellness at adidas'. BSC members were also able to find out more about the membership benefits available to them, about 'Third Party Auditing and Associated Insurance Savings' and about 'The Suit of Nationally Recognised Qualifications from BSC Awards' if they wished. One attendee commented that "There is nothing which I did not feel of benefit. The ability to mix and match the presentations was new to me and an excellent idea to ensure small group participation". In addition, many delegates commented that they found the most useful aspects of the event to be "opportunity for discussion and debate" and "networking on the subject of health and well being".
Special additions to the programme for the day also included the opportunity to attend taster sessions for the new suit of BSC Level 2 Risk Assessment qualifications and the opportunity for delegates to undergo some essential wellness tests for themselves, such as having their blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked.
Finally, the day concluded with an expert panel discussing 'Building a
Sustainable Health, Safety and Wellness Culture' with input from experts
David Ballard, Chief Executive of the BSC, Dr Dorian Dugmore, Director of
Wellness International, Phil Turnball, European Safety Manager at Innospec
Speciality Chemicals, and David Ashton, Director of Operations - North West
Division at the HSE. Panellists were challenged with questions including
the likely staff reaction to wellness initiatives, how to encourage communication
and tools and techniques for measuring safety culture. After the event,
David Ashton commented that "I found the event a valuable opportunity
to discuss current health and safety priorities and I really liked the format
allowing me to choose sessions of most importance for me. These were very
practical".
David Ballard, Chief Executive of the BSC, says of the event "It is fantastic to see health and safety professionals getting together to learn from one another and share their experiences. I believe this to be a valuable method of progression in health and safety because it is so beneficial for the people who are working in the field on a daily basis to get together to share ideas and generate enthusiasm".
On the whole, a very beneficial day for all delegates, with 71% of attendees saying that they would recommend the day to a colleague and a fantastic 93% saying they will attend another Best Practice Exchange within 12 months.