Safety and Health Review

Transcription

1 Safety and Health Review Year ended 31 March 2015

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3 Contents Page 1 Executive Summary Progress against our planned initiatives Active Leadership Role Based Risk Assessments Getting the Basics Right Team Leader Safety Toolkit Site Co-ordinators Accident and Incident Reporting System Team Engagement Monthly safety briefs Hazard Reporting Our Performance /15 Performance Data Review of performance 2014/ Injury data Vehicle Accidents Near misses and safety hazards Analysis of accidents causing injury Our Zero Harm Strategy Vision and Commitment Safety and Health Governance and Delivery Safety Improvement Plan...15 Safety and Health Review 2014/15 Page 3 of 16

4 Figures Page Figure 1: 2014/15 performance... 6 Figure 2: Accident and ill health data 2014/ Figure 3: Lost Time Injuries per year Figure 4: Our 2014/15 Zero Harm KPIs Figure 5: Total injury accidents 2011/12 to 2014/ Figure 6: Accidents by type 2011/12 to 2014/ Figure 7: Organisation for health and safety within Affinity Water Figure 8: Safety Performance Indicators Safety and Health Review 2014/15 Page 4 of 16

5 1 Executive Summary Affinity Water is committed to achieving zero harm. We are passionate about making sure that everyone gets home safely, and returns fit for work, every day. During 2014/15, we ve delivered a number of improvements to our safety and health management system which include: The roll out of our new unified accident and incident reporting system The delivery of our safety and health toolkit for team leaders The implementation of role based risk assessments Improvements to site standards at our manned sites. Our commitment to zero harm is an absolute priority for our business and something on which we will not compromise. Despite the system improvements we have not seen the improvement we want to see in key performance measures in relation to safety and health. So, we have undertaken a comprehensive review of our safety and health strategy and launched a Safety Improvement Plan to promote active leadership and stronger engagement of every individual in our business. We have updated our Safety and Health policy and engaged with the leadership team within Affinity Water. The plan includes a scorecard that has both lead and lag indicators so that we can monitor our performance on safety and health more closely. What we realised from the review of our safety and health strategy was that we needed to focus key improvements on fewer activities and make sure our people understood what we expect to see in terms of performance outcomes. These improvements are supported by six key safe behaviours that we expect all line managers to prioritise with their teams so that we can achieve a change in culture. The plan has been approved by the Board of Affinity Water and is owned by the Zero Harm Steering Group, a subgroup of the Executive Management Team. Safety and Health Review 2014/15 Page 5 of 16

6 2 Progress against our planned initiatives During the year, we delivered a number of improvements in order to enhance the safety and health of our teams. The table below gives a brief overview of our performance in 2014/15. Highlights of 2014/15 Lowlights of 2014/15 Role based risk assessments launched across the business Roll out of team leader safety and health toolkit Site information boards installed at our 22 manned sites Unified accident and incident reporting system implemented Monthly safety briefs initiated across the business. Increase in the number of lost time injuries Low level of reported safety hazards within the business. Figure 1: 2014/15 performance 2.1 Active Leadership Role Based Risk Assessments We rolled out a new risk assessment process during the year. Teams are now required to risk assess each specific job role, as opposed to previously where risk assessment had been task based. This makes a difference because each individual now has to think about the hazards and risks they face specifically in their roles and how those risks and hazards can be controlled. The role based assessments have been embraced across much of the business, although there is not yet 100% coverage. 2.2 Getting the Basics Right Team Leader Safety Toolkit In 2014/15, we started to deliver a new safety and health toolkit for all team leaders across Affinity Water. The aim of the toolkit is to help ensure our team leaders remain aware of the safety and health requirements of their role, and the range of tools available to help them. The package provides Safety and Health Review 2014/15 Page 6 of 16

7 team leaders with worked examples and explanations of their responsibilities for health and safety, as set out in our policy. It highlights the responsibilities and what we expect of our colleagues and it provides an insight into effective use of the safety management system. The toolkit not only enhances current ability and knowledge but also helps improve personal safety leadership skills. By April 2016, all of our line managers will have completed the first four modules of the toolkit Site Co-ordinators Our Site Co-ordinator role was initiated last year. The Site Co-ordinators for our 22 manned sites have embraced their role and are ensuring that positive changes are taking place on their sites. A new forum has been set up for site co-ordinators to share ideas and understand the issues on other sites so that common, consistent standards can be met across our sites. The forums have been well attended and have seen good practices being shared and common issues discussed and resolved. Each of our manned sites now also has a site information board. The boards are identical for each site and contain the same site relevant information in the same places, such as first aiders and fire marshals, site plans and the safety and health policy. This ensures that we are sharing consistent information for sites across Affinity Water Accident and Incident Reporting System We have now rolled out our unified accident and incident reporting system, RIVO Safeguard, across the business. We identified that our health and safety information was being stored in a number of different systems. RIVO has enabled us to capture all of the data in one place. We use the system to record injuries and ill health, near misses and dangerous occurrences, safety hazards and observations, utility strikes and environmental incidents. Actions arising from incidents and safety inspections are also recorded and tracked using the new system. The system is helping us to improve the way we manage and report our incident data. This means we can now use this data more effectively to identify trends, establish common root causes and drive improvements in our safety performance. 2.3 Team Engagement Monthly safety briefs We are now issuing monthly safety briefings to our managers. These communications focus on a different safety theme or themes to ensure that regular safety conversations are taking place. The safety briefings are designed to prompt conversation amongst teams and we encourage feedback so that we can share best practice and learn lessons when things haven t gone well Hazard Reporting Hazard reporting and close out is a recognised measured of proactive safety, and links have been shown between volume of hazards reported and reduced injury rates. The current volume of reported hazards is very low compared to other similar companies. This can be partly Safety and Health Review 2014/15 Page 7 of 16

8 attributable to the transition period to a single system for incident and accident reporting (RIVO) and the switch off of local team based systems. The inclusion of hazard reporting as one of our key safe behaviours means we expect to see a significant increase in reported hazards in future, and lessons can be learnt from these. We are simplifying our hazard reporting mechanisms to aid this increase. Safety and Health Review 2014/15 Page 8 of 16

9 3 Our Performance /15 Performance Data The table below shows our accident and ill health data for the year 2014/15 and includes 2013/14 for comparison. Description Unit RIDDORS Number of specified reportable injuries Nr 0 1 Number of reportable injuries with more than 7 days incapacitation Nr 8 5 Injuries to non-workers transported from the scene to hospital Nr 0 0 Number of reportable disease incidents Nr 0 0 Number of reportable dangerous occurrences Nr 0 1 Total number of RIDDOR incidents Nr 8 7 Accidents Accidents resulting in more than 3 days incapacitation (including RIDDOR injuries) Nr Accidents resulting in incapacitation of 3 days or less Nr 10 5 Accidents resulting in no incapacitation Nr Total number of accidents resulting in injury Nr Occupational ill health Number of incidents of occupational ill health (including RIDDOR diseases) Nr Working days lost Working days lost due to sickness Nr 5,058 3,283 Working days lost due to injuries (excluding weekends, bank holidays) Nr Working days lost due to occupational ill health Nr Total working days lost Nr 5,895 3,597 Total days lost Total days incapacitation due to accidents (including weekends, bank holidays) Nr Employees Employee total (FTE's at 31 March) Nr 1,102 1,098 Figure 2: Accident and Ill health data 2014/ Review of performance 2014/15 At Affinity Water, we believe that even one injury is one too many, and that every employee should get home safely at the end of every day. During the year, 98% of our colleagues got home safely every day and for 344 out of the 365 days last year, every one of our colleagues got home safely. Safety and Health Review 2014/15 Page 9 of 16

10 But we must do better. Twenty two colleagues were injured seriously enough in the year to keep them off work the next day. The most common causes of injury to our people were again manual handling incidents and slip, trips and falls and so we are focusing our efforts to make sure that every individual in our business understands how they can keep themselves and their colleagues safe every day Injury data Our safety performance indicators for 2014/15 give a mixed picture, with lost time injuries higher than the previous year, but the overall number of injuries lower. Despite the increase in lost time injuries (2014/15 = 22, 2013/14 = 18) the number has largely plateaued over the last few years, at an average of around 20 per year as demonstrated in figure 3 below. This clearly shows that we still have a significant challenge to address to get near to zero harm. Figure 3: Lost Time Injuries per year The number of injuries notifiable to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) over the same period also showed a slight increase (2014/15 = 8, 2013/14 = 6). The HSE requires notification of any work-related injury that causes greater than seven day incapacitation or certain specified injuries such as fractures or serious burns. All of the eight injuries we notified to the HSE during the year were greater than seven day injuries. The HSE did not carry out any investigations of our work during the report year. As part of our improvement programme we have introduced stretching end of year goals on our scorecard as shown in figure 4 below. The yellow rings highlight the targets that we met, and reflect our performance against the four reactive Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The red rings show where we fell short against targets and this shows that we are not performing against our proactive measures. Safety and Health Review 2014/15 Page 10 of 16

11 Our focus will be to ensure continued progress against these stretching targets so that we can achieve our zero harm goal. Figure 4: Our 2014/15 Zero Harm KPIs Vehicle Accidents In line with HSE reporting, we do not include vehicle accidents on public roads in our injury data. In 2014/15, there were 172 vehicle incidents reported involving company vehicles. One of these led to a lost time injury, and two others caused minor injuries with no lost time. 98 of these incidents were reported as being caused by third parties and a large number of these relate to damage to the company vehicle whilst it was parked. We continue to provide information to our teams about safe driving practices and vehicle checks. All drivers of company vehicles are required to carry out an on-line driver assessment and those involved in repeat traffic collisions will have in car driver assessments Near misses and safety hazards We review the near misses that are reported to us and if they are significant they are included in our monthly reporting. There were 27 significant near misses reported in the year. Each of these is investigated and the root cause established. There was not a specific type of near miss, but there were several examples of repeat incidents including: Poor/inappropriate electrical wiring Lack of trench support Unauthorised vehicles on the public highway Heavy mobile plant on sites causing issues. Safety and Health Review 2014/15 Page 11 of 16

12 RIVO has improved the monitoring of safety hazards and observations. There was a steady increase over the year, but reporting is still very low on the whole. We have therefore prioritised hazard reporting as one of our key safe behaviours and we expect to see a significant increase in reported hazards in future. 3.3 Analysis of accidents causing injury The number of accidents causing injuries to our people was lower compared to the previous year, but as with other indicators this number has largely plateaued over time. As with last year, we have continued to see a number of very minor injuries reported which indicates an open reporting culture. We continue to learn from these events and take action to prevent more serious harm occurring. Figure 5: Total injury accidents 2011/12 to 2014/15 We examine the types of accident causing injuries to identify any changing trends and where specific interventions or focus are needed. Figure 6 below shows the analysis of accident types causing injury within the business over the last four years. Figure 6: Accidents by type 2011/12 to 2014/15 Lifting and handling and slips, trips and falls on the same level remain the highest causes of injury within Affinity Water. HSE data shows this is consistent with other industries. However, Safety and Health Review 2014/15 Page 12 of 16

13 these caused all eight reported RIDDOR injuries and 20 of the 22 lost time injuries during 2014/15. We have taken action to address these issues in our safety improvement plan. During the year it was also noticeable that more than a third of accidents were caused by people being struck by objects, or striking against objects. These types of bumps and scrapes lead to injuries such as cuts and bruises. Implementing the key safe behaviours in our safety improvement plan should also help to reduce these types of injuries. Safety and Health Review 2014/15 Page 13 of 16

14 4 Our Zero Harm Strategy 4.1 Vision and Commitment We have not seen the performance improvements we want to see. As a result, we have reviewed our strategy and refreshed our vision and commitment towards safety and health. This is reflected in our new safety and health policy which has been communicated across the business. Our zero harm vision: Affinity Water is committed to achieving zero harm. This means everyone gets home safely, and returns fit for work, every day. Safety and health are at the heart of our business. We never ask anyone to compromise safety in the name of Affinity Water and when things aren t right, we will stop and make it safe. To deliver our commitment, we will work together to continuously improve our working environments, our systems and our culture. 4.2 Safety and Health Governance and Delivery Our safety improvement plan, detailed in section 4.3 below, has been approved by the Board of Affinity Water and is owned by the Zero Harm Steering Group, which is a subgroup of the Executive Management Team. Figure 7 shows how safety and health is organised within Affinity Water. Figure 7: Organisation for health and safety within Affinity Water Safety and Health Review 2014/15 Page 14 of 16

15 There are two other groups mentioned in figure 7, whose responsibilities are not detailed. The Joint Negotiation and Consultation Committee (JNCC) is the method for formal consultation on health and safety matters with our recognised trade unions. A sub-committee of the JNCC meets each month to ensure any issues, including health and safety, can be addressed in a timely matter. The Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ) Team provide competent safety and health advice and guidance to the Board, the Executive Management Team, managers and teams. They also monitor and report on safety and health performance, develop and lead safety improvement initiatives and provide assurance through a risk-based programme of inspection and audits. 4.3 Safety Improvement Plan As a result of our strategy review we have developed a safety improvement plan. principles of the plan are based on HSE guidance and include the following elements: The Demonstrating active leadership by all Getting the basics right Team engagement The plan will be measured against a set of lead and lag (outcomes) indicators, to see whether the interventions we have identified are leading to improvements in safety performance. The indicators are detailed below. MEASURES 14/15 15/16 target 2019/20 target OUTCOMES Lost Time Injuries / 100,000 hours (stretch 0.5) 0.20 (stretch 0.15) Number of significant near misses 27 TBC 0 LEAD INDICATORS Hazards reported per month 86 2,000 4,000 Hazards closed out within 30 days 35% 70% 100% Compliance with safety standards 58% 85% 100% Positive engagement culture survey 37% 60% 90% Figure 8: Safety Performance Indicators The plan seeks to drive consistent standards and behaviours. There is a focus on fewer activities with a clear line of sight to performance outcomes. The activities were identified as the key improvement priorities to support a reduction in lost time injuries and risk of a significant incident. These are: Developing a safety leadership culture Improving competence to operate safely Safety and Health Review 2014/15 Page 15 of 16

16 Improving compliance with safety standards Compliance with CDM principles Reducing manual handling injuries. These activities will be delivered using the company s project management principles and approach. Project teams will be representative of the functions affected. The activities are supported by six key safe behaviours, which will be driven by the line management of the business leading to a change in culture. These represent an opportunity to gain some quick improvements in safety and health performance. The behaviours are: Regular safety conversations / site tours A significant increase in the number of safety hazards reported Tidy workspaces Safety discussed as part of every meeting / All toolbox talks and safety briefs delivered Completion of the team leader safety training toolkit by all team leaders. Implementation of the plan has commenced and we have already seen a positive improvement in our safety performance for quarter 1 of 2015/16. We have undertaken a baseline selfassessment against our safety standard compliance and identified areas for targeted intervention. We will carry out a further assessment in January 2016 to measure the improvement in compliance achieved. We remain committed to achieving our goal of zero harm. Safety and Health Review 2014/15 Page 16 of 16