The theme of this year’s event was ‘Working Together: Making the Paper Industry SAFER... today, tomorrow and for the future’, and CPI was delighted to have Lawrence Waterman OBE, Head of
Health Safety for the Olympic Delivery Authority and Head of Health Safety for the London Legacy Development Corporation speaking about the “Big Build”.
Nick Ratty, Head of the Manufacturing, Transportation and Utilities sector (HSE) opened the seminar programme with his presentation reflecting on the industry’s progress and achievements to date, and covered some of the ‘Big Ticket’ items currently being progressed through HSE. He went on to commend the professionalism and enthusiasm of the Paper and Board Industry Advisory Committee (PABIAC) and the role of the industry in shaping its future and encouraged delegates to put in extra e" ort over the next year to achieve the targets that have been set.
Paul Mahoney‘s presentation ‘Accidents Happen to Other People’ provided a ‘real life’ and shocking reminder of what can happen when a series of events conclude with a life changing accident, and the potential impact of complacency in the workplace. With admirable levels of humour, Paul recalled the story of his consultant insisting he sign the authorisation for the operation to reattach his arm, despite him being left handed and having lost his left arm!
After the break, David Collier, Safety Specialist, Chairperson at Machinery Safety Alliance and Business Development Manager with our sponsor PILZ Automation Technology, emphasised the importance of a structured approach to machinery procurement, including having the necessary skills and competence to operate and maintain equipment.
Melodie Gilbert, Head of Ill Health Prevention London 2012 and Senior Partner, Park Health and Safety Partnership presented some of the ‘Health’ lessons learned from the London 2012 Olympic project and how a simple yet cost e" ective integrated occupational health service provision can be achieved in any industry. Melodie asked delegates to consider “Given the ratio of Health to Safety incidents (81% v 19% internationally) do we allocate resources in the same or similar proportions?”. Outlining the ‘3Ws’ strategy, - workplace, worker and wellbeing, put in place for the Olympic project, Melodie emphasised the strategy that worked was “making health more like safety”.
After lunch, Nigel Bryson OBE, Director of BRYSON Consulting delivered an energetic presentation on the bene$ ts of ‘Working Together’. Using extracts from published academic papers and examples from the Olympic Park, he illustrated that through engagement with employees you can bring about real improvements. He outlined a critical component in the success of HS strategies as being the ability of the supervisor or line manager to motivate the people around them to embrace good practice.
David Ingham, General Manager at UPM Shotton provided a case study on the mill’s achievement of over two years without a lost time accident. David encapsulated the theme of the conference with his presentation on how with the right vision, determination and commitment from everyone you can achieve your goal, stating “senior managers lead behavioural change, the workforce judge us on our behaviours.” David also outlined the usefulness of benchmarking against other industries, and the application of “you get the safety you inspect, not the safety to expect”. It had taken Shotton paper mill 12 years to achieve ZERO accident status, but as David says “Achieving zero status was hard, sustaining it will be harder”.
Bernie Catterall, Director of Human Applications provided delegates with useful approaches to ensuring senior managers have the knowledge and tools to truly in! uence safety performance and to lead e" ectively. He challenged delegates to see beyond their current status and visualize “what good looks like”, and then think about how they could reach it.
In an informative and thought provoking presentation, Lawrence Waterman OBE, Head of Health Safety for the Olympic
Delivery Authority and Head of Health Safety for the London Legacy Development Corporation provided an overview of the creation of the Olympic Park and the Health and Safety risks that were involved. Through practical examples, Lawrence showed how the workforce was engaged in making the work safe and healthy. Lawrence recounted how the first KPI set for the project became ‘No fatalities’ following a statement at one of the first meetings of the Board “We don’t want to talk about blood on the carpet” so which director is going to come with me to visit the widow?”. Also focusing on leadership, Lawrence highlighted how the lessons learnt from the project can be attributed to teams working together and the ways this can be applied within the Paper Industry. “If you lead people, the best behaviour you can expect from them is the worst behaviour you display”.
The closing address was provided by Chris Brereton, Managing Director UK Packaging, DS Smith Packaging. In his role as a Member of the PABIAC Strategic Committee, Chris commended the industry on its achievement to date, but emphasised the need to continually develop. He encouraged the industry to continue to work together towards achieving the objectives set out in the current PABIAC strategy ‘Being the Di" erence Together’.
Speaking after the event, Andrew Braund, CPI Director of Health, Safety and Social A" airs, deemed the conference a resounding success:
“If health and safety is a burden on businesses, then the paper industry showed by its visible presence at this year’s event that health and safety continues to remain a core value and an integral part of our industry.
“As the industry’s accident performance continues to improve, we are looking further a$ eld for ideas and inspiration, and there can be no better example of how to manage all aspects of ‘HEALTH’ and safety, than those achieved by the Olympic Delivery Authority.
This is a great example of what you can achieve by setting clear standards and targets, and everyone working together towards a common goal. I was delighted that so many people were at this event to hear ‘first hand’ how the Olympic Park project can be applied across any industry.”
For further information please contact Andrew Braund, Director of Health, Safety and Social A" airs on 01793 889608 or email abraund@paper.org.uk. Imagery of the event and speakers are available on request. Please contact Annabel Cotton on 01793 889612 or email acotton@paper.org.uk.