Creating Safe and Healthy Places to Work
How we are addressing this issue:
Good Order and Good Work campaigns
Our Good Order and Good Work programmes are designed to help drive high Health & Safety standards on our sites by tackling the two key causes of accidents: the working environment and the behaviour of workers. Both Good Order and Good Work have been positively received by our contractors, managers and operatives as positive steps in improving safety and awareness on our sites.
During 2010/11 a number of enhancements to the programmes have been made, which include:
- Producing a new corporate induction video which familiarises site operatives with the Good Order and Good Work programmes.
- Updating the suite of Good Work information cards for use on sites to advise operatives of the ethos behind each programme.
- Distributing new Good Work posters for use on site.
In September 2011 we will be running six contractor conferences where we will present the Good Work initiative to around 400 directors in our contractor companies.The directors will be asked to disseminate the ethos of the initiative to ensure that they embrace it within their own businesses as much as we do within ours.
We believe that our Good Order and Good Work programmes have played a key role in reducing accidents across our sites.
Health and Safety Audits
To ensure that we maintain high health and safety standards, site audits are carried out monthly by a team of internal auditors that work across all of our operating companies to maintain impartiality. In part, these audits monitor compliance with the Good Order and Good Work campaigns. They also monitor against a list of fifteen other criteria that cover important areas of health and safety management including work at height, welfare and office accommodation, mobile plant, lifting operations and environmental management.
We also operate a 'Peer Review' process that involves our Directors with responsibility for Health & Safety visiting construction sites outside of their Berkeley operating company to monitor good practice and suggest areas for improvement. This helps drive performance and allows us to share best practice across the business.
Our performance:
In 2010/11:
- Our Accident Incident Rate (AIR) was 3.63, which was below the industry average and 0.20 lower than our 2009/10 value of 3.83.
- Our Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) was 0.178, which is below the industry average and 0.009 lower than our 2009/10 value of 0.187.
- Our AIR and AFR values decreased despite a significant rise of over 50% in the number of people employed across our operations, averaging at 6,579 at the end of April 2011 against 4,373 at the same point 2009/10.
- Our commitment to high Health & Safety standards was recognised by both RoSPA and the NHBC. We received 14 Gold Awards and 1 Gold Medal Award from RoSPA. We also won an NHBC Health & Safety Award in the 'Best Site Award – National Winner' category for The Tower at our St George Wharf development. 4 other sites were highly commended and a further 3 commended.
- We updated our current training programme with the introduction of further specialist courses, following the annual training review. We also reviewed our current training matrix, which outlines all the courses we currently run and establishes a timeline by which an employee must have attended the given course.
- A sub-working group was established to undertake an internal review of our policy regarding employees health and wellbeing with a view to establishing a programme.
- We started research into an external benchmarking programme to establish an appropriate comparative benchmark to measure our performance against.
- Three dedicated Health & Safety Auditors were employed. Their purpose is to undertake unannounced monitoring visits at each project to provide an independent overview of Health & Safety performance.
It is with regret that we must also report a serious incident which occurred on one of our sites this year, which unfortunately resulted in a fatality. Although we were acting in a client capacity at the time of the incident, we will consider the conclusions following the investigation and ensure that any lessons that can be learnt are reflected in our own Health & Safety management practices.
Our Vision2020 commitments and ambitions:
As part of delivering Vision2020 we have set specific objectives for continuing to ensure we create safe and healthy places to work.
Our commitments from May 2011:
- Continue to achieve a RIDDOR reportable Accident Incident Rate (AIR) of less than 4 incidents per 1,000 employees and sub-contractors
- Continue to achieve a RIDDOR reportable Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) of less than 0.20
- Provide Health & Safety training to all direct employees
- Undertake an internal review of our policy and arrangements regarding employees health and well-being with a view to establishing a programme
- Undertake work to identify an external benchmarking programme (e.g. CHASPI) to positively measure the Group's Health & Safety performance
- Undertake internal Health & Safety audits on all construction sites
- Further enhance the Group's 'Good Work' programme through active engagement with contractors' management and operatives
Our ambitions from May 2012:
- Achieve a RIDDOR reportable Accident Incident Rate (AIR) of less than 3.5 incidents per 1,000 employees and sub-contractors
- Achieve a RIDDOR reportable Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) of less than 0.175
- Provide all direct employees with an individual Health & Safety training assessment and allocate training based on individual need
- Make available a health and well-being programme to all employees
- Participate in an external benchmarking programme and report at least annually
- Gain OHSAS 18001 certification for 20% of construction operations
- Set a performance target for our projects and contractors in respect to the 'Good Work' programme
