Industry Spotlight
Competency development: Building back safer
Safety must never be taken for granted. 3Squared’s Lucy Prior explains why everyone working on the railway should have the correct competencies, which must be recorded and managed
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very year, the Railway Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) publishes its Annual Health and Safety Report (AHSR). In the 2019 report, RSSB director of system safety and health Ali Chegini wrote: “We can’t lose sight of the importance of essential health and safety management … especially in an era of major structural and organisational change.” He was, of course, referring to the devolution of Network Rail, which, at the time, was in its very early stages of implementation. The subsequent 2020 AHSR, published shortly before the country was put into lockdown, reasserted that Britain’s railways were still the safest in Europe. However, the recently released AHSR 2021 acknowledges that, perhaps, the industry has become somewhat distracted, has lost sight of the importance of the safety of working environments and, therefore, the wellbeing of frontline colleagues. In the past year (2020/21), the industry has lost three employees to workforce fatalities and another two, plus a member of the public, to train accidents. The industry needs to ensure it never experiences such tragic losses again. Speaking at Network Rail’s National Supplier Conference in May, Rob McIntosh, route managing director of the Eastern Region, referred to an accident that had taken place a few days
3Squared’s EDS competency management system in use.
earlier at Ramsden Bellhouse, in which one of the victims sustained life-changing injuries. Rob was clear in his message – that we should not be complacent, that Ramsden Bellhouse, like any accident, is unacceptable, and that, in his opinion, collective standards in relation to safe working seem to have fallen in recent times.
RAIL SAFETY HEADLINES 2020/21
3
fatalities in a train accident
One passenger, two members of train crew
16 July 2021
public fatalities at other locations
Eleven trespassers, five on level crossings
3
workforce fatalities Not in train accidents
78
reduction in passenger journeys
1
passenger fatality in a station
253 52
suicides or suspected suicides
The importance of competencies Rail workers, as with anyone working in a safety-critical environment, need to possess and maintain the right competencies to perform effectively, efficiently, and safely. Competencies in the railway vary from role to role and can include many different skills, from ‘pass/fail’ taught and learned skills to more complicated ones such as social, cognitive, and personal skills. Non-technical skills (NTS) arguably add a layer of sophistication to an individual’s capability and to the ease in which they carry out their work. Rail regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) sets out its expectations in relation to health and safety on the railways in its Risk Management Maturity Model (RM3), which states that organisations “need an effective system for managing competence to help make sure that their staff have the appropriate skills. Making sure that workers, supervisors, managers and directors have and keep the appropriate skills helps ensure those members of staff make safe decisions and carry out their work safely, reducing the risks to themselves and to other people.”
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