SH Magazine Issue 13 by Kevin Robinson

ISSUE 13 SEPTEMBER 2021

SAFER HIG H WAY S MA GA ZI N E

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SUICIDE PREVENTION

Preventing suicides on the rail network

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FROM TOASTER TO TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT TRUCK

ARE YOU LISTENING INCLUSIVELY

LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS

SURFACING SOLUTIONS THAT CUT CO2 EMISSIONS BY UP TO 77%

The way to low carbon solutions Colas works with Local Authorities up and down the UK, making transport infrastructure more affordable, sustainable and efficient. At Colas we know the challenges facing road engineers require some innovative thinking and environmental savings. Our portfolio of Specialist Surface Treatment options offer environmental benefits as well as durable solutions. Colas is one of the five largest recyclers in the world, regardless of the sector or type of material. As a major producer and consumer of construction materials, Colas has developed ways to recover and recycle waste produced in road construction as well as materials resulting from demolition or renovation from public works or other industries.

Discover more

www.colas.co.uk/we-open-the-way/low-carbon-solutions T: 01476 404 200 E: info@colas.co.uk

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

www.saferhighways.co.uk

WELCOME... TO ISSUE 13

Dear Reader Welcome to the latest edition of our publication, SH Magazine, which we publish as we start to come to the end of what has been unprecedented times for our industry and we begin to look forward to the future instead of fighting the fires we have been presented with over the last 18 months.

As we enter a new, new normal and work to whatever government guidance is thrown at us I am delighted to see that innovation has not stopped, we have not continued to push the boundaries around workforce safety and that the wellbeing of those who work upon and use the public highway remains a key priority.

Covid-19 has been impossible to ignore given its impact on our working lives and indeed personal circumstances, yet in these times of adversity we, as a supply chain, have come together, and truly embodied the spirit of what Safer Highways truly stands for, Collaboration through the supply chain, Innovation amongst our supply chain partners and indeed the Sharing of best practice.

This publication has probably been one of the toughest to deliver, but yet, I hope we continue as a team, to embody the spirit of Safer Highways and have delivered something of value in the face of adversity.

I know from personal experience just how tough the last 18 months have been – but as a community we have continued to deliver, and we shall continue to do so, no matter what is thrown at us.

I sincerely hope you enjoy reading the fruits of our labour, and for once this welcome is not from just myself, Kevin, but instead all of the team

Even in times of adversity we have continued to drive continued improvement and in this edition of the magazine, I hope, we continue to shine a light upon each of our three core values.

As always, I thank all of our contributors and moreover the team behind the scenes who have yet again delivered an outstanding piece of work.

K E VIN RO BINS O N CEO - SAFER HIGHWAYS

Kevin Robinson, CEO Safer Highways

Freya Wells, Business Manager Safer Highways

Martin Worthington, Chairman Safer Highways

Helen Blood, PR Consultant Safer Highways

Adrian Tatum, Development Director Safer Highways

Amelia Betts, Exec Assistant Safer Highways

www.saferhighways.co.uk

ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

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S A F E R H I G H W AY S M A G A Z I N E

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FROM TOASTER TO TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT TRUCK

How Human Factors Influence Design

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DRIVING AND RIDING SAFELY FOR WORK New technology prompts health and safety update

2 WELCOME 10 SOUNDING THE DEATH KNELL ON FATAL RISK

FM Conway’s Andrew Cox explains show the organisation will eliminate the 10 biggest fatal risks in the business inside 10 years

18 WHY WE HAVE TO CONTINUE TO SHOW LEADERSHIP ON HEALTH, SAFETY, AND WELLBEING

When it comes to health, safety and wellbeing there is a huge difference between playing lip service because you feel you have to and actually showing leadership from the top

www.saferhighways.co.uk

26 SUICIDE PREVENTION

Every suicide on the railway has a lasting effect on family and friends, as well as rail staff, commuters and the wider community

34 ARE YOU LISTENING INCLUSIVELY?

An inclusive approach to listening can help make us all safer

42 LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS

Making innovation accessible across your organisation

46 CODE RED

Flash floods, heat waves and rising sea temperatures

ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

FROM TOASTER TO TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT TRUCK How Human Factors Influence Design

James Bird Senior SHE Manager – Strategic Risk and Behavioural Safety, Kier Highways

Kier Highways unveils an approach to traffic management design which places the operative’s wellbeing at the heart of the process As a safety professional, part of my job is to sit through incident review boards and listen to investigations of safety incidents that have taken place. With the benefit of hindsight bias and without real time pressure, it’s easy to sit back and judge people’s actions, it’s even easier to assign blame to the last person to touch or move something or those who suffer an injury. Quite often though, this does not deal with the underlying latent conditions, that another employee may have the unfortunate luck to also uncover. Blame however, is emotionally satisfying, those disciplining can feel like they’ve dealt with the immediate issue and it moves the accident off ‘my desk’. Think of the suspected individual; all the time, training and experience your organisation has put into them and the commitment they have given you. Is removing them from the business going to lead to systemic change to prevent a set of circumstances aligning and converting to an accident again? Or cost you money and experience? What’s the impact on their colleagues?

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Generally, those who cause safety issues made a mistake or error. Weaknesses in the system, designed to protect them, allowed a loss of control of a hazard. To begin to close these weaknesses, we must admit that people have limited capacity and can make errors. We need to understand the basics of psychology and that humans operate in two conscious states. These have been described by academics as fast and slow thinking - or system 1 vs 2. Essentially fast thinking is happening 90% of the time, it’s things we do regularly - drive to work, a repetitive task or make our lunch. We have practiced this skill many times and our brain saves energy and capacity by applying what we did before, as the brain recognises a similar pattern. When we don’t have all the knowledge or the dynamics of the work environment change – this can cause an issue. The other 10% of the time we spend in slow, analytical thought processes - where we have to pay specific attention in a new situation, when we are learning a new skill or when we know we have to perform in a specific way, but we can only do it for a finite amount of time. It is around one hour before we become exhausted or stressed. When we add in time, finance, and resource pressures the capacity to make good decisions diminishes.

www.saferhighways.co.uk

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We believe these traffic management vehicles are the next generation of fleet that increase safety but also improve the welfare of operatives Joe Incutti

in hierarchical organisations with information flowing one way from management down. While the management team may have legislative, knowledge and appreciation of a task, often it’s the workers who are the specialists, knowing how best to achieve a positive outcome. Organisations must foster and grow a culture of psychological safety where workers can speak up and drive effective two-way communication, sharing information between levels. Conscious of these concepts we reviewed our data, we trended falls from vehicles - cabs and beds and manual handling as being hazards contributing to our lagging statistics. We set out to make a step change to reduce the risk of these occurring. The qualitative linked data led us to our traffic management installation and impact protection vehicles. At first glance these are all fairly new fleets, built to best practice specifications. We began by researching the history of the vehicle design and the processes that we currently use for the task of traffic management; we gathered industry data and mapped our hazards, controls and how effective we believe they are. We then developed our task improvement process. Understanding work as imagined vs work as done. Commonly, we have safety systems where rules, procedures, training, forms, and permits are the predominant form of control measure, these require workers to be in optimal decision-making states – slow analytical thinking - for extended periods of time. We simply cannot do this consistently and when an error or mistake is made, there is limited capacity – alternative control measures in the system to fail safely. The context or system in which people operate fundamentally drives their behaviour. If they are having to replan on the job, work in poor weather conditions, physically exert themselves or adapt to a tool, they may become frustrated or exhausted. Therefore, not focussing on the dynamic hazards in the environment around them. This has been shown to occur more often

www.saferhighways.co.uk

We held sessions to get buy-in with our workers and observed them, across the business completing basic tasks in the real world – getting in and out of the cab, loading and unloading of equipment and dropping cones. Each time comparing what we saw to the processes documented. This process allowed us to begin to understand how the context - equipment we provide and the rules we set were driving the wrong behaviours, leading to shortcuts and workarounds, occasionally converting to an injury. We identified 21 latent hazards within the current fleet design. We have either eliminated or reduced these using engineering to enable the desired behaviours we want our staff to display.

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We addressed the immediate safety issues - falls from height, slips and trips, machine interface and equipment controls and occupational health illnesses manual handling, work related upper limb disorder and exposure to the elements (not only damaging bodies over time, but can be an additional source of distraction from the dynamic hazards present on site) which may contribute to an error. The design of the new truck means that Kier has eliminated 21 day-to-day hazards, including safe stowage of road cones, sign frames, sign plates and access and egress to body area by designated steps. These new 18t trucks, which will be on the road by January 2022, will use hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) fuel, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 90% - an approach which meets many of our net zero ideals around sustainability. The low entry cab vehicle allows access and exit from either side avoiding the live side of traffic. All ancillary controls are accessed from a one-touch command tablet, making it easier and safer for the driver to control the vehicle. The Royal Navy and the CIEHF were commissioned to investigate how operatives undertook tasks using the current fleet, and how the design and ergonomics influenced their actions and behaviours as part of a business-wide human and organisational factors safety programme. Using our ‘Task Improvement Process’ we went onto the network with 20 operatives from three of our contracts: National Highways Area 9, Area 13 and Shropshire Highways. We looked at the traffic management activity and we broke down the use of the IPV into small tasks, such as getting in the cab, getting out the cab, getting on the rear, loading a frame, offloading load a frame, dropping a cone and picking up a cone. We carried this all out as per procedure but then we asked the operatives to show us honestly how they carry out these tasks. We needed to understand if and why they took shortcuts and we were interested to know if the equipment we had provided them with was a factor in their reason for taking shortcuts, which then resulted in incidents.

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We will also be running the vehicle on more sustainable HVO fuel, while reviewing alternative fuels that will meet our 2030 net zero ambitions

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During this research and development phase, we identified several issues operatives face each time they use a traffic management vehicle such as the cabs being too high, too many screens and switches to operate efficiently, ancillary equipment blocking safe crossing on the cab and that getting onto the rear of the vehicle is complex and time-consuming. Speaking about the step change in our ethos around design, Karl Simpson, fleet and plant innovations and business improvements manager at Kier Highways, added: “Once we had identified these issues, we looked outside of our organisation to experts in designing equipment for use in hazardous environments. We reached out to the Royal Navy’s Human Factors team who are currently going through organisational change and modernisation of fleet and equipment across the service and the CIEHF who consult on designs of everyday items such as, household appliances, car dashboards to aircraft cockpits. “Working with them we created a process for understanding how to put people at the centre of decision making, understanding limitations and abilities and developing equipment around them to achieve a task. We then took this knowledge and the findings from our workforce to Massey Truck Engineering to design the truck from the ground up.” Five vehicles are currently being manufactured and will be on our road network in January 2022, followed by a further 20 vehicles later in the year. Joe Incutti, our Highways group managing director, said: “We believe these traffic management vehicles are the next generation of fleet that increase safety but also improve the welfare of operatives by reducing the amount of time spent working on the rear of the vehicle exposed to the elements. “We will also be running the vehicle on more sustainable HVO fuel, while reviewing alternative fuels that will meet our 2030 net zero ambitions.” Our aspiration is that through adopting a different approach to eliminating risk we make a step change in which all of the supply chain are able to adopt some of the learning which we, as an organisation, have gathered and abolish fatal risk to all operatives. www.saferhighways.co.uk

www.saferhighways.co.uk

ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

SOUNDING THE DEATH KNELL ON FATAL RISK FM Conway’s Andrew Cox explains how the organisation will eliminate the 10 biggest fatal risks in the business inside 10 years

Andrew Cox Safety, Health, Environment and Quality Director

Last year FM Conway launched a health and safety strategy like no other. It was a transformational approach that prioritises the greatest health and safety risks to the business in order to help the company achieve its vision for all people to go home safe each day without life-changing harm. But it was more than that. It was a step change-moving away from the more traditional approach using behavioural safety to something that was going to have an immediate positive impact on improving health, safety and wellbeing at FM Conway. The strategy has a bold ambition, shaped by an indepth risk analysis of both the business and the industry to identify gaps in any previous health and safety approaches, as well as looking at the tools and measurement controls required to monitor and evaluate the true operational performance of the business and not just the lagging measuring the absence of harm.

but where that is not possible, a number of safety critical controls will be put in place for each Big Risk activity, in order to create an environment where people can fail safely and learn rather than pay the ultimate price for a mistake. It is very important that this new approach is sustainable for the business and that is why it will take full advantage of digital and technological advances to provide a high level of physical, electrical and mechanical protection for the biggest risks. FM Conway has categorised its Big Ten Risks as the following:

Isolation and Guarding Occupational Health Temporary Works Lifting Operations Traffic and Pedestrian Interface Safe Digging Practices Occupational Road Risk Subcontractor Control Confined Spaces Working at Height

Elimination of the risk is the ultimate aim for FM Conway,

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

www.saferhighways.co.uk

PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST ELIMINATING RISK

THE BIG TEN IN 10 IS FM CONWAY’S TRANSFORMATIONAL APPROACH FOR ELIMINATING THE TEN BIGGEST RISKS THAT CAUSE LIFE-CHANGING HARM. This unique approach strives for the full elimination of risks removing the reliance on human behaviour, and is designed to be revolutionary for the construction industry. Isolation and Guarding Occupational Health Temporary Works Lifting Operations Traffic and Pedestrian Interface Safe Digging Practices Occupational Road Risk Subcontractor Control Confined Spaces Working at Height

To find out more

Please call 01732 600 700 visit: www.fmconway.co.uk email: enquiries@fmconway.co.uk www.saferhighways.co.uk

ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

The project is being spearheaded by Andrew Cox, FM Conway’s Safety, Health, Environment and Quality Director. Joining FM Conway and embracing its self-delivery was a new way of working for Andrew and that was also the catalyst for the business to start understanding what its risks were and how best to deal with them. “Statistically speaking we were having one of the best periods of performance as a company with all the traditional lagging indicators such as lost time accident rates and RIDDOR Rates at historic lows. But even with these historic lows our traditional reports and approach wasn’t explaining why certain things were going wrong, including, tragically one fatality. That’s when we realised we needed to do something different.” FM Conway began to think big risk. “This frustration made us change our overall philosophy. Every single year people have been dying the same way and as an industry, we have spent a huge amount of time and resource focusing on individual behaviour and not fixing the problem. We are relying on the fact of hoping people follow the rules and don’t make mistakes and the reality is that we are all human and we will make mistakes, and that is ok. We needed to create a workplace where people can make mistakes and not have to pay the ultimate consequence for their mistake.” Through his work, FM Conway adopted a philosophy of preventing accidents in the first place and in particular fatalities. To achieve this, the first step was to bring together and analyse a raft of data to help identify and prioritise activities most likely to cause life-changing harm. And then to deliver solutions for them based on the reverse triangle with an unrelenting focus on elimination, substitution and engineering control. New dashboards and risk barometers were then created to help actively manage the Big Risks by demonstrating if they were rising within the business. This provided an opportunity to respond to where the potential harm could be rather than relying on traditional measures such as an LTI rate, which we know do not tell you where your next big incident could be. “This enabled us to discuss the true operational performance at board meetings and not just the absence of RIDDORs that weren’t showing us the true picture of what was happening.” The second part of the project was about putting the safe systems in place in the business to further manage the risk. “That is when the ‘Big Ten in 10’ was first born,” says Andrew. “After that, our plan was to consider where we could remove people from the equation or if that wasn’t possible, put safety critical controls in place.”

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

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As a result of all this work, we have managed to already achieve over five million risk reductions across the business. It is a massive step forward. www.saferhighways.co.uk

“As a result of all this work, we have managed to already achieve over five million risk reductions across the business. It is a massive step forward. If we can see where the risk is, we can reduce it at source and make a change for better. These leading indicators are the measures of success that the business now monitors and not that we have gone 300 days without a RIDDOR accident. We are moving forward with answering the question ‘are we safe or are we lucky’? And we can now say that with actual improvements in elimination, substitution and engineering controls we are definitely getting safer and enabling people to go home safe each day.” While behavioural safety isn’t the focus anymore, there is still an emphasis placed on what the individual workers are doing as well. “Everyone from management through to operations has five lifesaving rules they follow when considering a big risk activity which is important whilst we work towards building safety critical controls for each risk over the next ten years,” says Andrew. But the work doesn’t stop there. Technology to support advances in safety critical control is advancing at a pace. Some of this work is centred around using sensors to enhance safety. An example is sensors that will form part of an intelligent side guard that will fit on the side of maintenance vehicle to inform the driver when cyclists are within a certain distance. “This is a really exciting use of Artificial Intelligence and other technology to make further meaningful risk reductions.”

One example of how a safety critical control was achieved, was the automation of road sweepers. FM Conway’s data demonstrated that sweepers, which spend 50% of their time in reverse while on site, making over 30,000 reversal movements on projects every year and present a risk to workers and MOP’s behind them. The automation includes a proximity radar that detects when a person is within a certain distance of the machine and then applies the brakes. “It is just one example of the many safety critical controls we have been able to put in place as a result of identifying the risk in this new way of working,” says Andrew. Other examples include making confined spaces safer after it was realised that FM Conway workers are in and out of manholes over 40,000 times a year. A HD scanning camera now surveys the manhole automatically without the need for anyone to have to climb in one at all. The need for ladders has also been removed from many sites after it was found that working in height with ladders resulted in a number of fatal accidents across industry every year. The business has removed of over 111,000 activities of work from ladders with these changes. www.saferhighways.co.uk

ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

Partnering with specialist glove manufacturer STALSEN and using a glove originally designed for the automotive industry, J.M. McCann successfully introduced new-to-the-market hand protection for the workforce on the M27 project with the support of Bam Morgan Sindall Infrastructure Joint Venture (bmJV). This new glove has replaced standard issue work gloves in order to reduce the risk of hand injury, improve hand health, reduce environmental waste and improve operative satisfaction and uptake. The product has been in use since January 2021 and as a result of its strong performance, seen the M27 project presented with a Highways England Blue Star Award for safety innovation – an accolade awarded to projects which demonstrate “exceptional performance or new initiatives not widely used on other sites.” An evolution in the approach to hand health is overdue for the UK’s civil engineering sector in the view of our Project Health and Safety Manager Dave McPherson, and he sees STALSEN’s product as a great way to solve common problems for site operatives across the country. “Occupational health can be overlooked in our industry and when observing the levels of hand protection already available, standard-issue gloves are, more often than not, seen as disposable items rather than a technical piece of equipment. We felt that this mindset needed to change to better protect workers and minimise waste. The way we see the industry achieving this is by moving away from low cost gloves to a higher end product in order to reduce stock turnover rates and evolve and improve levels of protection,” For Dave, addressing the underlying reasons why operatives might not wear the correct hand protection for each task is paramount. Involving the workforce in the innovation has helped to create a solution that not only improves the provision of safety equipment, but helps to challenge perceptions and attitudes towards wearing Personal Protective Equipment.

RECOGNISED FOR NEW SAFETY INITIATIVE AS M27 MOTORWAY UPGRADE PROJECT IS PRESENTED WITH HIGHWAYS ENGLAND BLUE STAR AWARD

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

www.saferhighways.co.uk

“We consulted our workforce and much of the feedback we received suggested that no single glove offered the right levels of comfort and dexterity for multiple jobs. This means that operatives frequently change their gloves throughout the working day, often multiple times per hour – creating barriers around practicality and convenience. This can create a vicious circle because if products are not popular with operatives and they don’t like wearing them or they wear the wrong glove for a given task, we can end up with a higher probability of accidents. All of this makes it harder to achieve high levels of compliance – creating an ongoing challenge around ways of thinking about hand safety,” He continues, “If adequate protection isn’t used, then common injuries such as cuts and grazes can occur far more easily. There’s also a significantly increased risk of developing serious long-term health problems associated with uncontrolled exposure to concrete or other hazardous materials including sensitization to chemicals and occupational dermatitis – causing hands to crack, itch and bleed. These health problems can take root without any sign and it is this lack of immediate signals which means that often no action is taken in the short-term to prevent them. What we want to do is make hand protection more convenient in order to lower these risks.” A recent report by the Health and Safety Executive showed that the construction industry has seen an estimated 60,000 Musculoskeletal lost time injuries per year in the last decade – of which roughly 20% are hand injuries. As a result, workers are twice as likely to develop dermatitis when compared to other industries. For Dave and our team, reading these figures made everyone realise that an industrywide change was long overdue.

After McCann introduced an industry-defining safety initiative on the M27 motorway upgrade scheme between J4 – J11, we’re delighted to announce that the project was recently awarded a Blue Star Award by Highways England for safety innovation. www.saferhighways.co.uk

Dave made contact with specialist glove manufacturer STALSEN after seeing their Rayza RX565 product online – a glove commonly used in automotive manufacturing. This model of glove, most notably adopted by a large automotive manufacturer, offers uncompromised levels of dexterity while offering water resistance, high levels of grip and protecting hands against cuts and chemicals. It was clear that by utilising STALSEN’s expertise in glove innovation, a longterm solution could be found that would revolutionise hand safety for site operatives in the civil engineering industry – as STALSEN’s Director Patrick Tydeman goes on to explain.

ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

“We approach all hand-based problems in the same way,” says Patrick. “We’re about more than just the glove and always go above and beyond to find the right answer for each and every customer,”

vital for the industry as a whole both in the short and long-term, and we look forward to seeing this glove adopted by further McCann and bmJV projects in future.”

“Our mission is to make hand injuries history through tailor made solutions, which can only be achieved by listening to the customer and applying our many years of knowledge and experience – as we did when we were approached by Dave and the team at McCann,”

Victor Johnson, Highways England’s Project Manager for the M27 motorway upgrade scheme, said: “We are extremely proud that the M27 is associated with this brilliant innovation which fully complies with Personal Protective Equipment (Enforcement) Regulations 2018. The glove’s adaptability has proved to be a major benefit as it is multi-operational while also being waterproof, cut resistant, light and supportive of dexterity. It is even known to be resistant to lean concrete.  The glove is more efficient by eliminating the need to replace it for various tasks undertaken by the same workforce and has been a huge asset in our working practices.”

Patrick continues, “The beauty of the RX565 is the story of innovation that formed it’s three-layered design. The first layer is a lightweight lining offering high levels of cut resistance and comfort. This is then covered with a nitrile blue coating which provides an effective liquid resistant barrier before a final black textured nitrile coating to enhance the grip and oil resistance,” “Crucially, all of this protection is achieved without sacrificing dexterity – which is vital, so that the protection nor the comfort inhibits the functionality of the glove. Using gloves which are too cumbersome makes handling objects or performing tasks incredibly difficult. The RX565 is an 18-gauge liner so it’s very lightweight, allowing wearers to feel what they’re working with while knowing they have the protection they need.” Following on from the success of an initial 4-week trial, the product was not only commissioned for use for all operatives on the M27 – delivered by bmJV – but has now been adopted by us as our standard issue hand protection across all of our concreting operations across the UK. “We’re delighted to have introduced a new level of safety to the industry through McCann. This really is a game changer for civil engineering and construction and for me, seeing the product recognised by Highways England is testament to our team’s ability to innovate and think outside of the box.” adds Patrick. Dave is delighted with the results achieved to-date – with STALSEN’s product making an instant impact on both site safety and attitudes towards adopting hand protection. “Since introducing the new glove, the project has reduced glove consumption by over 60% and reduced non-compliance with hand protection requirements to zero. This is fantastic to see,” says Dave. “Partnering with STALSEN has enabled us to achieve our goal of improving hand health standards not just for this project, but for future projects as well, and we’re delighted to see the M27 scheme awarded the Highways England Blue Star Award in recognition of this innovation. Maintaining good hand health is

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Nigel Fullam, project director for bmJV on the M27 motorway upgrade scheme, said: “Enabling and supporting our supply chain to bring innovations to life is a key part of our approach. We’re delighted to have supported the trial and subsequent adoption of these gloves on our M27 project,” “The safety and wellbeing of everyone involved in delivering our schemes are of paramount importance to us, and by working with McCann we have reduced the potential for hand injuries on our M27 scheme, we’re also making our operations and the industry a safer and more productive environment.”

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Our mission is to make hand injuries history through tailor made solutions, which can only be achieved by listening to the customer and applying our many years of knowledge

www.saferhighways.co.uk

ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

WHY WE HAVE TO CONTINUE TO SHOW LEADERSHIP ON HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELLBEING When it comes to health, safety and wellbeing there is a huge difference between playing lip service because you feel you have to and actually showing leadership from the top.

By Peter Anderson Managing Director, Amey Transportation

Amey’s Transport Infrastructure business, which includes highways, waste, power and rail, has been doing the latter for some years now. There have been a number of initiatives that have been implemented both internally and externally and many have been more successful than the company would have imagined. Its Jamie Talks series of wellbeing podcasts, for example, originally started with an internal focus have been listened to by hundreds of people in the highways sector, many of who don’t even work for Amey. It proves it, doesn’t it, get health, safety and wellbeing right and its reach can be phenomenal. But it doesn’t stop there. If you go on to the Amey website and search for ‘health, safety and wellbeing’ there are several examples of the work that has gone on across the whole Amey business. From gold awards for performance to wellbeing self-scoring systems to behavioural safety, it is clear all of this comes from the fact that health, safety and wellbeing is top of the agenda more often than not in the boardroom, which flows through the rest of the business. There has also been a change of leadership recently. Peter Anderson joined the business last July as Managing Director of Transport Infrastructure bringing with him 30 years-experience of the construction industry. Responsible for over 4,500 people, Peter’s

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team were identified as key workers throughout the pandemic, continuing to deliver essential rail and highways maintenance to keep people moving, providing clean, tidy and accessible spaces for local communities and maintaining critical power supplies to homes. Joining Amey during the pandemic has also further highlighted the need for the company to do even more in terms of wellbeing. Mr Anderson is known for his commitment to progressing employee health, safety and wellbeing, driving improvements to safe working practices and ensuring a culture where people feel free to share honestly and take action to make changes. Open in his support of developing and leading safety initiatives for the benefit of others, he influences the wider industry, particularly in his previous role as Chair of a Rail Safety Leadership Group which targeted safety improvements on overhead line works. It’s clear a change in leadership hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm to drive further health and safety initiatives. In fact, given his track record and passion, Mr Anderson could well take it to another level. In fact, he says, health and safety plays a fundamental role when developing any long-term strategy in Amey.

www.saferhighways.co.uk

“In the businesses that I am responsible for, it’s our licence to operate. So, I don’t have a business if I don’t have an exemplary safety record. Right now, in our rail business, we are top of Network Rail’s scorecard for safety performance. It’s not all about the scorecard, it’s far deeper than that, but it does give me an independent measure that provides some assurance that many of the things we are doing are having a positive influence on our people and how they go to work safely,” he says. “In our highways business, we still have some challenges, and while we have achieved a very good position in terms of health and safety, we have more to do. What we have found during lockdown is that actually our safety performance held up and in some areas it has improved. When we talk about visible safety leadership a lot of our senior leaders have been at home under travel restrictions. Regardless, our teams got on with their work. With our supervisors and managers on the ground, many have performed fantastically well. Covid has done a number of things. It has brought home the need to be careful, whether that be to use hand sanitiser, not shaking hands, wearing a mask, it has made us all aware we need to take personal ownership to protect our own health and safety more than ever.” This, in turn, has meant the cultural maturity has been examined closely. “What it has also taught us is that culturally, a lot of health and safety good practice is embedded in the front line. And, why do I say that? - because when as leaders we are not looking our guys tend to work safely anyway and that is tremendously encouraging for me to see. Going forward, one consequence of strong safety performance is that you have fewer opportunities to learn lessons, so it’s really important that we have vibrant and positive close call culture.

Peter Anderson Managing Director, Amey Transportation

www.saferhighways.co.uk

So when things happen in the business that could’ve resulted in injury, harm or damage, our people are still confident enough to bring them forward to our attention,” says Mr Anderson. “This is so that management can review and make changes as necessary to mitigate something more serious happening. It’s so important that we have the right culture and environment to call out near misses and close calls. We’ve also been doing a lot of work over the challenges our teams can face when something changes live on our work sites. Things will change on site and we need our people to have clarity on the decisions they can make and then feel empowered to enact them. So we encourage our people to stop, engage with their colleagues to discuss the next step and how do we make that safe. It they don’t feel safe, then abandon work for the day. And if they are comfortable, we’re supporting our people to do live risk assessments, re-evaluate the risks as a result of the change and move together in a safe way,” he adds. “I often sit down with our traffic managers and frontline workers and have that conservation. What I am looking for is their maturity to approach risk in a considered way – what is their appetite and perception to risk and how do they manage risk when things change. Ultimately, not bringing in further risk as a consequence of their unintended actions. That is why we focus our attention on this as leaders. In some of our teams, we have seen some instances where we still have work to do when things change and how we support an individual’s development and confidence to make a reasoned decision, and empower them to manage any unintended actions as a result of that,” he says.

ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

www.saferhighways.co.uk

Much of the talk and best practice in the last year has focused on designing out risk before work even starts. So, how is Amey embracing this?

That’s why I am keen to see mental health become a part of the overall stats for health and safety and that we record and measure it more often.”

“We have an advantage because we have a lot of experience around asset maintenance and management, looking after a huge number of strategic assets for Highways England, Transport NI, Transport Scotland as well as local authorities across the UK. That experience brings with it a real knowledge in understanding what design solutions are effective, safer and perform better. With our inhouse design capability through Amey Consulting means that when we get this right, we have some fantastic solutions that impact on the road network far less and make the asset much safer and cost effective.”

Mr Anderson is also defiant on road worker abuse. “Once again the stats are becoming more and more linked to mental health. I think we need to call it out more and I am pleased to see it is finally being tackled at an industry-wide level and Stamp It Out is a great campaign. But we can always do more to raise the issue. It is completely unacceptable for workers to be threatened or abused doing their jobs. The recent Transport Scotland stats that said 25% of workers are saying the abuse they have received has led to longer-term mental health issues isn’t acceptable. When I talk to our employees there isn’t one that hasn’t received abuse of some kind and that has to change. I think we need legislation to change this to protect and provide support for our road workers in the same way emergency workers are protected alongside stiffer action and penalties for those that do it. We have a critical job as leaders to help keep our people safe and protect their mental health and wellbeing every day.”

Alongside this, the health, safety and wellbeing initiatives continue. One that has made its mark far wider than the Amey business is Amey’s Jamie Talks podcasts, presented by its mental health ambassador Jamie Forsyth. “I am delighted that our initiatives have a far reach and we are very proud of Jamie and what he has achieved as our mental health ambassador. Seeing his work being shared and helping anyone else outside of Amey to open up about mental health is great. These activities have made us think about how we are all feeling and the difference between feeling pressure or anxiety and stress. Making sure we’re all more aware how dangerous anxiety can get if it isn’t recognised and managed,” says Mr Anderson. He thinks in general more has to be done to encourage the conversation around mental health. “The more awareness we have around mental health the better. I am always keen to encourage all of my teams to start a conversation and look for the early warning signs of mental health, anxiety and stress. It’s so important we keep on doing more. Suicide rates are rising and in some age groups it is becoming the biggest killer.

www.saferhighways.co.uk

ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

DRIVING AND RIDING SAFELY FOR WORK Expansion of the ‘grey fleet’, gig economy and new technology prompts health and safety update for people driving and riding for work

Nicola Jaynes HM Inspector for HSE’s Transport and Public Services Unit

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), working in partnership with the Department for Transport (DfT), has published new webpages on work-related road risk, (WRRR) for employers and workers. Driving and riding safely for work replacing INDG382 Driving for Work. The gig economy and the increasing use of personal vehicles for work purposes – the so-called grey fleet has created some confusion over where responsibility for legal compliance lies. Research shows that driving for work is likely to be the most dangerous activity most workers will ever undertake. E very week there are around 200 deaths and serious injuries involving people using the road for work I t is estimated that 40,000 people working in occupations such as sales, deliveries or taxi-driving are involved in road traffic collisions every year

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

C ompany car drivers in the UK are 49% more likely to be involved in traffic collisions, even after correcting for demographic variables and their relatively high mileages C ountless other will suffer stress, anxiety and/or minor injuries from unreported incidents.HM Inspector for HSE’s Transport and Public Services Unit, Nicola Jaynes, commented: “The Health and Safety at Work Act sets out the legal duties of employers and those engaged to work for them. Their responsibilities to manage WRRR are nothing new. However, the landscape is changing, and we wanted to ensure guidance reflects these changes and remains relevant for years to come. Companies who otherwise have robust health and safety policies sometimes fail to consider their responsibilities adequately when it comes to driving or riding for work. Everyone should come home from work safe and well, whether they’re working behind a desk or behind the wheel.”

www.saferhighways.co.uk

“

In 2020, a company found guilty of failing to effectively manage fatigue for their employees driving for work, was fined £450,000 and ordered to pay £30,000 costs after two men lost their lives in a motorway collision Prosecutions could lead to significant fines and custodial sentences, as well as driving bans and/or operator licences being revoked. In 2020, a company found guilty of failing to effectively manage fatigue for their employees driving for work, was fined £450,000 and ordered to pay £30,000 costs after two men lost their lives in a motorway collision. All drivers and riders have an individual duty in relation to their driving behaviour under road traffics laws. However, when driving for work, employers or those that engage workers to drive or ride for work, also have a legal duty to ensure their workers’ health and safety, in the same way as they do on a fixed site. For example, ensuring workers do not drive an excessive number of hours and checking their vehicle is properly maintained, even if it belongs to the worker.

ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

The regulations apply to all workers including those using two-wheeled vehicles, such as motorcycles, scooters, e-bikes and bicycles.

This updated guidance will help employers and those who engage people to drive or ride for work to prevent injuries, ill health, and deaths.

Gig economy/zero hours/agency workers should be treated in the same way as employees for health and safety purposes. Business should assess risks from driving or riding for work, like any other workplace risk. They should ensure drivers routes are realistic, the risk of fatigue is properly managed, rest breaks and access to toilet and washing facilities are built into plans.

Following the guidance will also help to reduce stress, improve morale and operational efficiencies. Organisations with a positive safety culture and clear, well managed policies for driving and riding for work including incident and near miss investigation can have a significant influence in keeping our roads safe for everybody.”

In vehicle safety monitoring technologies (‘telematics’) can help you monitor indicators of risky driver behaviours; the guidance provides business with guidance on how to monitor the smallest number of indicators to effectively manage risks. The updated guidance was informed by HSE research which included a literature review, interviews and workshops with industry stakeholders, worker groups and other government departments. Nicola Jaynes added: “The shocking number of injuries and fatalities associated with driving for work demonstrates that more needs to be done to manage WRRR.

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The shocking number of injuries and fatalities associated with driving for work demonstrates that more needs to be done to manage WRRR.

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

www.saferhighways.co.uk

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ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

I’ve experienced this on a personal level and have felt the devastating impact a suicide can have. This is one of the reasons why I am so determined to see improvements in this area on the railway. But the railway is not alone when it comes to suicide. The roads sector is also affected by these traumatic incidents. In my role as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Railways, I have long been calling for the rail industry to go further in how it manages occupational health, including mental health and wellbeing. And for the last few years, I’ve described the issue as a particular concern for the rail sector in my annual reports of Health and Safety on Britain’s Railways. It is an area where work continues to progress at great lengths. The railway is blessed with several great initiatives and partnerships. In 2020, we saw the inaugural Rail Wellbeing Live launch but also Network Rail partnered with mental health charity Chasing the Stigma to begin its ‘There is Always Hope’ campaign. I have wholly supported this work, which is aimed at encouraging those struggling with their mental health to seek help before they reach crisis point – with the rail network signposting to the Hub of Hope app. Research for the campaign found that almost three quarters of 18-24-yearolds (69%) say that COVID-19 has had a negative impact on their mental health compared to 28% of over 65s, while nearly half of Brits (48%) agreed that their mental health has taken a hit since the pandemic began. There’s no doubt that we all have a huge responsibility to keep people safe and support the wellbeing of both our staff and passengers. That’s also why the rail industry has made significant strides in preventing suicides on the network.

PREVENTING SUICIDES ON THE RAIL NETWORK

Since 2010, Samaritans has been working with the industry with the aim of preventing rail suicides and supporting those affected by them.

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

By Ian Prosser CBE HM Inspector of Railways, ORR

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The charity, one which is naturally close to my heart, has been providing support and vital suicide prevention training to identify and approach vulnerable people and save lives. To date, more than 23,000 rail and British Transport Police staff have been trained. This is critical to give staff in the industry the skills and the confidence they need to make life saving interventions. From April 2020 to March 2021 there were 1,810 interventions made on the overground rail network. Most of these were made by rail employees, the police, and the public. This year (since April 1st), almost 1,000 interventions have taken place on Britain’s rail network by rail staff, BTP officers and members of the public – which is incredible. As an industry, we also recently relaunched Samaritans’ Small Talk Saves Lives campaign. The campaign reminds the public they already have the skills to start a conversation with someone who needs help, giving them the confidence to act. By trusting our instincts, if something doesn’t feel right, a little small talk and a simple question, such as “Hello, what’s the time?” can be all it takes to interrupt someone’s suicidal thoughts and help set them on the journey to recovery. Recent research conducted by Network Rail and Samaritans found that 76% of those who saw the campaign in the last phase said they would be either likely or very likely to approach and speak to someone who appeared upset or in distress on a platform at a train station.

Every suicide on the railway has a lasting effect on family and friends, as well as rail staff, commuters, and the wider community.

www.saferhighways.co.uk

It also found that 53% of those who have seen the campaign were able to identify that someone who appeared upset or in distress on a platform at a train station might be considering taking their own life, compared with just 36% of those who haven’t seen the campaign. 42% said that the campaign had increased or reinforced their intent to act if they notice someone who appears withdrawn, alone or upset.

ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

Samaritans branches also support their local railway stations to help those affected by potentially traumatic incidents. In the hours, days or weeks after an incident Samaritans volunteers can be called upon to attend a station to be there for any staff or passengers affected. This post-incident support service to railway stations has become more widely available through the development of close relationships with train operating companies the industry partnership, signed in 2010. In addition to the support provided locally by branches, Samaritans also delivers Trauma Support Training to equip people with the skills to help them when their colleagues may be suffering from trauma after an incident, as well as giving them the skills to talk with them and if needed refer them on to further support. This training has been delivered to over 1,300 rail managers and British Transport Police officers to date and continues to be hugely well received. As a trustee of my local branch in Cambridge, volunteers play a crucial role – and number of volunteers come from within the rail industry.

And one of my own inspectors at the Office of Rail and Road, Karen Barnes, who got involved because she wanted to give something back and so became a Listening Volunteer like Paul. She said the volunteering really improved her own mental wellbeing and helped in her work too. I know the roads sector will have their own initiative, but there’s no doubt this work has helped the rail industry make significant strides in preventing suicides on the network and help give staff and passengers the confidence to approach someone who may need help. I for one will continue to support this crucial work and encourage the industry in this area.

But it is important to remember that anyone, even those in the roads sector, can contact Samaritans free any time from any phone on 116 123 to receive support.

Given the rail industry’s already long-standing partnership with the charity, it was an easy decision to strengthen the links. This saw the Million Hour Challenge born in 2019. Its premise is simple: to generate a million hours of volunteering support to the Samaritans during Control Period 6 (April 2019-March 2024). It provides rail staff with a great opportunity to give something back and to make a real difference to people’s lives. Over the last few years, I’ve heard some incredible stories from people in the industry supporting the Million Hour Challenge and Samaritans. One such story is from Tony Brindley, who works at Romford Railway Station for MTR Crossrail, who took on and completed the challenge of walking one million steps in September last year to raise money for Samaritans. Network Rail’s Paul Johnson is another fantastic example of how rail staff can make a difference through the Million Hour Challenge. As a Samaritans Listening Volunteer at his local branch, Paul provides non-judgemental, caring, and compassionate support to callers who really need someone to talk to.

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

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BRINGING COMMUNITIES

TOGETHER

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Contact Our Highways Team Customer Account Managers:

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ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

WE NEED TO PLAN OUR MESSAGING TO ROAD WORKERS MORE EFFECTIVELY if we are to communicate with the public better and eradicate road worker abuse

Nobody should be abused at work - it is totally unacceptable. Everyone should go home safe without fear of returning the next day to face the same situation. There is enough stress working next to live traffic where anything could happen at any time, let alone being abused whilst doing it. But sadly, road worker abuse is getting worse. Even some of our team visiting or surveying a site have been abused in the past. That’s why Coeval fully supports the Safer Highways led industry-wide Stamp It Out campaign which aims to eradicate road worker abuse. All the operatives in our industry deserve protection for the work they do to improve the country’s road network, creating faster, smoother, more efficient journeys.

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

Recently it was announced in a survey by our fellow Safer Highways members, Re-flow, that only 42% of the public agree that enough is being done to protect roadworkers in the UK. The results were part of a new YouGov survey, with less than half the British public feeling that enough is done to keep roadworkers safe, showing that current standards are not considered good enough by taxpayers and road users. In Scotland, a quarter of road workers have suffered mental health issues following verbal or physical abuse from the public while they work, new research has found. Almost one in ten staff said they have been subjected to physical abuse in the past year, while one in five reported having missiles thrown at them. The survey of Scotland’s trunk road maintenance companies, including Amey, Bear, Connect and Autolink, found one in four respondents said the abuse they have experienced at work has affected their mental health. The Stamp It Out campaign looks to achieve several things over the next year but communication is one of

www.saferhighways.co.uk

Richard Bevins Managing Director, Coeval

the key pillars. I personally believe that as industry we have improved our communication with the travelling public. But there is still work to do. I would suggest that at least some of the abuse that goes on is driven by the fact that the public don’t understand why roadworks are going on in the first place. While there is still no excuse for abuse of any kind, often anger increases when people don’t understand what is going on and why, how long they are going to be delayed by and the length of time the works will continue for.

reasons behind the project and making sure that we communicate the ‘why’ factor so the public understand the intended outcome and the reason behind it, we need to be able to communicate that effectively to people, and we need to engage them as well. We need to be able to answer the questions that matter to them.

The highways industry still needs to improve the way it communicates both internally and externally to the travelling public so it can inform what it is doing and more importantly why it is doing it in a more engaging way.

As an infrastructure technology specialist, we believe messaging will play a vital role in helping industry communicate more effectively at the roadside. At the moment, for example, our Cloud Control Application is used for remote monitoring and data provision

There are of course some really good examples of great communications in the industry, but we have a long way to go to get the public on side. It is about informing and engaging and that will encourage users of the networks to behave differently.

Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity has transformed the reality of monitoring and control for all types of assets, including roadside technology. The level of connectivity between systems that cloud-based technology allows is vital in making the road a safer place; for road users and road workers.

It’s about getting all the right information from the whole supply chain delivering the schemes and the consultants that have been involved in designing the schemes and then actually really understanding the

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Only 42% of the public agree that enough is being done to protect roadworkers in the UK

www.saferhighways.co.uk

There is no doubt more effective use of technology on the roadside will help deliver the right message if planned in the right way.

It is this level of connectivity that allows Coeval’s intelligent systems to deliver multiple operating functions. Our LED signs can be remotely monitored so our clients can ensure their assets are working and providing information and advice to road users. More importantly, we offer remote control to ensure the right messages are being shown at the right times. For example, a teacher can activate the ‘school warning signs’ with the use of a tablet or laptop from the classroom; this offers the flexibility to change activation times to suit the school. Another example is the remote control of hazard warning signs on rural roads; we delivered a solution to a farmer who needed to herd cattle over a road from one field to another and can now remotely activate a warning sign 50 yards down the road via a hand-held transmitter; warning oncoming vehicles in plenty of time of cattle crossing; delivering peace of mind for both farmer and approaching drivers.

ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

Remote monitoring and control not only allows for flexibility and effective asset management, it increases safety by minimising the need to have people working roadside to maintain or operate the technology. Coeval’s Vehicle Activated Hazard Warning Signs (VAS) are designed to support hazard awareness by helping to protect them and others by warning of potential hazards. The company designs, builds, installs and maintains bespoke technology solutions that advise, inform and protect road users and help to reduce driver error. This technology could be used in different ways to protect roadworkers as well. What if we used it to help provide informative messages around roadworks - counting down the days until work has finished or simply just reminding people that workers don’t need to be abused, they are simply doing their job to make the road safer and better for those travelling upon them? Sometimes simplicity in our messaging can have the greatest effect. Other technology is also keeping both road workers and the travelling public safe. Our recent partnership with EarthSense means that local authorities across the UK will be given further support with their mission to improve air quality. Linking our message signs with the EarthSense air quality monitoring system will see realtime messages being relayed to the public on air quality levels and which areas to avoid etc.

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Coeval’s Vehicle Activated Hazard Warning Signs (VAS) are designed to support hazard awareness by helping to protect them and others by warning of potential hazards.

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

This comes at an important time for council’s, many of whom are either launching Clean Air Zones (CAZ) or investing significantly in low emission projects as well as active travel. Local authorities and other road operators are looking more to technology to help them identify and assess areas of poor air quality and the causes before appropriate action can be taken to improve it. As part of this partnership, the Coeval supplied Cloud Control System directly interfaces with the EarthSense Zephyr® air quality monitor taking the real-time pollution data to set predefined messages on the Coeval LED message signs, again without the need for manual intervention by operatives. The Zephyr® data is categorised into seven levels, providing an air quality index which can trigger the appropriate messages on the message signs, for example identifying diversion routes, to avoid high levels of air pollution. Utilising intelligent signage to influence driver behaviour and increase the attractiveness of active travel (walking and cycling), by improving safety and comfort, can support the improvement in air quality. Elsewhere, we are also trying to help solve the challenge of bridge strikes in the UK. Bridges strikes not only place the people directly and indirectly involved in them at risk, they are also a costly problem. According to Network Rail, in 2019/20 there were 1720 bridge strikes that were reported a reduction of 11.3% from the previous year but still amounting to five every day. Of these strikes, 328 locations received multiple strikes and the most expensive single strike amounted to £1.8 million in train delay costs recently. Bridge strikes involving buses remain a concern for Network Rail with a steady increase over the last 10 years. Most of the vehicles that hit railway bridges are Heavy Goods Vehicles(HGVs) as well as buses, at a cost of around £13,000 per strike – costing the UK taxpayer around £23m in a year, said Network Rail. Our solution is Overhead Vehicle Detection (OVD) systems that can alert drivers to a low bridge ahead and warn them that they are too tall to pass under it. It can also collect data in relation to the number of triggers and help to identify if there is a wider issue that needs investigating further. But that’s only half the battle. To be effective the messaging needs to be far enough away from the bridge for any drivers of overheight vehicles to be able to react and change route. When you are practically on top of the bridge-there is often no going back. So, you see, whatever the technology and however it is being used, effective messaging can help solve many problems. It may not solve road worker abuse but if it goes some way to help, then we need to be thinking about it.

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coeval.uk.com ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

ARE YOU LISTENING INCLUSIVELY? Catherine Baker, Director of CIRAS, talks about how an inclusive approach to listening can help make us all safer.

Everything is awesome when you are part of a team, right? I can think of some great teams I’ve had the privilege to work with, whether as volunteers or in work. You’re all on the same page and everyone is fired up to play their part and overcome challenges together. The event, service or product is delivered with a sense of shared achievement. Awesome. But it is not always like that. I’ve been in groups (hard to call them teams) where everyone else seemed to be on the same page. Maybe it’s the ‘banter’ which borders on offensive, maybe the awkward silence when I walk in the room, or not being given space to speak amongst the dominating voices. It’s hard to deliver your best in that context, and easy to let the majority view win even if it really didn’t seem to be the best solution.

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Racial, language and cultural tensions were factors in the accident Rail Accident Investigation Branch – 2020 Annual report

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

This is one thing when you are working in an office or running a community event, but out in a safety critical environment this moves to another level. When frontline transport and infrastructure workers raised health, wellbeing or safety concerns through CIRAS in 2020/21: 1 1% chose to report confidentially because of fear of the consequences of voicing them openly. 5 7% did not believe managers would take their concerns seriously if reported directly. Real, recent examples where people got hurt, or were concerned that they could get hurt, but were unable to speak out. Not so awesome. For 25 years, CIRAS has worked across the transport sector to enable workers to speak up with any concerns or ideas that could impact health, wellbeing or safety. By guaranteeing to protect the confidentiality of those who call and taking the time to listen to what they have to say, we enable leaders to hear voices that might otherwise remain unheard. Organisations can access critical intelligence, making it more likely that the workforce and public they serve will go home safe and well every day. We believe that people are a critical part of any health and safety system, all people. Not only as the eyes and ears to know what is actually happening late in a shift on a cold wet night, but also as sensitive monitors of invisible cultural factors which we too often read about in accident reports … when it is too late.

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Ray Britland Contracting are specialists in environmental work, the majority of our projects involving grass and wild flower seeding and mowing in terrain that would often be inaccessible to most standard machinery. Based in Cheshire and established for over thirty five years, today a substantial proportion of our work is linked to new road building projects and greensward maintenance on the UK motorway network. We have contracts for the maintenance of 120 reservoirs nationwide and various Forestry Commission sites across the country as well as extensive grass and scrub cutting on our A roads and Motorway network

COMING SOON!

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ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

make sense to trust a safety inspection by an experienced team member, but a passing comment by a site visitor about the way people are talking to each other on site might be far more valuable in unlocking the cause of an upward trend in near misses. So here is the challenge of listening inclusively. The voices that we are less likely to hear are also the ones that are so valuable because they bring a new perspective. The Office of Rail and Road expresses in their Risk Management Maturity Model the need to understand the ‘gap between the ‘work as imagined’ of the written health and safety management system (SMS) and the ‘work as done’ actions taken at the sharp end; the ‘here and now’ of task performance’. Only by really listening to all voices can we get the full picture. The great thing about people is that we are all different, so we see things from different perspectives. Because of your background, culture and experiences you might notice something that would not register on my radar – and that something might just be the early warning that needs to be noticed to keep us all safe. It could be as simple as somebody being able to see a crack in a machine that is below the eyeline of their taller colleagues, or as subtle as the realisation by someone using English as a second language that the way an emergency procedure is written is ambiguous. Noticing is just the start – only if that something is voiced and actually heard can it become useful. Many organisations have made great progress in creating listening cultures where everyone is encouraged to speak out openly on safety. But is it working for everyone? Do we listen for the ‘safety silences’ to identify where there might be gaps in what we hear about because some viewpoints are not voiced or not heard? Those with less secure employment contracts, those in any kind of minority (whether protected characteristics or not), those who are new to the team, those who have been burned by past experiences of speaking up – there are many factors influencing who chooses to speak up. Whether it is conscious or not, there are also factors influencing which voices are listened to most. It might

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

It matters if I am distracted from a safety-critical task when the tea-break ‘banter’ offends or upset me. It matters if I’m not well protected by badly fitting PPE designed for a different physique. It matters if colleagues are slack with communications protocols and as a speaker of English as a second language I misinterpret an instruction. It matters even more if these things go unchecked because the voices that could raise them are not heard. In 2017 CIRAS conducted a survey of transport staff and found that around 80% said they would feel confident to speak out on a safety issue. That’s most people, great. But what about the 20%? That could be a lot of voices, and different perspectives, that are never heard. If we want to make our listening truly inclusive, we need to acknowledge that everyone is different. This is where having a broad range of routes for workers to raise concerns and ideas helps. A reporting app might be brilliant for some people, but others prefer to speak to a real person. Some are ok putting their name to a concern, for others this is a real barrier. A manager’s open door enables some to come forward, others would rather go to someone independent. I would argue that a team can only be awesome if everyone has the opportunity to be heard, and the different perspectives together inform decisions. That way we’re all more likely to get home safe and well.

To find out more about the role that confidential health and safety reporting can play in your inclusive listening visit www.ciras.org.uk or contact marc. spillman@ciras.org.uk 020 3142 5320

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2021

Sukhy Hogwood Global HSE in Design, Jacobs

AT JACOBS, WE DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY What if we could provide solutions that improve the health and wellbeing of workers, increase the productivity of our design teams while adding value to our Clients through reduced costs over the lifecycle of a project? As a solutions company we have always had HSE at the heart of our business. Our passion for safety and our courage to care for one another and our environment inspires mutual respect. We are proud that in our culture, our people go beyond following legislation, procedures and processes.  When we apply these fundamental principles of BeyondZero® to our engineering and design outputs, we can deliver solutions that raise the bar of health, safety and sustainability.  Using de5ign, we will provide solutions that improve the health and wellbeing of workers and increase the productivity of our design teams, while adding value to our clients through reduced costs over the lifecycle of a project.

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

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The greatest opportunity to reduce or eliminate risk to the health and safety of the worker and/or end user, lies with the designer.

Sukhy Hogwood

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What is De5ign? De5ign is our framework for HSE in Design which takes us beyond base legislative requirements and provides a consistent approach to safety in design across our global business. The framework is scaleable in application from small streetscape design to advanced research and development and technology industry facilities providing support to our designers through a developing HSE in Design toolkit and integrated HSE in Design professionals to support our designers to maximise HSE benefits throughout the whole lifecycle of the project.

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ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

Why De5ign? The greatest opportunity to reduce or eliminate risk to the health and safety of the worker and/or end user, lies with the designer. Designers need to understand the risks associated with the lifecycle of the asset and how their design decisions can influence how assets are built, operated, maintained and demolished. By considering the whole life cycle of a project our designers can not only produce designs which are safe but that are efficient, leading to reduction in programme length and cost savings in addition to the health and safety benefits provided. De5ign is cross cutting with Jacobs approach to digital solutions, innovation and technology which integrate with De5ign to generate high value solutions for our Clients and customers and in addition, supports Jacobs key BeyondZero and Sustainability strategies.

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Considering safety and constructability from the ground up reduced CAPEX from $0.5 - per litre to $0.4 per litre Arthur P. Kennedy Water Treatment Plant, Canada

Find out more https://www.jacobs.com/de5ign

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Safety innovations in our design on a major UK infrastructure project have saved $21 million and increased life spans of structures by 50 years Smart Motorway Programme, UK

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ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS: MAKING INNOVATION ACCESSIBLE ACROSS YOUR ORGANISATION Tina Catling, innovation director, Morgan Sindall Infrastructure

We believe in challenging the status quo, and empowering colleagues to find new ways to keep each other and our communities safe each and every day. Collaborating and innovating to keep everyone safer is something that we all endeavour to do, but often the day to day gets in the way.

that’s reserved for a specific team, working away in isolation in a separate meeting room. Instead, it’s seeded across our entire organisation, to embed innovation in all we do and make things better, faster, greener and, above all, safer. To achieve this, it’s vital to build a culture where every colleague feels equipped with the time, tools, courage and skills to think in new and different ways. Everyone should feel that they enable innovation to thrive.

So how can we keep ourselves and our colleagues accountable for delivering against our ambitions to innovate? At Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, we believe that a people-first approach can pave the way. The first hurdle to overcome is to look beyond innovation simply as a process. While process is a key part of structuring the development of innovation, processes don’t create innovations; people do. Our people-first ethos sees colleagues across various roles, levels of responsibility and skills throughout the company working with their peers to challenge the status quo. This means that innovation isn’t something

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We recognise that companies don’t innovate;

...their people do. By empowering our teams to think differently, equipping them with the time, skills, and encouragement to explore ideas and challenge the status quo, we create a catalyst for innovations that support our customers’ and our ambitions.

MS8944

We believe in connecting people, places and communities through innovative and responsible infrastructure.

www.saferhighways.co.uk

ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

Making innovation accessible Innovation is typically assumed to be a technical and difficult process, but it doesn’t need to be that way. The right tools and processes can make all the difference to an individual or team navigating even the most complex issues. A structure or platform to operate in can help everyone to focus on one stage at a time and reflect on how best to use their existing skills to solve the issue, while minimising the opportunity to censor ideas before they can be considered. Our innovation process, known as the innovation flywheel, is summarised across five stages: absorption, explosion, consolidation, action and capitalisation. Our innovation management system Echelon can then support colleagues as they work through these stages, as well as providing a platform to collaborate with and reach a wide range of colleagues both inside and outside our organisation. This enables us to benefit from the cognitive diversity needed to enrich our innovation. We need people with different skills and ways of thinking to support the development of innovations. But these things alone aren’t enough. To be successful in innovation colleagues must know that they have the support and encouragement from their leaders, and that it is always ok to take the time and opportunity to stop and think, to collaborate, and to innovate.

Seeding innovation skills across our organisation We know that the best way to innovate is to generate lots of ideas, and the best way to have lots of ideas is to include a lot of people and different types of thinkers. But innovation is more than an explosion of ideas; it’s about understanding the challenge, investigating the impact of potential solutions, identifying ways to make these ideas happen, and measuring their impact. These steps also need a range of different skills and ways of thinking that individuals across your business can lead and support. We’ve coached around 10% of our colleagues in innovation best practice, known as our innovation Catalyst programme, to facilitate and support innovation on a day-to-day basis. Our innovation Catalysts are motivated, courageous and tenacious, deploying a range of workshops, thinking techniques and communication styles at different stages of the innovation process to get the best out of everyone involved.

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

In 2020, we set out to eliminate one of the most common risks in our work environment: hand injuries. Supported by our innovation leadership group, our innovation Catalysts brought a diverse group together, working together from different points of view and ways of thinking to understand the challenge and propose novel solutions. However, innovation may only thrive in a culture where it is safe for everyone to put forward ‘off the wall’ ideas that may spark fresh new ways of thinking and working.

Building a culture of confidence and courage In order to think freely, colleagues should have a sense of psychological safety to share ideas without judgement. Our innovation Catalysts encourage teams to respect and consider every idea, using different idea-generation exercises to suit the colleagues they’re working with and provoke fresh ways of thinking. At our ‘explosion’ phase, we aim to come up with as many ideas as possible. Simple things such as saying ‘that’s interesting, tell me more’ rather than ‘we’ve tried that before’ creates a sense of respect that encourages colleagues to be courageous and bold with their ideas and, ultimately, delivers high-impact ideas. Our ‘Safe Hands’ challenge delivered over 100 bright ideas, capturing a broad mix of technological, behavioural and organisational changes that could contribute to the elimination of hand injuries at work. Focussing on communications and behavioural psychology techniques such as nudge theory, the solutions aimed to ensure individuals are maintaining personal responsibility at all times during essential ‘hands on’ tasks. Individual elements of the campaign

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included specialised PPE to remind colleagues of the risks, and hand yoga to promote better hand awareness. Meanwhile, with a focus on leveraging technology to minimise the need for ‘hands on’ activities that place hands at risk, we continue to work collaboratively with our supply chain and the wider industry. This two-pronged approach gives us the confidence to say we’re doing all we can to eliminate the risks. But without taking the time and headspace to think about the issue, we risk a ‘sticking plaster’ approach; long-term solutions need longterm thinking.

Carving out time to think It’s critical to support people to understand and manage the tensions between delivery of our promises today, and working on innovations to enable a better tomorrow. An affinity to efficiency and thoroughness often makes people censor themselves and their ideas, as well as creating a reluctance to take time out for free and creative thinking. Making time to think, and empowering our teams to do the same, is a key enabler throughout our approach. Those who innovate know that it isn’t something that is done at the end of the day after completing their tasks or activities; they know that innovation is part of the work. Outside of specific innovation challenges, we encourage all our colleagues to take regular time out to think, having launched our ‘Time to Think’ app in 2020; a simple reminder to stop and think for fifteen minutes every day, ringfenced from the usual distractions. For our ‘Safe Hands’ challenge, our innovation catalysts took time out with colleagues to gain a better understanding of the challenge, hosting workshops where colleagues were invited to draw their hands and annotate the harms they had endured over their lifetime. Moving into the ‘explosion’ phase, five separate groups were established to generate ideas with different focus areas, creating the time and space to look at the issue from several different viewpoints. Just two of many formats that helped teams to immerse themselves in the challenge, the time that was made to truly understand the issue was instrumental in finding a solution, as well as raising awareness of the issue and engaging with colleagues across the business.

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This is just one example of the dozens of challenges we’re working on as an organisation this year. Whether we’re seeking out ways to eliminate single-use plastics, new technologies to accelerate projects, or new ways of working for improved wellbeing, a people-first approach to innovation can extend to each and every one. By empowering our teams to think differently, equipping them with the time, skills, and encouragement, we can create an environment where we can really challenge the status quo, always questioning ‘is there any other way?’ where safety is concerned. As we strive for 100% safety, we believe a people-first approach to innovation provides countless opportunities to build a safe and healthy environment for us all.

To learn more about our people-first approach to innovation, get in touch with us via email: innovation@morgansindall.com

ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

CODE RED Flash floods, heat waves and rising sea temperatures are just some of the reported impacts our behaviours are having on the world around us – effects that scientists warned us of decades ago. Sam Scofield Head of HSEQ, Amey

With COP 26 just weeks away and the sixth assessment report on climate change released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Amey’s Head of Environment and Sustainability for Transport Infrastructure, Samantha Schofield, shares her thoughts on how our sector can bring decarbonisation to the forefront and change the way it works to limit the devastating impacts of code red. Climate science tells us, in no uncertain terms, that the world’s climate has changed – and continues to change – at an unprecedented rate. Now, as we stand at a crossroads, we’re faced with a choice: ignore repeated warnings to reduce our carbon emissions or act before it’s too late. Decarbonisation, once the buzz word for our generation, is now a focus for all businesses. It’s no longer something that’s just included in corporate annual reports and given lip service to, it’s an action that requires us all to take responsibility for. The good news is that many organisations, large and small, have recognised their responsibility to contribute towards creating sustainable communities and ensure that they leave a sustainable legacy for generations to come.

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

This year, the Department for Transport (DfT) published its Decarbonising transport: a better, greener Britain plan that sets out the government’s commitments and the actions needed to decarbonise the entire transport system in the UK, delivering net zero by 2050 and creating a cleaner, healthier future. This was followed earlier in 2021 with the publication of Highway England’s 2030, 2040, 2050 roadmap to net zero, breaking it into three areas of focus: Corporate Emissions, Maintenance and Construction Emissions and Road User Emissions. So how, exactly, is Amey spearheading change - laying the foundations to ensure that sustainability, in the widest possible sense, remains at its core? Earlier this year we launched our Roadmap to Net Zero which commits to reducing carbon emissions, reaching carbon net zero by 2040. The two ambitious targets outlined in the plan include:

A chieve Scope 1 and 2 Net Zero by 2035 with a minimum of 80% absolute reduction on a 2019 baseline Be fully net zero including Scope 3 by 2040 To achieve these science-based targets, we’ll be following four principles: reduce, transition, innovate and engage. As a leading infrastructure services and engineering company that delivers vital services across the built environment and transport infrastructure, we recognise the importance of reducing our impact and supporting clients to achieve their carbon and climate change ambitions. We’re not starting our journey from a blank piece of paper. Work across our Transport Infrastructure business is already well underway to tackle carbon challenges.

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Greener, leaner fleets in partnership with local councils The efficacy of governments around the world, which are often voted in for four and five-year terms, is often a source of debate. After all, how can a government realise its true vision, particularly one set to span three decades, as is the case with the journey to net zero, if it only has a relatively short timeframe in which to implement it? This is our differentiator. Many of our contracts with local councils run for over two decades, a period of time in which we can implement real change and where longterm visions can be realised. Our 25-year Streets Ahead partnership with Sheffield City Council illustrates this. Using a PAS 2050 carbon forecast model - the British standard widely used by businesses to calculate the carbon footprint of their goods and services – we established that a key source of carbon emissions was linked to the project’s supply chain, which included Amey’s vehicle fleet. Working in collaboration with the council, we began trialling hydrogen and electric vehicles across our light commercial fleet, the result of which has already saved 1,791 litres of diesel and reduced CO2 emissions by over three tonnes. Over the vehicles’ lease period, we expect this figure to increase to 5,625 litres and 14.6 tonnes of CO2 emissions. These trials can also be seen taking place across our Area 7 and Area 10 Highways England contracts. Carbon reduction of this scale does not end at Amey’s electric and low carbon vehicles; our impact is also being felt across many areas of the business. Our commitment to biodiversity has seen us work closely with Highways England through our Area 10 contact to establish a collaborative tree planting initiative. As part of The Living Highways Project, and through our work with Sheffield City Council, we’re looking to establish if biodiversity and ecosystem services can be enhanced on road verges, all whilst reducing maintenance costs.

A light bulb moment Another example where our positive impact is being felt is the more nuanced area of highways maintenance: street lighting. To date we have installed over 200,000 LEDs in streetlights within 14 local authorities, which is not only cutting each council’s carbon, but also their cost. In August last year,

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Amey won the contract to upgrade City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council’s 56,500 street lighting assets, which will see 48,300 existing streetlights replaced with LEDs – a move that is expected to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by 65 per cent. As with any major shift, particularly one that requires the adoption of new technology, there is a cost. Therefore, making sustainability as accessible as possible on the journey towards net zero is essential – particularly for local councils who are already expected to achieve more with less. We need to be brave to implement these ‘spend to save’ initiatives that will have a positive environmental impact.

The road towards a greener economy In 2020, in collaboration with the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT), we launched a Green Finance Toolkit to help local authorities with green finance. The move supports the government’s Green Finance Strategy, which seeks to ensure that government and the public sector work together to fund green projects and align private sector investment with clean, sustainable and resilient growth.

ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

Procuring local materials, providing local employment opportunities, and creating bespoke transport plans through mobility or accessibility hubs that can provide communities with green transport options will all reduce the associated carbon emissions. But this is a shared responsibility, one that requires collaboration from not just within our sector but across all organisations – it’s a new approach that cannot be achieved in isolation.

The road ahead Recycling materials, using data led solutions and looking to green fuel are just some of the steps we’re taking to reduce our environmental impact.

Recycling materials Whenever highways teams go out to make a road repair or fill a pothole, there will always be some waste materials to remove as part of the process. Working with our Staffordshire client we’ve been recycling road materials with a special focus. The area doesn’t have any quarries for natural materials and the quantities required for highways maintenance are so large that transportation costs would make it very costly to buy from other regions. So, we’ve been recycling wherever possible. We collect the old material and stockpile it in four depots across Staffordshire. When we have an economic batch quantity of waste, a mobile crushing and screening plant is used to process the material into aggregate. There are of course costs attached to crushing and screening, however these are more than offset by the savings.   Because we always have a ready supply of aggregate materials, we are very self-sufficient and not dependent on the availability of products. We’re not quarrying new stone therefore cutting transportation impact in our process, creating significant carbon savings and reducing pressures on the environment. It’s not just about recycling materials either. When we successfully mobilised our Highways England Area 12 contract recently, we went fully paperless – a first for Amey. Having digital solutions in place we reduced the need for paper trails on the contract, not only making small environmental changes but changing the way we work using data and reporting tools more efficiently.

Place based data solutions One of the biggest impacts I believe will come from procuring our materials and looking at place-based data led solutions; creating a holistic approach that brings together decarbonisation and social value to reach net carbon zero.

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

To meet the 1.5degree Celsius global warming target reduction, as set out in the Paris Agreement, and through our net zero road map commitments, I’m confident that by collaborating with our clients, supply chain network and local communities, we’re on course to achieve this target and play a significant role in accelerating the decarbonisation of the economy and shaping sustainable communities as part of our journey.

You can find out more about Amey’s Roadmap to Net Zero, and case studies on its progress so far by following the link Amey.co.uk/Social-Value

Improving lives with smart infrastructure solutions Future-shaping strategic consultancy Consultancy and advisory Digital technology solutions Asset optimisation Complex programme delivery

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WHY SOCIAL VALUE IS SO IMPORTANT TO ME By Lizz Robinson

I’ve always cared a lot for people and communities. One of my earliest memories was my dad sitting me down to tell me there were children that didn’t get anything from Santa, that it was time to find some of my toys to donate. I was also the kid who started to clean leaves off driveways, I’d raise money for charities and also spend time in old peoples homes singing for the residents, whether they liked it or not I might add. Little did I know that over 30 years later (let’s not be too specific) that this would have been my introduction into the world of what is known nowadays as ‘social value’. I remember starting my journey in highways back in 2004, before my daughter Freya was born. Social value wasn’t even a consideration back then and even the suggestion would have probably been met with raised eyebrows. Nowadays, it’s ingrained in how we carry out our construction schemes. Rather than focusing purely on the concrete, or the technology, we have an obligation and a responsibility to assess the economical, social and environmental impact of what we are doing. However, it’s taken the release of the Construction Playbook to stop it from being driven by a handful of individuals to now being a buzzword on everyone’s lips. But why has it taken so long to get to this point? It’s in our best interest to do what’s right, not because the contract says so, or because we get paid to, but because we are the custodians of tax payers money and with great power comes great responsibility.

S A F E R H I G H WAY S M A G A Z I N E

We have also been sitting on board the Titanic with the ever looming iceberg ahead of us. Not actual ice of course but this issue of resources vs volume of work. We’ve talked a lot over the years saying ‘we must do more’ but now it’s a reality that if we don’t consider local recruitment, untapped resources pools, transferable skills etc then we will have some serious issues. That’s why leading the ‘Emerging talent’ workstream for Safer Highways is so important to me. It gives me the opportunity to bring some industry greats together to really get under the skin of how we change the face and perception of highways. I want to make this an industry that Freya (and thousands like her) want to join! It’s really difficult to talk about social value without talking about diversity and inclusivity. Not that I’m apologetic about that. It’s about time every single one of us took responsibility for creating an inclusive psychologically safe environment where diversity is embraced, people thrive and new skills are encouraged to push boundaries. We don’t want people leaving. We want people championing the positive experiences they have and making us the industry of choice. There are, of course, pockets of excellence, but so much is still being done in silo and for competitive advantage. It’s often done because we are being told to do it and not because the long term benefits are understood and bought into. So now we are faced with a choice. We can continue to give the Social Value agenda Lip service while we occasionally go and paint a fence or cut some grass. Or we can come together as an industry. We can stand shoulder to shoulder to tackle the issues as one and use this opportunity to drive genuine change.

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ISSUE 13 • SEPTEMBER 2021

IMPROVING LIVES BY DELIVERING WORLD CLASS INFRASTRUCTURE SAFELY AND SUSTAINABLY

#MORETOMURPHY www.saferhighways.co.uk

SH Magazine Issue 13

Articles inside

ARE YOU LISTENING INCLUSIVELY?

SOUNDING THE DEATH KNELL ON FATAL RISK

LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS

WHY WE HAVE TO CONTINUE TO SHOW LEADERSHIP ON HEALTH, SAFETY, AND WELLBEING