IOSH EDINBURGH BRANCH
Minutes of 185 Edinburgh Branch Meeting
Craighouse Campus, Napier University, Edinburgh – Thursday 11 October 2007 - 130pm
Sederunt: V Stewart K Lloyd J Dwyer R Brydon D Ward M Munro
S Brown L McCartney R Lovering A Bell A Reid P Graham L Young
C Pender D Bond C McGregor J Marshall J McMahon J Brannigan I Munro
J Donnelly R McLean J Green T Stockdale A James M Grimmer G Jones
A Sharman E Currie L Crichton J Burt N Doherty G MacGregor T Ambler
P Brown R Bradford L Roberts R Turner M Bancroft G Fraser I Sinclair
M Gilray B Gippert J Little T Kinnaird R Brownlie S Heesom E Jensen
P Ager S Boucher P Gibson S Keddie A Diment J Reid A Reavey
J Hepburn
Apologies: Ali McLeod, Graeme Lyall, Scott McDonald, Scott Page, Julian Davis, Marion Johnston, Dick Morrison
1 Chair: Andrew Sharman took the Chair.
2. Minutes of previous meeting: September 2007
· Receipt – anyone not in receipt please email Secretary.
· Accuracy: Add Liz Young took the Chair. Proposer – Ann Diment; Seconder – Russell Brownlie.
· Matters arising - none.
3 Correspondence:
• FIRE RM SG: Networking event - ‘The Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006 – one year on’ - 22 October 2007 – Napier University, Craighouse
• 15 November: 7th Scottish Hazards Conference: The Big Debate: the way forward for health and safety in Scotland. This year’s conference will have a new format with workshop sessions in the morning and a ‘question time’ panel debate/discussion in the afternoon. See www.scottishhazards.co.uk
4. Group Reports
· Branch Education Development Officer – Liz Young. Liz reminded everyone that the deadline for being on CPD and having completed at least one cycle was 31 Dec – thereafter membership would be dropped to Affiliate level.
· Specialist Groups – noted the FRM SG event was booked up.
5. Members Items
Friday 19 October: Special Site Visit: The Risk Factory, Chesser: 130pm. Bookings to Ali McLeod: ali_mcleod@btinternet.com
· Friday 26 October 2007: Roger Midson Challenge Trophy: Outdoor archery at Beecraigs Country Park.
· January Meeting: Judith Hackitt CBE: Chair: Health & Safety Commission: questions you would like to ask/topics for her to speak on: email Secretary by end Oct
· Will need new Branch Secretary from May 08 (Max retires). Anyone interested tell Max – could be co-opted on to Exec to shadow for a few months before taking over.
· Andrew reported on the IOSH-wide Branch survey which members had been invited to complete early on in the year. In terms of the responses concerning this Branch, we were third in terms of members satisfaction which was very encouraging to the Executive Committee. 34% of respondees attended 3 or more Branch meetings a year. Of the 28% who don’t attend at all, 71% said they could not attend in works time. The Exec would look at this and, if there was a strong response, would consider alternating between afternoon and evenings.
From the list of benefits, members saw the Branch Meeting, the Site Visit and the website as the 3 most useful although email updates also came a close 4th. 48% thought the Branch was reasonably innovative and forward looking. Andrew commented that the Exec did put some considerable effort into getting good, useful speakers. He was also open to suggestions that we should organize a power disco.
Following the survey, IOSH had set up a Brach Working Party to look at how Branches were run, what they needed in the way of support, how they should be organized and he had been invited to be a member. They hoped to report in the new year.
• Sturrock Power –a Building Services Company was seeking a HS&E Manager: www.sturrockpower.com
• Paul Graham, Media Relations, reminded members of the ongoing Bonkers Conkers/Bonzer Conkers project – all examples gladly accepted.
Andrew added that IOSH would be putting in a team into the World Conker Championships due to take place soon. We would see the Presidential team as never seen before.
· 10 minute talk: Steve Boucher: Construction Awareness Training top ten
Steve indicated that he was spending a lot of time presenting Construction Awareness training and ran 10 modules covering –
• Emergency Procedures
• Risk Assessments
• Manual Handling
• Working at Height
• Working in Confined Spaces
• Fire Safety
• Slips, Trips + Falls
• Lone Workers
• Asbestos
• COSHH
where each of the topics would take in the order of 20 to 30 minutes and hence when run on one day made up a 5 hour training session. This range of topics was felt to contain something for everyone and as an example Steve indicated that one Sales lady who was involved in selling houses during weekends indicated that she would now give consideration to some of the factors he had indicated with respect to “lone working” as that was her position during weekends.
On completion of the training sessions each attendee was presented with a certificate of attendance and they were required to sign they had received and understood the training given.
The range of topics was very similar to the HSE Construction Top Ten of –
• Falls from height = Working from height
• Being struck by a moving vehicle = Site transportation
• Being struck by a moving or falling object = Lifting operations
• Site management = Organisation and order
• Musculoskeletal injury = Manual Handling
• Asbestos = Asbestos / hazardous substances etc
• Respiratory disease = Respiratory disease / cement dermatitis
• HAV = Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome
• Noise = Noise induced hearing loss
• Entrapment by collapse or overturning = Flooding / uncontrolled collapse
but it should be borne in mind that the HSE top ten tends to be an ever changing agenda as is indicated by the current agenda not including Slips, Trips & Falls.
Steve then indicated that Awareness Training has become more and more popular with employers, particularly construction companies because:-
- it fills a gap in certain areas of health and safety training quickly and effectively, for example it helps Principal Contractors comply with Regulation 22(2) of the CDM 07 Regulations, i.e. Site induction, training and information.
- it is simply that it is designed to supply up-to-date information on those regulations pertinent to a given business in an informal way or act as refresher information to compliment existing training.
- it can be used to supplement other forms of health and safety training, e.g.
(i) Where construction training has taken place for a CARD scheme.
(ii) Where there has been an amendment to a specific Regulation
– Asbestos, COSHH, etc.
- it can cover multiple subjects as with the opening slides or focus on individual subjects such as COSHH, Asbestos, Manual Handling, etc.
- it can cover a wide range of responsibilities right from the MD down to the shop floor
Whatever it covers, awareness training should focus on information on:
• Exposure to health risks
• How to reduce risks during work
• Action to be taken in emergency
and in presenting it to foreign worker it may be necessary to present it through an interpreter
6. Guest Speakers
Influencing Attitudes
Gareth Jones, Head of HSEQ, Petrofac Operations Services and Emma Currie,
Managing Director, Acting Up
The presentation started with Emma entering the room and performing “DAVY'S BABY” – a powerful monologue told by Davy's wife who is carrying their baby, this is the moving story of the shared responsibility of an accident.
Gareth & Emma then introduced themselves to the members and indicated that they show them how and why they believe this style of training is so effective.
The aim
Their aim was to take the assembled members through the mechanics of what they believe to be a winning formula for changing organizational safety behaviour.
To do this they would need to talk about three things –
Data
Emotion and
Change
Data
This is the factual basis and it is felt we all tend to assume that presentation of the information in this way will persuade the audience to become safer. E.g.:-
- a graph of the number of accidents, or a chart of information
- or if presented in human form – someone who in the past has had an accident telles the assembled audience of his/her experiences (either face to face or as a DVD)
- it is all based on the past
we tell people why they need to change, what to change into, how to do it and then expect them to agree and act.
Emotion
They felt they needed to demonstrate the difference between data and emotion in a practical way and used a past experience of Gareth’s as an example.
Data / facts – An underground worker suffered serious hand injuries when he was trapped by a piece of coal face equipment he was installing
Result – In a week’s time you will probably have forgotten the detail of this presented data, however if it is presented in an emotional way the chances are the detail will remain.
Emotionally – Gareth then provided the full details of the incident =
“John and I had been underground since 6am that day and it was getting late in the afternoon. John was his mechanical engineer and they had been trying to install a major piece of kit in a major contract – possibly the biggest of its kind in the country if not Europe when they had encountered a problem – parts of a conveyor would not locate together. Then I could see what the problem was and there was a crash followed by a scream – don’t know if you have ever heard a man scream – it comes from his gut – its makes yor blood run cold. I went round to see John standing there looking down at the pulp which used to be his fingers – trapped between the two halves of the conveyor. I went round to him to hold him – my mistake – I the had to hold him for the next 6 hours while they freed him and got him off the hospital. Once the morphine started to take effect John turned round to me and said “I guess this means I’ll never play cricket again will I?” – I don’t know why he said that, but he was right, he never did play cricket again”
Result – So in a week’s time you will probably have forgotten the detail of the data, but the chances are that the personal story version will still be with you in a year’s time which is a result of your emotional connection with it.
Theatre
Theatre makes you feel stuff – Theatre is real life with the dull bits cut out.
Emma demonstrated this with a very emotional presentation which had virtually all of the assembled members dumfounded and speechless.
Theatre uses sufficient information in the form of data to make the story understandable and creditable such that the audience is involved emotionally through their own imagination and it plays to –
- our fears
- our hopes
- our life energy
and in doing that it provides a mirror into our behaviours and it plays out the consequences of our actions before your very eyes.
It is not a comfortable process.
When you watch an actor in a theater you feel nervous for them in case they forget their lines etc, but if you see them presenting their lines in the workplace you are likely to feel This is inappropriate and will in turn create a form of nervous energy which is being fed by a two-way communication between the actor and the audience
Change
In the energy exchange between actor and audience we generate the change necessary.
We are more likely to turn away from “Poor guy, with what happened to him” which is all based on the past and instead turn more towards a feeling of “Poor us, poor wife, poor children…etc” which is based on the present rather than on the past and in that way opens up our imagination to link the potential of the future to the present.
Summary
Data is essential but it is dead information. It is immovable and set in stone.
Emotion carries a lesson and makes people wiser. It forces its way into our heart and anchors itself there.
Change is what happens when you get wise. If the emotive content of the piece connects to a safety issue they will want to know how to be safer people and WANT is the most powerful driver of all.
A VERY powerful method of training – because it works.
The speakers then opened the floor to questions and comments
7. Closing details
Dates of next meetings
· Edinburgh Branch: 8-Nov: Asbestos management in practice Liz Sneddon, OHSAS
· Forth & Tay District: 1 Nov: Iain Kelly, Fife Legislative Community Safety Dept: Fire Risk Assessments and Fire Safety Guidance
Max Bancroft, MRSC, CMIOSH
Branch Secretary
Richard Lovering, CFISOH
Branch Executive Committee