Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Press Releases
HSC press release: - C026:04 - 30 June 2004
Andrew Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, today announced the twelve award winners from the Workers' Safety Adviser (WSA) Challenge Fund, a grant scheme designed to increase worker involvement and consultation. Each project has been awarded between £33,000 and £100,000 to build partnerships and drive improvements in occupational health and safety. Winners are from a wide range of industries, including construction, hospitality, retail and the voluntary sector. Project partners include trade unions, trade associations, local authorities, primary care trusts, voluntary and business organisations.
Workers who have a voice, influence and responsibility on health and safety matters are safer and healthier than those who do not; increasing worker involvement is a key part of the Health and Safety Commission's (HSC) strategy published earlier this year. An essential part of the vision expressed in the strategy is a fully involved workforce and a vibrant system of workplace health and safety representatives operating in partnership with management.
The Department for Work and Pensions has provided funding of £3 million for the Challenge Fund over a three-year period. WSAs will promote partnership working between workers and employers to identify and manage risks together and provide an expert source of health and safety information. The focus of the Fund is small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lacking arrangements for involving their workforce in the management of their own and others' health and safety.
Andrew Smith said:
"Great Britain loses over 33 million work days through work
related ill health each year. This just isn't acceptable. The
new strategy for Health and Safety in Great Britain recognises that
to bring about further improvements we need to win the hearts and
minds of everybody in the workplace - hence the focus on working in
partnership with stakeholders.
"But how to bring this about? Through today's awards from
the WSA Challenge Fund we hope to see 40 influential partners and
28 Worker Safety Advisers reach out to about 35,000 workers to give
them ownership in measurable and sustained changes in their
organisations' culture and behaviour."
Bill Callaghan, Chair of HSC, said:
"We had a tremendous response to the WSA Challenge Fund, in terms of both the quantity and quality of bids. The award winners all have excellent plans for building partnerships and driving improvements in occupational health and safety.
"The WSA Challenge Fund demonstrates that we are committed to being a good partner - working with others to improve health and safety. We're very pleased that the winners represent a good cross-section of industries and regions as this gives us an opportunity to develop wide-ranging partnerships. We will work with them to explore the impact and effectiveness of the Workers' Safety Adviser approach."
1. The WSA Challenge Fund award winners were announced today at a lunch held at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors in London. Attendees included Members of Parliament, representatives of industry, trade unions and voluntary sector organisations, as well as the Challenge Fund award winners.
2. Andrew Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions,
announced the creation of the WSA Challenge Fund in October 2003.
Funds of £3m (£1m in 2004/5, £1m in 2005/6 and
£1m in 2006/7) were granted to HSC/E to take forward the Fund.
General information on the Challenge Fund, including previous press
releases, is available at http://www.hse.gov.uk/workers/index.htm.
More detailed background on the Challenge Fund is available in the
following report: http://www.hse.gov.uk/workers/involvement/wsa/wsafinpack.pdf - document removed.
3. An independent Management Board appointed by the Health and
Safety Executive (HSE) assessed the applications for Challenge Fund
awards against the published criteria and made recommendations to
the HSE for approval. Professor Stephen Wood, Chair of the
Institute of Work Psychology, University of Sheffield, chaired the
Board. The other members of the Management Board are:
4. HSE received 70 bids for the WSA Challenge Fund awards. The maximum award for each project was £100,000. Further details of the 12 winning projects, including the amount awarded to each, are given in note 10 below.
5. HSC published its Strategy for workplace health and safety in Great Britain to 2010 and beyond on 23rd February 2004. The strategy aims to promote a vision of health and safety as a cornerstone of a civilised society and to achieve a record of workplace health and safety that leads the world. The strategy is available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/hsc/strategy.htm
6. HSC has published a Statement on Worker Involvement and Consultation. The statement reflects the vital importance the HSC places on having a workforce that is fully involved in health and safety. The statement is available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/workers/involvement/statement.htm - document removed.
7. A WSA Pilot run in 2002 introduced new mechanisms for deploying safety representatives into small firms to act as WSAs. This sector is notoriously hard to reach and one that needs particular support in encouraging the partnerships and joint working fundamental for improving health and safety. The nine-month pilot deployed nine WSAs in England (North East, North West, South West and London), Scotland and Wales. HSC/E chose areas they believed would benefit most from external support including those within the voluntary, hospitality, engineering and construction sectors.
8. Some 88 employers, predominantly from small firms, participated. Surveys before and after the Pilot showed that WSAs' involvement led to improvements in small non-unionised workplaces' approach to health and safety. Nearly 73% of employers said awareness of health and safety matters had increased and a third said communications had improved. Over 75% of employers said they had changed their approach to health and safety and nearly 70% of workers observed an increase in the amount of discussion on health and safety. The Pilot facilitated the creation of safety committees in some workplaces and joint working on risk assessments and training. For more details see: http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2003/c03045.htm. The full report is published at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/meetings/hscarchive/2003/130503/c64a.pdf
9. HSC has published a series of case studies setting out the business case for good health and safety management. They demonstrate business and social benefits of health and safety improvements in a variety of organisations, including FTSE 100 and FTSE listed companies, global businesses and public bodies. The Chep UK, GlaxoSmithKline and Transco case studies relate to worker involvement. Further details are available at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/business/index.htm
-Community Services UK Ltd
- TGWU
GB-wide 20 voluntary and community workplaces The project will provide a system of Worker Safety Advisers who will promote a health and safety culture of involvement, consultation, co-operation and partnership working within the Coalfields Regeneration Trust and its member organisations £64k 4-Development Trusts Association
-Amicus
GB-wide 20 voluntary and community places The project will provide a system of Worker Safety Advisers who will promote a health and safety culture of involvement, consultation, co-operation and partnership working within the Development Trusts Association and its member organisations £62k 4-Groundwork West Cumbria
-Business Link East Lancashire
-Business Link North Manchester
-Groundwork Wirral
-Groundwork Environmental Business Sevices
-UNISON
North West 160 construction, hospitality retail and voluntary SMEs The project will create a service in the North West from which health and safety training, advice and support can be provided to small firms. The service will help employers and their employees realise and deal with their responsibilities to health and safety. The ultimate aim of this project is that any small firm in the area will be able to access this support at no cost £100k 3-UCATT
-TGWU
South West 175 construction SMEs Through setting up a sustainable Worker Safety Adviser scheme for the federation's members and their employees, the project aims to engage with the workforce to increase its understanding of health and safety policies and practices on site, was well as develop communication between employers and workers £90k 3.5-Liverpool Chamber of Commerce
-Liverpool Business Partnership Group
Liverpool 40 hospitality and retail SMEs Working within Liverpool's hospitality and retail industry, the project aims to enhance the capacity of employers and employees to deal with health and safety issues. Worker Safety Advisers will work with employers and their staff to establish practices such as workplace safety representatives, risk assessments and disability access audits £74k 2-London Borough of Newham
-UNISON
-Access Partners
-African Carribean Business Network
-Newham Chamber of Commerce
-Newham Primary Care Trust
East London 500 SMEs Working with small firms in East London, the project aims to increase communication between employers and employees so that they can work together to improve health and safety standards. The project is particularly interested in promoting the use of 'body mapping' to help workers and their employers establish their occupational health needs £41k 2-Huddersfield South Primary Care Trust
-Central Huddersfield Primary Care Trust
-Kirklees Primary Care Trust
Kirklees, West Yorkshire Up to 470 SMEs The project will create an integrated occupational health and safety support service; aimed at small firms and provided at no cost. Working actively with both employers and employees, the project aims to help them work together with areas such as policy, risk assessment and training £50k 2-Construction Federation
-National Federation of Builders
Midlands 130 construction SMEs Working with small firms in the West Midlands construction industry, this project aims to improve health and safety management. Utilising Worker Safety Advisers the project aims to motivate workers to take an active role in preventing accidents and ill health in the workplace, and promote the benefits of worker involvement to employers £69k 2.5 Call HSE's InfoLine, tel: 0845 345 0055, visit http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact, or write to: HSE Information Services,
Caerphilly Business Park, Caerphilly CF83 3GG.
Karen Eldridge 020 7717 6219
Mark Wheeler 020 7717 6905