News of The London Health and Safety Group

News for 2007

17th December 2007 Managing Stress at Work Carol Pennington, an independent consultant gave a thought provoking talk on managing stress at work. Carol described how people can react when they feel under increasing levels of stress. These behaviours can have an adverse affect on work colleagues and often result in a serious reduction in an organisation's ability to perform effectively. Over the last ten years, best practice in stress management has moved towards a much more active and interventionist approach. Carol recommends that organisations such:- Look for Evidence of Stress, Build a Case for Action by Managers, Avoid Gimmicky Solutions, Intervene Quickly and Locally. More details are available by downloading her presentation.		Management Committee Retirements Neil Courtman has recently retired because his new job no longer includes responsibilities for health and safety. He did a magnificent job in producing the LHSG Newsletters; notable for their comprehensive review of current affairs and the humorous cartoons. His pertinent and witty contributions at the committee meetings will be very much missed. We wish him well in the new job. Jim Jenkinson retired from Camden Council earlier this year and has just relocated to a charming historic village in Northumberland. He has been a stalwart supported of the committee for many years. Jim prepared the application forms when we won the Alan Butler Award for Best Group Programme in 2004 and 2005. We wish him a long and happy retirement.
______________________________ 15th October 2007 Moving Goods Safely Colin Preece, General Manager of Pristine Condition gave a fascinating talk and demonstration on effective manual handling. The company specialises in using a knowledge of anatomy and physiotherapy to specify effective lifting techniques that are customised for individuals carrying out specific tasks. This usually leads on to customised training programmes, establishing support groups and monitoring procedures. Colin's presentation was enthusiastically received.		____________________________ 19th November 2007 Behavioural Safety Simon McDermott Brown of Quo Group Ltd gave a most interesting presentation on how Managing Behaviour Makes a Difference. Simon outlined occupational psychology principles in terms relevant to H&S with practical examples. It was interesting to review why employees choose safe or unsafe behaviours and the factors that can influence them. Most of these factors can be readily influenced by managers so this could point the way forward to further improvements. This would be in addition to striving to embed the technical elements of a sound H&S system into the organisation.
_______________________________ 17th September 2007 Revitalising CDM - Refitting the Pitfalls Stephen Coppin, Head of EHS for Lend Lease gave a talk on the practical implications of the new CDM Regs. Having been on a government review panel, Stephen is very well aware of the construction industry's response to the new CDM Regs that were introduced in April 2007.		_____________________________________ 17th September 2007 Revitalising CDM - Refitting the Pitfalls (contd) Under the new Regs the "Client" is very much more accountable for the construction activities. Hence he needs to employ someone who is competent to undertake these duties. Stephen's presentation is available as a download but be aware that it is a big file at 10 Mb. Also he recommended the video "The Benefits of Foresight" and publications from HSE and CITB.
___________________________ 14th May 2007 Fire Safety at the Tate Galleries Dennis Ahern, Head of Safety and Security at the Tate Galleries gave a presentation on Fire Safety at the galleries. The Tate has 3 galleries and a storehouse, with Tate Modern being the most challenging. There are two major considerations in the Fire Risk Assessment; protection of people and preservation of artwork. In addition to the staff, the galleries can be filled with the public and their disability needs will be unknown. The artwork is liable to be damaged by the sprinklers so precautions are taken to avoid accidental actuation. Dennis' presentation is available by clicking here.		_________________________ 12th June 2007 Health, Work and Well-Being This was a special joint meeting hosted by the IOSH London Metropolitan Branch to which the LHSG was invited. The meeting was held at at The Franklin Watkins Building, Kings College, Stamford Street, London SE1, very close to Waterloo Station. The principal speaker was Lord McKenzie of Luton. The newly appointed minister with responsibility for the HSE within the Department for Work and Pensions. He presented the latest government strategies on balancing the requirements for improving employees Health, Work and Well-Being. Richard Jones, IOSH Director of Technical Affairs, then presented the IOSH action plan to implement this Government Strategy.
________________________ 16th April 2007 AGM & HSE Report The meeting started with the AGM for the Group. The Chairman's report highlighted that the Group continues to attract new members which has resulted in bigger audiences for the meetings. The CDM Regs meeting was particularly popular. Roger Lummis, current Treasurer and Elaine Tym, previous Chair were elected as Honorary Members for notable services to the Group. This was followed by the election of the Executive Committee, the previous committee members were re-elected with the addition of Gill Elwell, Peter Livock and Michael Smith. Meeting Sponsor The meeting was sponsored and financially supported by Marion Murphy's consultancy business. www.healthandsafetyhelp.com Provider of professional Chartered Safety and Health Services		________________________ 16th April 2007 AGM & HSE Report Jonathan Holvey, HSE External Relations Manager, presented the meeting with a Report on HSE's Achievements for Last Year and Plans for the Future. They had made a concerted effort to engage with SMEs; e.g. roadshows and inspections of activities such as fair grounds rides. Developments such as recycling in the waste industry was a cause for concern because now there is much more manual handling than just emptying one dustbin. The HSE would like help to promote the Workplace Health Connect service that is designed to help SMEs. Click on the banner for their website. The HSE is faced with the prospect of reduced funding in the future. So they are actively developing partnerships with other groups that can influence H&S at work; this includes LHSG.
___________________________ 19th March 2007 Safe Working at Heights Richard Hinkley from Total Access (UK) Ltd gave an excellent presentation on ensuring safe conditions when working at heights. Total Access specialises in advising and facilitating access to very tall structures such as office buildings and bridges. Hence, Richard was able to give many practical examples. He emphasised the need for careful consideration to be given at the design stage to ensure the inclusion of an appropriate access system. Richard expounded the merits of abseiling and rope access as an appropriate solution for many applications. This requires specialist skills and equipment but can be a very effective and economic arrangement.		___________________________ 19th March 2007 Safe Working at Heights (contd) Downloads Available LHSG Newsletter for April 2007 HSE News Bulletins to 21st March 2007 AGM Agenda and other papers for 16.4.07 LHSG Constitution showing proposed changes Unfortunately Richard's presentation is not available because it contains propriety material. Meeting Sponsor The meeting was sponsored and financially supported by Scafftag Ltd. They provide a safety tagging system for scaffolds, ladders and other equipment. This can form the basis of a safety management systems for inspecting, using and maintaining industrial equipment. For more details contact Abi Piper.
____________________________ 19th February 2007 Visit to London Underground Ltd This year's visit to London Underground proved to be extremely popular. The group went to Neasden Depot where the Jubilee Line has their Training Rooms and Control Centre, as seen above. They have two simulators so we all had a go at driving an underground train; including the occasional hazard of an unexpected obstruction on the line. This was a fascinating experience but nobody asked for an application form!		_________________________________ 19th February 2007 Visit to London Underground Ltd (contd.) The Control Centre directs activities on the Jubilee Line. This is important when things start to go wrong, such as breakdowns or passengers needing first aid treatment. They can speak to drivers and platform staff having seen pictures from any CCTV camera and can be alerted by a whole array of fault conditions. Our guide described a host of events that he had faced, including the morning of 7/7. He fielded a range of questions and the group left with the firm impression that their operations were being effectively managed.
________________________________ 22nd January 2007 Mental Toughness Doug Strycharczyk from AQR Ltd presented the company’s modern approach to stress and their ideas on mental toughness. This is a subject which is in its infancy and AQR are leading the development of psychometric tools. In this presentation he introduced the idea of mental toughness in relation the everyday stresses of our working lives bringing clarity to a subject which can be hard to describe. This was excellent presentation and the interest in the subject was exemplified by the number of questions raised by the audience. For a copy of the presentation, click here.		_______________________________ 25th January 2007 Alan Butler Awards Ceremony at House of Lords The LHSG did not win any Awards this year, but enjoyed the occasion and were happy to pose for the photo below. The group was joined by Lord McKenzie of Luton, the newly appointed minister for H&S at DWP; Baroness Gibson of Market Rasen OBE, President of RoSPA; Errol Taylor, Deputy Chief Executive of RoSPA and Rob Strange, Chief Executive of IOSH.

NB:- These reports have been written by a member of the audience so they may not fully reflect the views of the speaker.
NB:- Previous news items may be viewed through the links on the Archive Page.

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