Health and Safety Newsletters
DEFENCE & SECURITY: ASPIRE DEFENCE SERVICES LTD
“Personal ownership of
health and safety by every
one of us is the key to
changing unsafe behaviours”
from the ADSL Monthly Health and Safety Review Meeting.
The Groups for each location represent their colleagues
and develop campaigns to address current issues. Group
membership posters are available on the intranet and
noticeboards. This makes it easy for all staff to contact them
with ideas and issues.
The Communications Forums, ‘Your Voice’ were established
in the early development of the business. They enabled staff
to give feedback on health and safety performance and offer
suggestions for improvement.
“We regularly seek feedback from staff on a range of issues.
In a formal Health and Safety Climate Survey conducted
in 2009, our employees told us that they would like the
opportunity to work on the solutions to issues arising across
PAC,” Chris explained.
“As a result of their request, Safety First Always Action
Groups (SFA AG) were established. These were made up of
a cross section of ADSL staff, and were established at each
garrison and at the Aspire Business Centre (ABC). This year,
these groups have been re-launched as ‘Safe and Sure’ groups.
Each is chaired by a member of the local Management Team
and the local ADSL HS&E Manager. All other members of the
group are elected volunteers representing all departments
based at the location.
“Partner organisations also have representation on the
groups. The main purpose is to ensure that we develop
campaigns and share lessons learned that are meaningful for
all employees of ADSL and our partners alike.”
Other initiatives include an annual Safety First Always Team
Competition. Alongside this, an iSEE (Improving Sustainability
by Employee Engagement) initiative is in place that asks
staff to submit suggestions based around health, safety and
environmental themes.
W
hen the ADSL contract commenced in 2006, it
replaced previous separate FM contracts. The
organisation’s staff numbers grew overnight from 49
to 850. Chris explained the process in detail:
“These staff came from many different companies and
cultures and in our first year we had 16 RIDDORS (Reporting of
Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations).
Over the last 7 years, we have worked hard to develop an
Aspire identity and a Safety First Always brand. We have
actively partnered with our workforce to move away from
pre-contract cultures and silos of individual contracts to a
(L-R) Andrew Ollason - HS&E Manager, John Downie - Garrison HS&E Manager (Larkhill), Phil Mullan - Garrison HS&E Manager (Aldershot), Jon Jones - Head of HS&E, Chris
Cockerill - Estates Technical Director & Chief Engineer
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