Organisational Competence in Safety Management - 8th November 2011

This conference had three aims:

To estimate the current level of organisational competence in safety management
To explore the reasons for any identified lack of competence in safety management
To identify ways in which any lack of competence in safety management can be remedied.

We set up this Conference because in the course of recent work we have identified potentially serious weaknesses in various aspects of management systems.

For example:

Our expert witness work has identified serious flaws in the safety management systems specified in both the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations and the Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (Safety) Regulations.
Hastam's work with its clients has identified serious flaws in their safety management systems and a number of these clients will be attending the Workshop to describe these flaws and their implications.

Approximately 20 delegates attended and took part in small discussions groups as well as listening to the key speakers.

The table below summaries the key points raised by delegates during the two Conference workshop sessions.
The key points are grouped under broad topic headings but no attempt has been made to match specific 'whys' and 'whats'

*Why are we where we are?*	*What's the way forward?*
Qualification and course providers Training does not prepare people for the real world, for example, NEBOSH Syllabuses are not in line with business needs Training does not prepare people to develop systems Nature of safety management teaching – starting with regulations and focussing on legal compliance Lack of safety management teaching, for example how to write procedures Qualifications are not competence focussed	Improve training and assessment of competence for safety professionals and managers and supervisors Need more experts in safety management who can drive improvements
IOSH IOSH should be doing more to ensure the competence of safety practitioners IOSH should be lobbying HSE re HSG65 Refreshed Not competence focussed	Improve training and assessment of competence for safety professionals and managers and supervisors
HSE Not competence focussed Questionable [safety management] competence of regulator Legislation does not dictate that we have a safety management system Quality of HSG65 is a limiting factor on organisations' safety management systems Lack of safety management system standards allows inspectors to push their own agenda	Revoke HSG65 Look at SMEs and how 18001 could work for them Stipulate that organisations must be independently audited Make legislation on safety management more explicit
Existing Safety Management Systems System is seen as an end – not a means to an end Suffers from inertia – we've always done it this way Legislation driven Focus is on practical risk control No holistic approach Too many procedures so important ones don't stand out
Implementing new Safety Management Systems System set up to meet external standard – not to provide what works for the business It is assumed that one size fits all To little time spent on assessing value of changes Standards used are not meaningful No communication links which can be used to measure understanding of managers and employees	Have clear processes so that people will follow them Use an incremental approach – not a big bang approach Recognise that 18001 is a Standard – not a badge Keep it simple Needs more measurement – if you can't measure it you can't manage it Need to be bespoke and meet the needs of the specific business Need to fit system to business – not business to system Need ongoing review and challenge with adaption when necessary
Problems with practitioners Overlook external [non health and safety] factors Operate with what they imagine happens at work – not what actually happens Lack of general managerial competence Silo approach – refusal to share best practice Not aware of BS OHSAS 18004 Legal protector role distorts priorities Don't seek clarity on how their organisations really work so that they can apply the safety management system to that Too wiling to take on general management roles, eg risk assessments which should be done by managers	Need to take specific actions to address safety management weaknesses Need a good understanding of the organisation they work for Need to move from 'specialist' image and get managers to 'do safety' Need to push business benefits of 9001, 14001 and 18001 Need business management skills (to write business cases) and sales skills (to get money to move safety forward) Need to get backing of senior managers Need to measure compliance more positively Need to influence the regulators Identify the skill sets they need (eg writing, monitoring, measuring managing) and develop them
Problems with managers Treat safety as an afterthought Conflicting priorities KPIs are ill defined Football managers approach to safety – sack safety professionals who don't get results quickly Safety professionals not seen as change facilitators Senior managers do not fully appreciate effectiveness and benefits of a safety management system No general management system, therefore no safety management system Assume that people who have done a course are competent – no initial or continual assessment	Businesses need to understand: limitations of CMIOSH what they want from safety professionals the knowledge and experience their safety professionals require the generic requirements for safety professionals Managers need to welcome bad news Monitor people after training to check competence is ongoing More safety subjects in MBAs Need to know what their dashboard and KPI measures mean Need to raise their professional standards Need to know their audience and adapt to different styles Make safety part of operational discussions
Other Safety has a negative image Auditors are not competent	Market case studies on what good safety management has achieved Publish safety successes outside of safety media eg IoD and management magazines Build competence of workforce] to reduce need for systems