2012 Roll of Honour Citations
The Sir George Earle Trophy
Finning UK Ltd
The RoSPA Awards Panel's selection of the 2012 Sir George Earle Trophy winner was a tough decision as the three contenders, Finning UK Ltd, Morrison Utility Services and Northern Rail all presented robust evidence of outstanding performance.
After careful consideration, Finning were selected because of their open and positive culture of care, that is clearly driven from the top by their directors and senior managers and is energised by the involvement of workers in innovation and continuous improvement, and supported by close attention to assurance of competence through comprehensive training and mentoring.
Features which impressed the Panel included: the involvement of Finning's teams in a mutually supportive approach to behavioural safety, the extent of employees' engagement through their workplace production system in making suggestions to improve safety, and support for many of their engineering staff who often work in relative isolation at clients' sites. The Panel was impressed by Finning's efforts to both safeguard and promote health, to ensure work related road safety and also to encourage employees to take key safety messages home to help protect themselves and their families outside working hours.
Diamond Jubilee Award
Olympic Delivery Authority
This special award to mark the Diamond Jubilee year of our Patron, Her Majesty the Queen, recognises the Olympic Delivery Authority's outstanding and exemplary safety and health achievements during the "Big Build" construction work for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
From its inception, the ODA, working with Delivery Partner CLM, declared that its aim was to be a leader in safety and health, integrating these objectives into planning, design and construction operations, and enhancing workforce wellbeing.
The ODA and CLM achieved an internationally-recognised certification of their health and safety management systems (OHSAS 18001) and the Olympic construction project's occupational health function has been recognised through previous awards, including the RoSPA Astor Trophy in 2011.
The safety record of the Big Build, which, at its peak, involved a 12,500-strong workforce on the Olympic Park and Olympic Village, has been hugely impressive. Construction of the main sporting venues and infrastructure on the Olympic Park involved around 62 million hours work with an Accident Frequency Rate of 0.17 per 100,000 hours - less than half the construction industry average, and completed without an accident-related fatality.
Given the prestige and profile of the Big Build, work is already underway to maximise learning opportunities across the UK and globally, so ensuring a huge health and safety legacy from London 2012.
RoSPA Distinguished Service Awards
Professor Peter Buckle
Since the early nineteen-eighties Professor Peter Buckle has developed a highly influential career in ergonomics, making an invaluable contribution to occupational safety and health and inspiring many students and practitioners through his lecturing and research and its application to the world of work.
Peter joined the University of Surrey in 1981 and eventually became Head of the Robens Centre for Health Ergonomics up to 2007. He is currently director of the Robens Institute and a visiting Professor at three leading UK Universities.
His work in the area of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) combined his skills in epidemiology to identify risk factors associated with particular conditions (back pain or upper limb disorders) with those of ergonomics that enable the exposure to risk factors to be quantified. He has also played a major role in the field of health care systems design and patient safety and in ergonomics systems approaches to understanding errors and accidents. His work in all these areas as well as his abilities to promote collaboration between different professional and academic disciplines and organisations has been recognised with many prestigious awards, and is reflected by his membership of important national and international committees and by the extent of research grant awards, including for his work with the Health and Safety Executive.
In total Peter, who is President of the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors, has more than 300 publications to his name. His drive, leadership and boundless energy in developing the application of ergonomics has not only improved people's working lives but has provided the health and safety community with additional and highly motivated practitioners, many of whom are now highly placed within organisations throughout the UK and Europe.
Andrew Chappell
For over 30 years, Andy Chappell has made a substantial contribution to the improvement of health and safety at national, sector and local level.
Andy has been a passionate organiser and supporter of events and meetings and has worked tirelessly to increase knowledge and awareness of health and safety, particularly among small and medium sized organisations in the construction sector, where he has continued to contribute to HSE's Working Well Together Campaign (WWT) since its creation 12 years ago.
Having served as the Secretary of the Birmingham Health, Safety and Environment Association (BHSEA) for the last 16 years, he has also played an active part in the national health and safety groups' movement.
As the driving force behind BHSEA, which now has 330 members drawn from a wide range of industries such as engineering, construction, manufacturing, utilities, retail, finance, education, local government, insurance, training and consultancy, Andy has helped improve standards of health and safety and the environment at work across all industries in the West Midlands. His approach and infectious enthusiasm as well as his dedication to his work have earned him the trust and respect of numerous organisations in the health and safety community.
Abdulrahman Jawahery
As General Manager and now President of Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company (GPIC) of Bahrain, Mr Abdulrahman Jawahery has made a major contribution to the improvement of safety, health, welfare and environmental protection - not only in his own country but around the world.
Under his leadership, GPIC, which is one of the country's major employers, has been recognised internationally as having achieved one of the best safety records of a company in its field, winning both RoSPA's Sir George Earle Trophy and the U.S. National Safety Council's Robert W. Campbell Award.
Mr Jawahery has been able to use his position to promote sharing of best practice in health and safety across the industry and region and beyond. He was one of the driving forces for the establishment in 2006 of the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) to promote the responsible care agenda across the region.
He is a board member of the International Fertiliser Association (IFA) and uses his influence to improve standards across that industry. As well as making the safety handbook for the fertiliser industry, which is based on the knowledge and experience of GPIC, freely available in multiple languages, he has used the resources of GPIC to enable translation into Arabic of materials to support the NEBOSH International General Certificate, which will start to have an impact across the whole of the Middle East and North Africa from 2012 onwards.
As a member of the Shura Council of Bahrain, he has introduced five health and safety related laws and has ensured that safety, health and sustainability are promoted throughout the nation by extending his company's work with schools, universities and through employees' families.
Dr Bob Rajan-Sithamparanadarajah OBE
For over three decades, "Dr Bob" as he is affectionately referred to throughout the UK, has made a very substantial and significant contribution to the health of UK workers.
He has played a huge role in the prevention of respiratory ill health by increasing workers' understanding and awareness of the risks of breathing in harmful materials and preventing inhalation of such substances; in this context he has worked over many years to secure the correct application of Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) to reduce the levels of contamination at source; and he has campaigned for the effective protection of workers' skin – the largest organ in the human body – from damage by exposure to materials causing dermatitis.
Dr Rajan has been very active in these areas at a national UK level and his knowledge, understanding and patience in conveying essential information about these risks has been vital in improving workers' awareness of the long term impact of such exposures and the steps that can be taken to protect them and reduce potential ill effects.
Practical examples of his work include initiation of the HSE's "Practical Guide to Respiratory Protective Equipment"; the setting up of the "Clean Air-Take Care" campaign and also the DERM project "It's in your hands" for the protection of workers' skin from dermatitis. Latterly, he has had a major input to the award winning "Health Risks at work –Do you know yours?" project, which after its success in Scotland is being rolled out by Safety Groups UK with the support of many of the major UK health and safety organisations, to target SMEs throughout England , Wales and Northern Ireland.
Share this page: