DASH - Director Action on Safety and Health
Measuring and Reporting on Corporate Health and Safety Performance
Introduction
In March 2000, as its contribution to the DASH initiative, RoSPA published a consultation paper (called ‘Measuring and Accounting for Corporate Health and Safety Performance’ ) (RoSPA 2000) seeking views on the case for improving approaches to measuring and accounting for corporate health and safety performance. This was circulated to ‘key players’ in the British ‘occupational health and safety system’ and was made available on the RoSPA web site. It examined performance measurement and reporting against the background of strategic policy development in occupational safety and health (OS&H) as raised in the Government’s and the Health and Safety Commission’s (HSC) plans for ‘Revitalising Health and Safety at Work’ (HSC/DETR 2000) and wider issues of holistic business risk management raised in guidance on the Turnbull Report (ICAEW 1999).
The central premise of the consultation paper was that more effective approaches to corporate OS&H performance measurement and performance reporting are necessary. If organisations were encouraged - or even perhaps a statutorily required - to provide details of such performance in their annual reports, this would help raise the status of OS&H and its management, particularly among board level directors. It would also enable more organisations to set and assess progress towards improvement targets and provide a means of diagnosing problems in the context of continuous improvement.
The document re-examined issues such as:
- the limitations associated with traditional, ‘direct’ OS&H performance measures such as lost time injury rates;
- the difficulties involved in devising other ‘direct’ measures, for example, relating to health; and
- the problems associated with measuring performance ‘indirectly’ by monitoring aspects of the health and safety ‘process’, for example, using auditing to check on the integrity and performance of health and safety management systems.
It also referred to other forms of measurement such as measuring ‘health and safety culture’ and put the case for a multi-dimensional approach to performance measurement. It concluded by reviewing the case for and against corporate reporting of health and safety performance, both internally and externally and explored options for new initiatives in this area.
While it contained tentative RoSPA views at certain points, it was intended primarily to stimulate discussion. Questions were interspersed within the text to help focus attention on some of the key issues.
In addition to considering written responses to the paper (see annex two), RoSPA has also undertaken a series of one-to-one interviews with ‘key players’ and other experts (see annex three) to gauge views around a set of core questions (see annex four). These were carried out by members of the Society’s National Occupational Safety and Health Committee (NOSHC) which has also advised on the project, including the content of this report.
Since publication of the consultation paper, the Government and the HSC have made a series of recommendations in their report, ‘Revitalising health and safety at work’ (HSC/DETR 2000). These urge all large employers, as well as employers in the public sector, to begin to include details of their health and safety performance in their annual reports (action Points 2 and 13.) ‘Revitalising’ also refers specifically to RoSPA’s work on DASH.
Mostly recently, the HSC have published proposals (HSC 2001) for a Code setting out guidance on directors’ health and safety responsibilities, suggesting inter alia that board members should review (at least annually) their health and safety performance and report on their performance in annual reports. (A further Commission document is expected on this setting out minimum standards.)
In the light of a variety of views expressed on questions raised in its document (see annex five), RoSPA has sought, to make recommendations on a way forward, including what it perceives to be an outline approach to best practice.
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