Deborah Edmonds, HS2 Ltd.
I am responsible for ensuring HS2 Ltd’s strategic health commitments are delivered. That means defining and developing new health standards for HS2 and its supply chain, and always looking to the next generation of technology and innovation to improve health outcomes.
We believe that good work is good for health and we’re implementing a strategy that helps our people flourish. The strategy also sets out an expectation from our supply chain to create healthy working environments.
As part of our health and safety programme, we have Safe at Heart, that sets out some clear health-orientated strategic commitments to:
We are currently launching our occupational health strategic approach within HS2. A roll out will be communicated across the organisation which will be supported through a cascade from senior leaders- who will be equipped to start good (physical and mental) health conversations and who will be helped to understand the impact of their leadership upon their teams.
Without health we don’t have anything- we need our people to be in good health to deliver the programme and all its challenges. As an employer, we have a moral duty to ensure that work is a fundamental part of everyones’ health and wellbeing, and we support their recovery from any underlying health conditions.
Safety is traditionally given more prominence and air time than health, so success is where health is given equal status to safety- if not more!
Creating an environment in which people feel able to talk about mental and physical health issues and where they are equipped to manage their health.
It is means that we design an environment and infrastructure where people can work well for longer.
We are giving people access to a range of work-focused preventative and rehabilitation services for both mental and physical conditions. They can access and manage this for themselves so that they can remain in work or return to work sooner following illness or injury.
Yes. It is discussed in depth at every level of the organisation, right up to Board level and we have included robust specific health requirements into our tenders to our incoming supply chain.
We have signed up to an innovative digital platform, the Big White Wall, which offers an anonymous creative and personalised service that is supportive in a crisis but also offers ongoing bespoke assistance programmes to support our staff on an ongoing basis.
We approach health engagement in the same personalised and innovative way we undertake all staff engagement. We use a variety of methods- from lunch and learn sessions to roadshows and workshops and interactive sessions . We are currently carrying out a survey with our staff, to let them inform the health and wellbeing programme and the proactive health interventions on offer for the coming year.
We are working on equipping our line managers to have the tools to have constructive and positive conversations with their reports so that they can design a return to work programme specific to that individual.
We are actively working with Business Information Modelling (BIM) to implement health by design ie to design out health risks and hazards during HS2’s construction, operation and maintenance. Our supply chain is also expected to implement a new standard, developed by HS2 Ltd, to incrementally reduce the hazard exposures to individuals over the next five years. We know this is a major challenge but we believe it is achievable and has been validated by the Institute of Medicine.
The future is exciting! We are creating a legacy that is not just for HS2 but for everyone.
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Nice rhetoric, but if HS2 is anything like the safety culture on Crossrail which has been dogged with problems which I have seen at first hand it will all come to nothing.
I think similar to Ray R below. Ultimately the day to day running of the project sits with the PC, I have seen problems before where the client thinks they are the PC and imposes their thoughts and processes on to the sites. It does not end well
Mmmm, whilst I am sure as, with any work-stress related ‘adaptation’, the following commitments are well-meaning in terms of building a system more resilient, better able to cope and be more tolerate of exposure to work stressors accepting, of course, it is a construction industry nevertheless, with a title like “Safe at Heart” I thought someone has “got it” like, you know, the link in the chain of causation between health and accidents.
Especially as they have used the magic word “exposure”, just avoided any mention of the number ‘1’ risk, work related stress, MSD’s and Wellbeing (Mental Health) manifesting in heart disease / stroke as well as other long latency non-communicable yet potentially life threatening illness reducing employees health and safety let alone “working life-cycle”.
As part of our health and safety programme, we have Safe at Heart, that sets out some clear health-orientated strategic commitments to:
View health like safety;
Eradicate wherever possible, and then minimise exposure to the top five causes of long term occupational health disorder- including occupational cancers, respiratory diseases, vibration impacts, noise induced hearing loss and skin sensitisation;
Build the resilience of our people to enable them to cope with the ambiguity of a changing and evolving programme.
A bit concerned by the end statement “enable them to cope the ambiguity” {the quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness} as it seams unexpected in the construction or engineering industry where exactness and precision should leave little room for interpretation ?
Anyway, that brings me back to, the far from non-judgmental word, ‘accidents’ or things that rarely are what the insurers call ‘acts of God’ rather than human errors or catastrophic mishaps.
It’s just a question of ’cause and effect’ and that boils down to the human factors, if not a mechanical stress failure a human one, without addressing “work stress fatigue” and ensuring or at least working toward minimising the hazard and risks of “over-exposure” to stressors the human resources will fail too.
No one intentionally fails nor is happy with making errors of any kind as, it is human nature to seek “approval” of family, community, peers or work colleagues and anyone will avoid, if possible, harm to themselves or others unless, there are either unaware, unprepared and thereby incapable of foresight or their functionality, in terms of fitness and stamina, to optimally and sustainably perform competently with minimal errors, is impaired.