IOSH and the HSE have launched the ‘Innovation in safety – small business award’, a new competition to find new ideas to improve health and safety in small businesses.
The competition is an excellent platform to showcase what you’ve done and gain industry-wide recognition. The entrant with the best new idea will win £1000 and a free two-day pass to the IOSH 2011 Conference and Exhibition, the largest health and safety conference in the UK.
If you win, you’ll be promoted on the IOSH and HSE websites, in Interface, and Connect, IOSH’s e-bulletin, and on the IOSH channel on YouTube. The winner will be announced on 1 March 2011 and formally presented with their award on 15 March 2011 at the IOSH 2011 Conference and Exhibition at ExCeL, London.
The award has been set up by the HSE’s Judith Donovan CBE, who has generously invested her cash prize for winning the 2009 IOSH/Sypol Lifetime Achievement Award to fund the competition. Judith won the award for her efforts to make small and medium-sized enterprises more aware of the need for health and safety and the importance of taking care of their employees.
“This competition is about something very important – it’s about improving health and safety in small firms,” said Judith. “I’ve run my own small business for 20 years so I know what gets in the way, whether it’s bureaucracy, red tape, or form-filling. We’re looking for an idea that’s tried and tested – one that has delivered genuine improvements in health and safety. This could be anything from new innovations to make health and safety simpler, to new systems or gadgets to help cut costs.”
There are around 4.8 million small businesses in the UK, but small doesn’t necessarily mean safe. For example, 94 per cent of agricultural jobs are in businesses with fewer than 50 workers, yet this sector has one of the highest rates of deaths and serious injury in the country. And the death rate for the self-employed is more than double that of those employed by an organisation. To cut accidents and ill health, this is clearly an important sector to reach. We’ve launched this competition to find new ideas to help small businesses keep their employees safe and healthy at work – without stopping the day job.
The competition is open to IOSH chartered members in the UK. You may be a consultant or trainer working with small businesses, or an in-house professional dealing with small firms as part of your supply chain. Your idea has to be original, and must already have been put into practice in a small business, with proven results.
How to enter
To enter the competition, go to www.iosh.co.uk/competition.aspx, then read the rules and answer the questions on the entry form. Please write no more than 1000 words in total, and send it to [email protected] by 1 December 2010.
