President-elect John Holden believes members have a huge role to play in helping the vision laid down by IOSH’s new manifesto become a reality.
The launch of IOSH’s new manifesto, ‘Creating a healthier UK plc’, at the Honorary Vice-Presidents Lunch at the House of Lords in May gives our profession new purpose and vision. The challenges posed have to be faced up to and met — and each of the 35,000-plus members of IOSH has a role to play.
We’ll be using the messages contained in this document to lobby politicians, business leaders, and other influencers to get across a picture of a well-organised, forward-thinking and, ultimately, caring profession. We have a lot to say to these important audiences, and we want them to listen — not fall for some of the nonsense we see presented in the media.
But it’s no good us pushing these messages if, on the ground, the people out there in workplaces see their health and safety advisors giving poor advice, failing to engage with the health agenda, and not educating people about health and safety at every opportunity. You are the people who can really make the difference, who can help make the vision real.
If you haven’t yet seen the new manifesto, go to www.iosh.co.uk/campaigns to find out more.
‘Creating a healthier UK plc’ sets out what IOSH is already doing, and what others need to do, in four key areas:
To make our vision come true, there’s going to have to be a lot of arm-twisting, coaxing and persuading in these key battlegrounds. But the manifesto makes a lot of sense, so hopefully, it really won’t be too difficult to ‘sell’.
With falling worker numbers on the horizon, we have to make full use of people’s abilities and not look to discard them from the workplace when they’re not 100-per-cent fit. The workplace has to become a place where good health and well-being is promoted and practised.
Similarly, it’s surely not only sensible but also a good investment to spend more time educating kids and those who wish to go into business about health and safety. This will help reduce costly accidents, and ensure that businesses make wise decisions — hopefully helping to cut out the ‘bonkers conkers’ incidents we read so much about in the press. It will also help save lives!
Ensuring small businesses have access to definitive guidance on health and safety, free of charge, will help them be clearer about what they need to do to at least comply with the law, and will also reduce the number of over-cautious risk decisions. After all, good health and safety is good for business.
Accreditation is something I passionately believe needs to happen. We should no longer tolerate a situation where anyone can be a health and safety consultant, regardless of qualifications or experience. With the current economic climate, we must make sure that people get the best, most cost-effective and sensible advice possible.
There’s still much work to do in this respect, and we still have to persuade government to provide a tighter definition of what ‘competence’ in health and safety looks like.
But one thing is clear: if we fail to lead on meeting the challenges we’ve set in our manifesto, that won’t look good. All IOSH members have a duty to ensure this doesn’t happen. We must press ahead with making workplaces safer and healthier for everyone — for all our sakes.
