The best health and safety index in the world, or something that should be left to wither on the vine? Respondents to a recent review on CHaSPI were certainly polarised in their views on the performance index for large companies launched by the HSE in 2004.
The Executive commissioned Greenstreet Berman to review the Corporate Health and Safety Performance Index to determine the extent of its use, who uses it and how, and ways in which it could be improved.
CHaSPI is a free Web-based tool available to organisations employing 250 people or more in the public, business and voluntary sectors. It can be used to manage and track health and safety performance, and benchmark against others in the same sector.
More than 640 companies were using the tool as at the end of December 2008 – the majority of them for benchmarking purposes, to identify organisational strengths and weaknesses, and as a method of reporting on health and safety performance. Around a third of users were in the public sector, with fewer than a tenth in the voluntary sector.
CHaSPI was broadly reported as being useful, and better than other available tools and most users considered it to have had a very positive impact. However, many were unaware of all the tool has to offer and felt that it could and should be better promoted.
Consequently, the review report recommended that work be undertaken to increase awareness of CHaSPI and all its functions, and that targeted promotion be considered on a sectoral basis, e.g to those sectors not currently well represented among users of the tool, those with the highest health and safety risks, etc.
It also suggested that the tool could be integrated with directors’ duties via the Institute of Directors to provide it with a stronger “strategic front”.
Respondents also indicated that they would be more likely to use the tool if it were to be made more specific and focused, the speed of downloading documents and reports was increased, and it were to help towards some form of accreditation.
The full 92-page report is available at: www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr813.pdf
The CHaSPI tool is available at www.chaspi.info-exchange.com
