The SHP Awards judging panel has selected 20 finalists for SHP’s Rising Star UK Award for 2021.
The SHP Rising Star Awards celebrate young, high-performing health and safety professionals. Some of the brightest, most passionate young stars of the profession.
Rising Stars is brought to you as part of the wider SHP Awards, which, for 2021, is in collaboration with Shirley Parsons, global HSEQ talent experts.
Rising Star UK recognises health & safety professionals under the age of 30, across all sectors, going above and beyond to improve occupational health, safety and/or workplace wellbeing in the UK. This is the highest award for young health & safety professionals.
The winners will be announced in mid-December.
The finalists are:
Courtney Bayne, Assistant Health & Safety Adviser, Dundee City Council
Courtney left school in 2018 at the age of 17 to join Dundee City Council’s Health and Safety team as their first ever Modern Apprentice. She achieved her SVQ 3 in Occupational Health and Safety with her first year with Dundee City Council.
Courtney is a Health and Safety representative on Dundee City Council’s Safety Advisory Group. This involves analysing all paperwork and inspecting sites to ensure safe events. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was responsible for ensuring that a constant supply of PPE and sanitising products are available to all employees in Dundee City Council and has developed a process for providing home-working employees with display screen equipment to enable them to set up their home workstation safely.
She is responsible for the statutory duty of investigating employee cases of COVID-19 to determine if the case is work related and reporting such cases to the HSE under RIDDOR and for developing a variety of risk assessments for the Scottish Parliament Elections to ensure that every element of the election was delivered safely, without risk of employees or members of the public contracting COVID-19.
Cindy Bell, Safety, Health and Env. Advisor, Greggs
Cindy Bell is the Safety, Health and Environmental (SHE) Advisor for Greggs PLC, based at Greggs’ Balliol Park production site in Newcastle – host to one of the first hypoxic freezer facilities in the UK. Cindy has developed her knowledge of hypoxic environments to fully understand the hazards to reduce the risks associated with this type of facility. Cindy provides SHE advice and support for the Manufacturing and Logistics teams at Balliol Park – the centre of excellence for sausage rolls and pasties, and Gosforth Bakery – one of UK’s largest doughnut plants.
As the installation is being looked after by contractors from Holland (while Cindy has her day to day role to cover) she has continually changed her working hours to fit with online meetings and training sessions as these are held after the engineers have completed their sifts and fed back to their office in Holland on progress and any potential concerns during the build.
During the build, Cindy read the relevant Standards and identified that an Emergency Rescue Team was required as part of the entry procedure.
Connor Callinan, Group H&S Advisor, TClarke
Despite being only 25, Connor has already completed his NEBOSH Construction Certificate and is half way through his NEBOSH Diploma in Occupational H&S Management.
Connor has made significant progress throughout the business since he started as a health and safety Junior Assistant. He has proved himself to be a ‘go to’ individual who has established the respect from his peers and project management teams as an advisor. Connor has become a proactive and innovative individual who is known for his ability to help others and ensure tasks are addressed and closed out in a prompt time frame.
Connor is focused on creating a change in Site Management Level where H&S Management is not just seen as something that ‘has to be done’. He is known for facing challenges head on and is dedicated to changing the stigma surrounding H&S Management to a culture where individuals take pride in H&S because they want to.
Jessica Collings, Health and Safety Officer, Great British Communications Ltd.
In the space of eight months, Jessica has gone from a H&S Coordinator to a lead Health and Safety officer, completing her Masters Degree in occupational health and safety.
Jessica has helped mentor three health and safety coordinators, providing support and guidance. During the pandemic, she provided updates to all staff, sub-contractors and the general public as legislation and guidance was updated.
As a young health and safety professional working within the male-dominated construction industry, Jessica has broken down the stereo type by being knowledgeable, passionate and gaining the respect from the engineers, colleagues and her peers by going the extra mile to provide support.
Adam Dennehy, Senior SHE Advisor, Costain
Adam is a passionate and driven HSEQ professional who began a career in construction Health and Safety shadowing a Health and Safety Advisor at Sir Robert McAlpines, following a five-year tenure in the British Army.
Joining Costain, Adam has supported the framework he is on to manage high risk activities. He has spent time with key contractors which are used frequently to help improve their internal processes which has shown a significant improvement on operator safety on sites, with hazard reporting reducing significantly month on month.
Prior to being promoted Adam worked closely with the senior SHE team and completed a lot of their tasks as well as his own. He would support with the end to end PQQ approval and supplier onboarding.
Adam was perfectly placed as he has built key relationships across the supply chain to support contractors. This has been identified by the supply chain which created demand for him to complete coaching sessions with their operators. He was also approached by a university student to shadow him on site and they have completed several site visits and started to build hand-on experience. Adam has given him tasks for his dissertation and given him actions to complete when on site. He is also contributing to the on-site reporting and delivering a tool-box talk to operatives in the coming weeks.
Frances Fry, Health & Safety Co-Ordinator, Coca Cola Europacific Partners
Fran is a dedicated health and safety professional, who began her time as an apprentice administrator where she excelled to the point she had almost completed the program in the first 12 months. She then progressed into the safety team where she has driven the safety culture via the on site safety reps to create a more approachable department.
She has taken responsibility to build a strong first aid induction along with formulating a strong emergency team process which will finally define the roles and accountabilities that managers will have to adopt going forward.
Jamie Hamilton, SHEQ Co-ordinator, K4 Consultancy
Jamie believes that the best safety management system, which drives effective results, requires human performance, process performance and performing technology. He assists clients with implementing lean processes as well as coaching human behaviour, resulting in what he believes to be industry leading safety management systems.
Jamie has been crucial in the design, build and roll out of paperless site folder technology in Northern Ireland. He has also been involved in the creation of informative video content, such as toolbox talks, publicly available through LinkedIn.
Jamie has also been in involved with the secondary school he attended, holding interactive classes with GCSE and A-Level students, promoting a career in health and safety. He has also worked on ensuring compliance on construction sites for housing adaptations to make properties more accessible for those with disabilities, including protecting the tenant.
Shanara Hibbert, Workplace Wellbeing Officer, University of Hertfordshire
Shanara is a National two-time British Championship Triple Jump medallist, equality and wellbeing advocate, published writer and poet. As Sustainability and Workplace Wellbeing Engagement Officer at the University of Hertfordshire, she collaborates across teams to deliver wellbeing events and initiatives and manages the Wellbeing Champion Network. During the pandemic she set up and coordinated a wellbeing working group to support staff. She is also improving how the impact of workplace wellbeing initiatives across the organisation are measured.
In this role and her former as a Student Success Officer (Equality), Shanara was highly commended for Professional Staff member of the year. She has also been recognised with a National AdvancedHE Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence in the latter whilst line managing the University’s BAME Student Advocates, despite a period of sick leave following surgery this year.
Alongside years of line managing employees, she has a background in Marketing and experience as a Marketing Manager; co-ordinating promotional activity for multiple departments and organising large-scale events.
Shanara is passionate about empowering those who are underrepresented in society to realise their potential, prioritise their wellbeing and be the best versions of themselves. As such, she is due to qualify as a certified coach this year.
Bethany Holroyd, UK Health and Safety Advisor, WSP
Bethany Holroyd is a Health and Safety Advisor at WSP for their UK Transport and Infrastructure business. Bethany moved to Health and Safety after being approached internally within her business to make the move after showing a keen interest in safety. She has 11 years experience with nine of that being in the civil engineering industry. Having worked in both the public and private sector at (Halcrow/CH2MHILL and then The Moray Council) she has a broad range of knowledge that has helped her to succeed within her new career.
She enrolled onto NCRQ diploma, showing drive and commitment to complete in just eight months. She has written articles and blog posts for numerous businesses and institutions focusing on STEM careers, women in the construction industry and mental health. She delivers site safety training at WSP as well as supporting her business units and has brought a wave of positivity, passion and enthusiasm unlike any other.
Since changing careers she noticed that health and safety isn’t promoted as much as STEM, resulting in her working hard to promote it as a standalone career choice. At WSP she delivered the H&S segment for the undergraduate/apprentice induction for 2021.
Chloe Hughes, HSE Graduate, Rolls-Royce Plc.
Chloe is a HSE graduate at Rolls-Royce whose energy and enthusiasm for health and wellbeing has had a significant impact in the relatively short-time she has been with the organisation. Chloe has a passion for wellbeing and has become the lead for the menopause strategy within Rolls-Royce.
While undertaking her various placements over the past year; she became involved in the menopause discussion in 2020 and, under her leadership, a menopause café (employee resource group) was set up which meets virtually monthly providing a platform for women to share their experience and information with each other. She also moderates the internal Yammer (social media) menopause group.
Rolls-Royce is a majority male organisation and Chloe is leading the internal discussion on menopause, a female health issue across the organisation by highlighting why it is important of all colleagues to understand the challenge some colleagues experience due to menopause.
Alongside her work, Chloe is pursuing a PhD in organisational health and wellbeing, with the ambition of expanding the evidence-base of stigmatised and taboo reproductive health topics.
Peter Jenkins, Group H&S Manager, Dalziel
Peter is a voluntary member of the IOSH future leaders community steering group, supporting the institute in engaging new and emergent professionals in the industry across 2021-2023. During his time volunteering he has:
He also contributed to the first Future Leaders magazine article (published at the end of June) regarding loneliness and mental health, providing active solutions and signposting to additional resources, supported by a LinkedIn poll & discussion to further engage readers across a narrative of discussion.
Also, Peter has volunteered at a local brewery in his community – due to the pandemic it had been hit quite hard and they were brain storming idea’s with the owner of other revenue streams. Peter came up with the idea of doing brewery / tasting tours – and has booked in a stag do and now since the lockdown easing the brewery has multiple other bookings.
Tapiwanashe Kanengoni, Health & Safety Apprentice, Wincanton Plc
Tapiwanashe (Tapi), a recent Law graduate, decided to pursue Occupational Safety, Health and Environment (HSE) following an inspired undergraduate experience with E.ON UK. Whilst enjoying his degree, Tapi was looking for a niche area where he could utilise his legal understanding with a view to supporting business functions by preventing any legal liability being sought against them.
Tapi is responsible for the incident response on The Halfords site, analysing incident trends for the Halfords contract – whilst supporting other contracts and also recommending the implementation of new safety initiatives with the intention of preventing future incident and accidents reoccurring.
Despite only being in the role for a short time, Tapi has taken on a challenging role and grasped the opportunity with both hands. He has established a positive and productive working relationships within the health & Safety team and the wider site management team.
Sharing this ethos across all sites and networks is what Tapi has worked hard to achieve. Demonstrating this by organising a behavioural safety working group for his business unit, which has already positively recommended actions for various contracts to adopt for greater value in incident investigations and to spread this passion for behaviour safety across the business. Furthermore, his impact is highlighted by the upturn in safety engagement – with safety conversation rates on the Halfords contract increasing by 200% whilst he has been employed at Wincanton.
Tapi is currently reading through the Law Commissions Comprehensive regulatory framework for self-driving vehicles proposed to Government, in order to stay ahead with the inevitable legal – HSE changes that will occur in his industry.
James Knott, Health & Safety Manager, SJ Eastern
James has a true passion for people’s wellness, having experienced ill mental health himself. He was selected as Mind’s August 2021 guest newsletter contributor. Within the newsletter he talked all things eating disorders in men, including triggers for eating problems in males and campaigning for better mental health within the construction industry, in addition he has also blogged about his own personal story battling Anorexia Nervosa six years ago.
He has also produced a vlog in association with Mental Health UK to raise awareness around mental health, particularly eating disorders.
James has recently joined his secondary school alumni and supporters’ network, attending a launch day in October. During the event he spoke about his determination to succeed and his willingness to do well in life.
Danielle MacDonald, HSQE Business Partner, Arcus FM
Danielle’s career in health and safety began during her time in Alberta, Canada, where she was responsible for the day-to-day management of health and safety on a large-scale construction project. She then qualified as a health and safety professional with the completion of her master’s degree in Occupational Health, Safety, and Environment at University of Birmingham, before joining her current business, Arcus FM, in 2018 as a HSQE Graduate. Danielle progressed into the HSQE Business Partner role after 12 months, and also recently gained her Chartered membership of IOSH.
Danielle has developed and mobilised a new incident management system along with training resources to support Line Managers completing investigations. She has also supported the development of the culture for colleagues to lead on health and safety, by providing them with the tools and coaching they need, creating opportunities for robust data gathering and trend analysis. Danielle has also been involved in mentoring & coaching Line Managers in the investigation process to tease out wider learnings & opportunities for improvement to prevent reoccurrence as well as prevention of other hazards/risks. Her most recent achievement was becoming a Chartered Member of IOSH.
She has also supported the creation of a mental health and wellbeing programme, which included the introduction of Mental Health First Aiders into the workplace, and a campaign calendar to promote mental health and wellbeing at work.
Mason McIntyre, Senior H&S and CDM Consultant, Hollis
Mason’s journey started in the Royal Engineers, preparing RAMS for construction sites in various environments around the world.
He immerses himself in his role, showing determination, judgement and a flair for innovation. He recently pursued a risk identified on a project and produced a bespoke report highlighting the hazard and solutions through engagement with designers and contractor to create a robust record of the design decisions. His new report is now being rolled out across his organisation.
Mason is in the process of gaining his chartered status and uses this learning experience to improve the knowledge of all those around him. He has used his experience in the military to identify and remedy poor practises on construction sites through appropriate and supportive communication. He is currently developing a CPD presentation for colleagues, clients and contractors on design risk management off the back of the creation of his new design risk appraisal report.
Mason recently volunteered to undertake pro-bono work on behalf of a social enterprise charity, in which he is keen to use his skills to influence safety in design, construction and the use of buildings.
Matthew Noblet, HSEW Advisor, Siemens Mobility
Matthew is keen to always challenge the status quo, but in a way that is respectful and open minded to the past. He is cautious that things may be in place for a just reason, and that it might not immediately be evident or in recent knowledge. However, with that caution, he is equally ambitious to investigate the history behind an issue, such as a working process, and suggest ways that it could be improved. He uses his excellent and attentive communications skills to reach out to those involved and who could be affected by change, to support recommendations or further change.
Furthermore, Matthew is always supporting the EHS team by utilising technology and IT to streamline processes such as near miss data collection and analysis, to present items better and save time. This includes coaching those less confident with IT, removing a lot of burden from many reporting lines, some of which are now even automated.
Phillip Roberts CMIOSH, Group Health and Safety Manager, Joseph Ash Galvanising
To support the development of the wider health and safety profession Phillip delivered a presentation in September that shared the approach he implemented at his previous company to show the benefits of a culture focused on learning and not compliance.
Phillip has just started a new chapter in his career at Joseph Ash Galvanising, aiming to build a strategy to move the company out of the world of compliance and into a world of people centric safety.
Outside of work, he volunteers as a parent governor at a local primary school. In the time he has been volunteering, he has been able to make improvements to their policies and controls regarding COVID-19, which as led to the school having one of the lowest cases of COVID-19 in the area.
Andrew Thompson, Health & Safety Advisor, Canary Wharf Group
Andrew’s journey into Health & Safety began in 2014 when he worked as an Assistant Site Manager for a contractor building bungalows, before moving to Assistant Contracts Manager and then Compliance Manager at the same firm. He joined Canary Wharf Group in 2019 in a role which involves conducting risk assessments, inspections, support to the Retail side of the business, COSHH management, investigations, noise assessments, mental health support and reviewing procedures.
Andrew is an active member of the CW Ethnicity Steering Group, writing articles to educate and raise awareness on equality, diversity, and inclusion (ED&I).
Andrew has published a construction industry report ‘Increasing Primary School Places in London and the South East’ for the CIOB and is a member of the FISH (Financial Industries Safety & Health) group.
Ross Thomson, Graduate H&S Manager, Multiplex Construction Europe
Ross has recently completed his graduate scheme through Multiplex Construction Europe and now works to support the H&S management systems, policies and procedures of various Scottish construction projects. Over the past four years Ross has challenged the norm and brought fresh and vibrant way of thinking and, in March 2022, will take up the position of a Multiplex H&S Manager, overseeing a £130 million project.
As a part of Multiplex’s ‘One Life One Team’ initiative, Ross strives to promote collaboration between colleagues, clients and contractors through high-risk reviews, joint inspections and audits. An example of his influence was his approach to providing information to operatives and management through a QR system which he designed and implemented. The system allows anyone to use their phone to access files, logistics drawings and daily briefings.
Ross has taken on the mantel of the wellbeing champion for the region and is working with NHS Scotland (Wealthy Working Lives) to implement wellbeing initiatives. On the University campus project he has been working with students on a number of wellbeing projects. Over the past two years he has organised external parties to carry out talks to all operatives on heart disease, prostate cancer, stop smoking and healthy eating.
Ben Williams, Assistant QHSSE Compliance Manager, Jacobs
After leaving the British Army in 2019, Ben joined Jacobs’ graduate programme as a Health and Safety Advisor, providing health & safety support in the Cities & Places and Transportation Operating Units, gaining experience through actively supporting projects in aviation, highways and rail. Today he supports rail projects within the Transportation Operating Unit.
Ben easily accepts responsibility and embraces new challenges. He has displayed his potential for leadership by deputising for the Transportation Senior Safety Manager on many occasions. He is a great ambassador for BeyondZero, facilitating EBZ sessions and establishing himself with the London BZ Team. Ben was able to improve his Rail knowledge and planning skills during this years Rail Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme (RISQS) audits. These audits are business critical and key to maintain Jacobs’ reputation and ability to win work within the industry.
Click here to see the Finalists in SHP’s Rising Star International category.
Great team