RoSPA Press Office : Press Release

November 26, 2007
RoSPA OFFERS TAILORED SAFETY ADVICE TO DIRECTORS

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents is launching a specialist consultancy service to help directors and senior managers address their vital role in accident and ill-health prevention.

Roger Bibbings, the safety charity’s Occupational Safety Adviser, is offering a tailored consultancy package to enable those at the helm of organisations to assess their leadership of health and safety and plan for continuous improvement.

The launch of the new service coincides with a greater focus nationally on health and safety as a strategic issue for businesses and the important role of directors.

Through the consultancy package, Roger, who was made an MBE for his services to occupational safety and health, will deliver:

• High-level briefings at board level, advising on director and senior manager involvement and providing guidance on best practice and practical route maps for continuous improvement;
• One-to-one reviews with individual directors and senior managers to assess their engagement with health and safety and to provide advice on options for continuing professional development;
• Facilitation of one-to-one benchmarking with directors and senior managers in peer organisations (based on Health and Safety Executive guidance and case studies);
• Advice on showcasing good practice (for example, through RoSPA’s Going Public on Performance project).

Roger Bibbings said: “Increasingly, health and safety is accepted as a board level, corporate performance issue. It is an important dimension of Corporate Social Responsibility on which organisations are being challenged to report to their stakeholders. There is a massive business case for effective health and safety management and the Health and Safety Executive continues to bear down on poor performers.

“No business, however outstanding, can afford to delay reviewing their corporate governance of health and safety. Directors need to be able to show that they have taken all reasonable steps to manage risk, and have effective health and safety management systems in place, including arrangements for involving their workforce.”

The Institute of Directors and Health and Safety Commission recently published a document outlining the health and safety responsibilities of directors to help set leadership benchmarks. The possibility of Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide prosecutions from next year, and the greater scrutiny of individuals during health and safety investigations, provide added incentives for directors and senior managers to ensure their arrangements are up to scratch.

Roger has spent more than 30 years advising on major health and safety policy issues, both nationally and internationally. He is a Chartered Fellow of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), and a recipient of RoSPA’s Distinguished Service Award and the IOSH President’s Distinguished Service Certificate.

For more details about consultancy packages delivered by Roger Bibbings, contact John Lester, RoSPA’s Workplace Safety General Manager, on 0121 248 2006 or email jlester@rospa.com