Goodbye to Rob Strange OBE

This week marks the end of an era for IOSH. Rob Strange OBE leaves the Institution after 12 years as Chief Executive, and 15 years at IOSH overall – he was originally the deputy CE to John Barrell.

In that time, the Institution gained its Royal Charter and attracted 15,000 new members to become the world’s largest professional body in health and safety. It established itself as the respected voice of the profession and strengthened its position as a market leader in training and events.

Rob has said that he would be the first to say that this success has been one big team effort, involving members, staff and friends of IOSH, but his leadership has made all of this possible.

On Wednesday 1 May, Jan Chmiel (say ‘Sha-Meal’) will become IOSH’s new chief executive. In the coming months, you will no doubt hear more from Jan about his vision for taking IOSH forward in SHP magazine and elsewhere.

Today, however, we hope you will join all of us at CRS in wishing Rob all the very best for the future.

For a few parting words from Rob, you can watch a short film clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIhCish2NV0&feature=youtu.be

New Appointment to CRS Sales Team

CRS have continued to see rapid growth in  business sales  during the last 12 months and now nearing the start of their 15^th year of business,  have increased their sales team -

Ian Lowe (pictured) has joined CRS as Sales Executive. Ian comes to CRS with over 20 years’ experience in the Commercial Insurance Industry covering a wide diverse client range. Ian has worked for large provincial brokers and multinationals. Ian joins CRS with responsibility for sales of their range of open courses i.e. NEBOSH National General Certificate, NEBOSH Fire Safety & Risk Management, NEBOSH Construction and NEBOSH Environmental, and now with fifteen Open Course Training venues across the UK, Ros Stacey UK Sales Director said “Ian joins our team at an exciting time with sales continuing to increase and with the opening of the two new venues this year Edinburgh and Milton Keynes we continue to be competitive in this difficult market”. Contact Ian on Ian.Lowe@crsrisk.com

Head Protection and Tower Cranes Regulations Revoked

The Construction (Head Protection) Regulations 1989 and the Notification of Conventional Tower Crane Regulations 2010 have been revoked as proposed by the review of health and safety undertaken by Professor Lofstedt and reported by CRS last year.  

The Health and Safety (Miscellaneous Repeals, Revocations and Amendments) Regulations 2013  which revoke these and eleven other legislative measures, came into force on 6 April 2013.  These measures have been removed because they have either been overtaken by more up to date Regulations, are redundant or do not deliver the intended benefits - and do this without reducing safety standards.  In revoking these two sets of Regulations, please note the following points:

 

Construction (Head Protection) Regulations 1989 

In addition to revoking the Construction (Head Protection) Regulations 1989, the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations 1992 have been amended so that they apply to the provision and use of head protection on construction sites as well as to other forms of PPE.

Although the regulations have changed, the level of legal protection has not.  Hard hats remain vital in protecting construction workers from head injuries.  The necessity for hard hats on construction sites remains, and employers do not need to do anything differently to comply with the law.  HSE is working with the industry (particularly small contractors) to ensure they understand this important duty.

Further information:

Construction FAQs: Personal Protective Equipment

Hard hats: what you need to know as a busy builder 

 

Notification of Conventional Tower Crane Regulations 2010

The revocation of the Notification of Conventional Tower Crane Regulations 2010 (including the closure of the Tower Crane Register) reduces the regulatory burden on the construction industry without reducing safety standards for workers and the public.  HSE says that it will continue to work with the industry to improve tower crane safety standards and reassure the public about tower crane safety.

Further information:

Tower Cranes FAQs

Safe Crane Campaign

Helicopter Managers: The Helping Hand Strikes Again

We all know helicopter parents, who are always hovering overhead to make sure that their children are thriving. In one survey of 725 employers hiring recent college graduates, more than a quarter had been contacted directly by applicants’ parents or received applicants’ resumes from parents; some even had parents show up at interviews with their children, negotiate the terms of their job offers, and ask for a raise or promotion.
In the workplace, many people become helicopter managers, hovering over their employees in a well-intentioned but ill-fated attempt to provide support. These are givers gone awry—people so desperate to help others that they develop a white knight complex, and end up causing harm instead. Studies by the psychologist Sandy Lim suggest that helicopter managers prevent recipients from becoming independent and competent, disrupting their learning and confidence for future tasks. In focusing on the short-term benefits of helping, helicopter managers overlook the long-term costs.
To grow, people need to be challenged. Research at the Center for Creative Leadership shows that challenges—including having to work on unfamiliar tasks, lead change under uncertainty and exercise influence without authority—are important predictors of learning and development on the job. And three decades of evidence reveals that people achieve higher performance when they are given difficult goals. Difficult goals motivate people to work harder and smarter, develop their knowledge and skills, and test out different task strategies, all of which facilitate effectiveness and growth. But what’s the optimal level of difficulty?
In a classic study led by the psychologist John Atkinson, people were given the opportunity to take practice shots in a game of shuffleboard. Imagine that you’re in the study, and you have the option to take practice shots from various distances. Here are the odds of success if you shoot from different distances:
(a) Very easy (1-5 feet away): the odds of success are about 55%
(b) Intermediate (6-10 feet away): the odds of success are as low as 30%
(c) Very difficult (11-15 feet away): the odds of success are as low as 2%
Before you start, we’ll measure your desire for achievement, which allows us to classify you as either a low achiever or a high achiever. Now, where will you shoot?
As you might expect, the high achievers preferred to challenge themselves. More than half of the high achievers chose the intermediate level of difficulty, and more than a third chose the very difficult distances. Just 6% chose the very easy distances.
But surprisingly, the low achievers liked challenges too. Only 19% of them chose the very easy distances; 26% chose the intermediate difficulty, and 54% chose the very difficult distances. In other studies, Atkinson found that people often prefer a 50% chance of success over a 75% chance of success. In Ambition, Gilbert Brim writes that we strive for “just manageable difficulties”: challenges that test and stretch our skills, but don’t set us up for certain failure.
To prevent the helping hand from striking again, we need to keep our white knight complexes and helicopter tendencies in check. Instead of rushing to the rescue in ways that fail to benefit employees, and providing help that stifles their growth and development, leaders and managers would be wise to present just manageable difficulties. In the words of Anne Frank, we “can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.” Visit our website www.crsrisk.com  and see how CRS can put your employees on the right path.

Businesses and government must value nature

The degradation of England’s ecosystems can be halted if “concerted action” is taken to understand the value of natural capital and link it to economic decision making, say government advisors
In its first report, the natural capital committee (NCC) calls for the creation of  clear metrics to measure the value of ecosystems services and a risk register of natural capital assets. These are needed to better enable the government and organisations to ensure the environment is considered when taking strategic decisions. The NCC argues that without an economic value, the natural environment has “often been assumed to be of zero value”, resulting in unsustainable consumption of resources and considerable damage to ecosystems.
However, the report states that the decline in England’s natural capital over the last 50 years can be reversed if a clear way of valuing assets is developed, and if the value of those assets is monitored and incorporated into growth strategies. “Our economic prosperity and the wise use of our natural resources are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the latter is a precondition of the former, in the short, medium and long-term. Economic growth must be sustainable – otherwise it will not be sustained,” said Dieter Helm, chair of the NCC.
The report concludes that “natural capital accounts” are needed both at the national and at the individual company level to ensure that the environment is being considered, and to mitigate risks to economic growth and supply chains. The committee calls on businesses to help develop best practice guidance on how to account for the natural environment: “Managers in the private as well as public sectors have a particularly important role to play in pioneering corporate natural capital accounting,” it states.
Meanwhile, the government must develop economic indicators that consider the depreciation of natural capital and review how cost-benefit analysis is being implemented with respect to the natural environment, says the report.“Natural capital is enormously important to the economy and yet it is largely omitted from national economic indicators as well as from most corporate and government policy decisions,” states the NCC. “The consequence is that resources are not being allocated efficiently within the economy and opportunities for significant gains in wellbeing and future growth are being lost.”
Over the next 12 months, the committee aims to develop a risk register so it can advise on those natural assets that are being used unsustainably. It will also help develop metrics to measure the value of natural capital and work with accountancy bodies to create principles of natural capital accounting. The NCC is an independent advisory body created following a government commitment in its 2011 natural environment white paper, in which it pledged to “improve the quality of the natural environment across England”.
CRS’s Head of Environment commented ‘ The link between business and natural capital may seem in-direct, but with the impacts of weather, increasing resource and food costs; it only takes a little thought to realise how changes to the environment are already impacting on the way organisations operate. The proposed changes to ISO14001,and  RIO20+ both consider biodiversity to a greater affect and this is reflected in qualifications, with IEMA including natural systems and business cases in its new standards.’
For more information on developing your environmental knowledge on CRS have a range of courses to support the Beginner to the Environmental Professional please contact rs@crsrisk.com for more information.

Sunderland man fined for using banned pesticide

A 49-year-old pigeon fancier from Sunderland has pleaded guilty to three charges of illegally using and storing a banned pesticide, at Newcastle Crown Court on Friday 12 April. The Individual was fined £200 for each of the three charges, to run concurrently. On 2 February 2012, officers from Northumbria Police, assisted by Natural England as part of the Government’s Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme (WIIS), and executed a search warrant, following intelligence handed to police by the RSPB, focussing on persecution of birds of prey.

During the search, the individual admitted to having some poison in an outbuilding attached to his house. A plastic container, containing a substance labelled as a pigeon multi-vitamin supplement, was recovered. Forensic tests by the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) confirmed the substance to be carbofuran.  Carbofuran is an incredibly poisonous substance which was banned in 2001. It is highly toxic to animals and humans - breathing its dust, swallowing it or contact with it can be extremely dangerous. The accused later claimed that he had been given the substance to use as a rodenticide and applied it to chocolate in order to poison mice on his allotment.

Paul Cantwell, Natural England’s Species Enforcement Officer said: “Storing pesticides out of their original containers and using them when you have no idea what they contain and without instruction are all serious offences under pesticide legislation. “Use of such chemicals is highly irresponsible and could easily result in non-target animals, or even pets being poisoned. It can also put members of the public seriously at risk if they handle baits. Sadly, we still see a number of cases where raptors and other species are poisoned after ingesting banned pesticides - which have been illegally applied to bait for consumption.”

PC Paul Holden from Sunderland Area Command said: "Northumbria Police works closely with other agencies to reduce the number of crimes against wild birds and other wildlife and will continue to do so. We will not tolerate crime against wildlife and any incidents which are reported to us will be investigated thoroughly. The public can help us by providing information they may have about people who are involved in committing offences so we can identify and prosecute them. This was an intelligence led operation utilising our own skills and abilities in partnership with the unique expertise of the RSPB and Natural England.

“The recovered Carbofuran is clearly an extremely dangerous substance and is therefore regulated accordingly. This prosecution sends out a message that offences of this nature are taken very seriously and that ourselves and partner agencies are working together to provide effective and efficient investigation and prosecution."

Paul Adamson of the HSE’s Chemicals Regulation Directorate said:  “This is good example of regulators working together to tackle those who break the law on pesticides and unnecessarily put themselves and others at risk.  Controls on pesticides are there to protect human health and the environment and we hope that this prosecution sends a clear message to anyone who is storing or using illegal pesticides.”

Carbofuran was previously approved for commercial agricultural purposes, but has never been allowed for amateur use and was never available to the general public. All products which contained carbofuran were banned for storage and use on 31 December 2001. All pesticide products require an approval before they can be stored and used in the UK. In addition, all pesticides must be stored in their original container.

Richard Ball Head of Environment at CRS commented ‘ Many organisations may not consider pest control legislation as part of their ISO14001 EMS, but as with all contractors their activities should be monitored’

And another winner………

After weeks of checking and checking again the results of the NEBOSH Certificate in Environmental Management Courses held during 2012 at the 13 training venues across the UK. Corporate Risk Systems are able to announce that the winner of their NEBOSH Environmental Student of the Year Award 2013 is Martin Moran. Martin attended the  NEBOSH Certificate in Environmental Management in February 2012 at our training centre at Burton on Trent and achieved the highest marks which enabled Martin to secure a distinction. Martin is employed by Four Seasons Shopping Centre, Mansfield, Nottingham. When told he was a winner Martin said “That’s absolutely fantastic” Martin will attend a special presentation on Thursday 30^th May 2013 at Sahara Force India to collect his award

Presentation of the NEBOSH Student of the Year Award 2013

Ros Stacey UK Sales Director for CRS  presented James Green  from McCain Foods Ltd Scarborough with the their NEBOSH Student of the Year Award 2013 at a special event at Sahara Force India – Silverstone the home of Formula One racing.

James who is a Maintenance Engineer  for McCain Foods said “ since being given the role within McCain Foods  and managing a team of over 50 employees, dealing with legionella checks, managing contractors and all Health & Safety issues for the Scarborough site I decided that I needed to understand more about Health & Safety and started looking for a short training course which would meet both McCain Foods obligations and my needs to enable me to get to grips with the role and more importantly be confident and knowledgeable about the subject. McCain Foods agreed to sponsor me through my training, CRS came recommended to me by a colleague and when I researched into CRS saw that they offer a Sure Pass Promise, so that if I failed any of the course exams and could retake the course or just the exams again free of charge with the exception of paying for the NEBOSH exam fee/s, although I was determined I was not going to fail it was nice to have the reassurance of the CRS “Sure Pass Promise”. Stuart Clarke was my tutor for the course he was a great guy and made the course a lot of fun”. James finished by adding “After attending the course it has been a great benefit and now I feel I can challenge our HSE policy with confidence and knowledge”. James was accompanied by his son Joe.

Sea Shepherds reports whaling success from Operation Zero Tolerance 2012 - 2013

The Institute of Cetacean Research, the front organisation for Japan's illegal whaling program has released their kill report for 2012/2013.

They wanted 50 Humpbacks. They took none.
They wanted 50 Fin whales. They took none.
They wanted 935 Minke whales. They killed 103.
832 Minke whales not slain! 50 Humpbacks and 50 Fins not killed.

There can be no doubt that Operation Zero Tolerance was a huge success. Mr. Yoshimasa Hayashi, the Japanese Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, he has reported the "lowest total of whales taken since  'research whaling' began in 1987".

Sea Shepherd says that it is elated that it have delivered the firmest defence of whales ever; even though one whale killed is still one too many. Its ships are back in port after a very long, difficult campaign and need a lot of repairs to continue our fight against whaling.  CRS will continue to support Sea Shepherds in 2013.  The whaling season may be over, but the fight to stop illegal whaling hasn't.

CRS sign deal to continue Mighty Mini Sponsorship

Stephen Asbury managing director of Corporate Risk Systems Ltd has now agreed a new sponsorship deal with Caroline Gilbert for the new Mighty Mini racing season 2013/14. Caroline said after the signing of the new deal “Great news on the continued association, we have very much enjoyed being associated with CRSRisk and look forward to another great year”. This year’s BIG event is the Brands Hatch Mini Festival with an estimated 20,000 visitors. The show is being pitched as a celebration of all things Mini, with loads of off  and on track events. CRS will have a few tickets to give away for this event, keep checking your in box for our enews with more information.