Our boss, Bryan Hindle was in Leeds this Friday for his first meeting as a member of the Working Well Together Group. Here’s his review of it….
I attended my first meeting of the North and West Yorkshire Working Well Together group today. This was via the invitation of group member and Secretary Richard Thorpe. Working Well Together (WWT), is a joint HSE and industry initiative designed engage construction firms to get involved in helping employees stay safe.
The aims of the WWT initiative are
- Improve health and safety knowledge and good practice within the construction industry, and seek to continuously improve health, safety and welfare performance in the construction industry
- Provide practical advice and assistance to the construction industry on the provision and maintenance of healthy and safe working environments
- Encourage co-operation between members in relation to sharing knowledge of health and safety matters
- Promote training and learning in health and safety
- Provide free or low cost information, advice and training to employers and workers in the construction industry and,
- stage events where at least half the people who attend will be from small businesses (15 or fewer employees) and 20% are micro businesses (5 or fewer employees).
The meeting was well attended with around 20 members present. It was held at the Morley office of The Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA). Once the minutes of the last meeting were agreed the group got stuck into planning and organising upcoming events the group are involved in, in the coming months.
These include a mental health and stress day, a mock trial following a serious health and safety breach and a ‘when the inspector calls’ session.
It was good to sit among a diverse group of health and safety professionals; listening to their opinions and advice was illuminating. I kept my head down, as the new boy. However, I hope to contribute more as I find my feet as a new member of this group. Membership is a real chance to make a difference to workers by educating and engaging people to work safe. I also hope to take back lessons for my own team in Brick-Tie and my peer group in the Property Care Association.
Here’s a link to the WWT web site
