Countryside Properties is committed to developing, maintaining and continually improving safe systems and places of work to ensure the continuing health, safety and welfare of our employees and stakeholders.
We fully comply with all health and safety legislation and are dedicated to reducing the Group's incident and accident rates, whilst also providing good on-site welfare facilities.
Recognition
During the reporting period the Group:
- Was re-certified to the OHSAS 18001:2007 Health and Safety Management standard and is fully compliant with regards our well integrated and robust Health and Safety Management Systems.
- Maintained the Gold Certificate for Employer Commitment to the Construction Skills Certification Scheme.
In addition, in November 2008, we were accredited to the Contractors Health & Safety Assessment Scheme (CHAS) for the first time. CHAS has been developed by local authority health and safety and procurement professionals, with the support of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Companies apply to join the scheme so that it is widely understood that they meet good standards of health and safety compliance, thereby enabling them to work with a wide range of organisations.
Accident Incident Rate
Our Accident Incident Rate (AIR) has fallen and has remained below the National AIR for the Construction Industry for the last five years. The Group's AIR for 2007/8 averaged at 829 reportable injury incidents per 100,000 persons employed (869 in 2006/7) which compares favourably with the National AIR for our industry of 865 (942 in 2006/7). We intend to maintain our Accident Incident Rate below the National benchmark.
Since 2004 there have been no Prohibition or Improvement Notices issued to the Group by the HSE.
Successful campaigns In 2008 we have undertaken four successful site based campaigns which were selected as being industry high risk. They included work at height, traffic management, housekeeping and good order, and occupational health. They were highly educational and informative and improved the safety and welfare of our sites. They also enabled us to review and enhance our procedures in these areas.
Working practices and awareness
To promote change to working practices we continue to encourage staff and members of our key supply chain to attend our health and safety specific training courses, wherever relevant. We also provide mandatory site specific health, safety and environmental induction training and toolbox talks for all site based workers.
The Group fully endorses the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS). We are committed to all staff and sub-contractors visiting or working on the Group’s sites being in possession of a CSCS/affiliated card or providing evidence of being registered with the appropriate skills organisations to obtain one. To date 91% (2007 – 88%) of the Group’s employees that require a CSCS card have obtained them. The remaining 9% are new and existing employees in various stages of obtaining their CSCS Cards.
Inspections of all our construction sites by our Head of Health and Safety and the Department’s Officers take place at least twice monthly. Additionally, all our offices and sales centres are inspected on a quarterly basis.
To raise awareness amongst communities of the dangers of construction sites, we continue to engage with schools and colleges to pass on the health, safety and environmental message wherever possible.
Initiatives
During the reporting period we have strengthened our relationships with the HSE and our peer group through our attendance at various Safety Group meetings. We chair the North West Home Builders Safety Group, and instigated and chair the South East/Essex Home Builders Safety Group. The aim of each group is to ensure continual improvement and safe practices, sharing knowledge and developing and embedding initiatives to drive down accidents and incidents, through collaborative working.
Back to Top | Next
Our Accident Incident Rate has remained below the National Accident Incident Rate for the last five years
Four successful site based campaigns in high risk areas
No Prohibition or Improvement Notices issued to the Group by the HSE since 2004
“Countryside Properties has been instrumental in instigating the South East/Essex Home Builders Safety Group which we had been trying to set-up for a number of years. We are working towards a co-ordinated approach that helps drive continual improvement and safe practices in the house building sector, through sharing knowledge that ultimately drives down accidents and incidents.”
Tricia Dair, Principal Inspector, Health and Safety Executive
Peckham Partnership, London
Nu Centrale, Norwich, Norfolk