Learning through Experience

Working at Height poster
Originally uploaded by Hobson & Porter

We learn more when things go wrong, and by involving the whole supply chain we see this as opportunities to improve. At Kingsway School we received a Prohibition Notice from the HSE. Although the subject of the notice was seen as very harsh (work was not stopped) we recognised that there were some significant underlying issues to be resolved. The notice related to an unprotected edge of a platform. We got all the key parties together, from the client down to the subcontractor and scaffolder, and produced a case study on the need for a collaborative approach to safety. This indicated that the problem that led to the Prohibition Notice started as a design issue i.e. that the building was designed in such a way as to necessitate working with an unprotected internal edge unless specialist access equipment was used. Our “no blame” approach meant that we were able to work collaboratively with our supply chain to ensure that shared learning outputs were generated – we are now planning a workshop with the client to investigate the role of design in managing safety.