The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

 

A prestigious forum for safety reps around the UK came to Capenhurst last month.

60 delegates comprising safety reps from most NDA SLCs and a wide range of BP sites and business sectors attended the three-day event in Chester, including Magnox North, Dounreay, Sellafield Cumbria and the NDA, all gathering to exchange information and share good practice. For the NDA estate, this represented a rare opportunity for reps to talk and learn from each other and from reps in a different industry sector.

Head of Capenhurst Site, Nick Welch, addressed the forum on the first evening, giving an insight into the site's history. He added: "I'd like to thank all of those who helped attract this prestigious event to Capenhurst, hot on the heels of our sixth successive RoSPA award. It's a really heavyweight event that allows Sellafield Ltd's site at Capenhurst to mix with blue chip companies on safety matters, something that can only help and support the great work of our safety reps."

Earlier this year, Capenhurst was awarded Commended status for the Chemical Industry Sector in the 2009/2010 RoSPA safety awards.

The BP UK Safety Reps Forum is held quarterly at different venues and was the 54th since the event was launched by BP a number of years ago.

The theme was 'Human Performance in Procedural Compliance'– or Why It's Important to do Things by the Book.

Simon Robinson, key speaker and BP Head of Human factors, gave an insight into the importance of following established procedures. Simon described a number of incidents where established procedures had not been adhered to and the apparent reasons why - one perceived obstacle being that procedures were too complicated and difficult to understand and therefore to follow.

Paul Bell, Capenhurst's Safety 1st Committee Chairman, said: "Safety reps from site have attended these events for nearly a year now and they are extremely valuable in helping us look outside our industry to see how others keep their focus on safety."

At workshops, teams discussed ways to improve procedural compliance and shared best practices. To illustrate the need for clear instructions, delegates were challenged to build a Lego land, sea or air model with a) no guidance b) visual guidance and c) detailed instructions. Fun, but instructive!

The event also included a visit to the Capenhurst site by all reps to carry out safety observation exercises in seven areas and a verbal summary of the findings was subsequently presented to the relevant area managers. A full written report of the audit was then sent to the site lead team.

46 observations were considered 'done well' and 55 opportunities for improvement were identified. Best practice ideas were received gratefully by the site safety reps and managers, and many of the site's own best practices were taken away by the visiting reps.  

Jayne Tye, the NDA's Industrial Health and Safety Assurance Manager added: "NDA has an absolute duty under The Energy Act to ensure that Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) good practice is shared across our estate and this forum is an excellent demonstration vehicle for NDA in this respect, as well as being beneficial in the sense of lessons learned for the individuals, sites and SLCs involved."