Annual Reports Keepmoat Homes Annual Report 2018 | Page 12

Strategic Report
Keepmoat.com
Chief Operating Officer’s Review
Health and safety
Keepmoat Homes is a standalone housebuilder, managing
construction on site as principal contractor.
Our success in refining our approach to health and safety in
that role throughout the 2017/18 financial year earned us a
RoSPA Gold Award for 2017. That accolade recognises a very
high level of performance, demonstrating well-developed
occupational health and safety management systems and
culture, outstanding control of risk and very low levels of
error, harm and loss.
RoSPA’s recognition does not mean the job is done. We
refocused our Safety, Health, Environment and Quality
(SHEQ) strategy at the end of 2017 on three core areas:
Keeping people safe and healthy every day
Protecting and enhancing the environment
Being assured, informed and focused on quality.
Early progress has been made in these areas:
Active and visible leadership is being provided from the
top of the Group. Our senior managers not only set an
example of appropriate behaviour on site, but ensure that
the Group’s expectations set a framework within which a
safe culture can become embedded
 lear and robust performance standards have been
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developed for five high-risk activities. We are enforcing
safe working practices around plant and work at height.
Our people are conscious of additional risks when
assembling timber frame structures. And we have been
successful in reducing incidents of underground services
being struck
 new approach to inductions is ensuring that everyone on
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site is fully engaged in our health and safety programme.
An online training programme and test establish 100%
understanding before new employees or contractors step
onto site
 n integrated approach to risk management is being taken
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that includes all stakeholders throughout all phases of a
contract. We seek to design out risk at an early stage and
ensure that sound technical decisions are not lost later in
the process
 e have ensured that our contractors have Risk
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Assessment and Method Statements in place, but our
focus is now turning to outcomes. We want to see that
those statements have been adequately communicated,
comprehended and complied with.
Whilst our safety performance is significantly better than our
peers within the HBF, the rate of improvement has stabilised
and we are committed to driving continual improvement
across all aspects of health and safety.
As the 2018/19 financial year starts, we are rolling out
new systems and standards. On site inspections will use
contemporary software to record richer data, giving
us improved management information and better
understanding of incident data and trends. Our “fit for
work” programme will set a new occupational health
framework comprising information and health surveillance
advice for both employees and contractors before, during
and after their time on site.
Having established a SHEQ Leadership and Review Process
as part of our SHEQ governance arrangements, it is our
intent to review performance throughout all levels of the
organisation on a regular basis, always with the aim to
improve our performance.
Tim Beale
Chief Operating Officer
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