“Prompt completion and reporting of all risk assessment activity, accident and near miss reporting, active monitoring and audits has vastly improved the Health and Safety awareness and culture within the Service.”
About Bedfordshire & Luton Fire & Rescue Service
- Number of fire stations: 14
- Covers an area of approx 123,153 hectares
- Serves a population of approx 576,800
Bedfordshire and Luton Fire and Rescue Service (BLFRS) is responsible for delivering fire and rescue services to over half a million people in an area covering approximately 123,153 hectares in Bedfordshire and Luton. They have 14 strategically positioned fire stations; five wholetime stations, two day crewing stations and seven retained stations.
Project Summary
In 2006, BLFRS were looking to makes the management of their Safety, Health and Environmental performance and compliance more efficient.
Rivo provided BLFRS with a system to manage accidents and near-miss reporting and risk assessments.
Safety, Health & Environmental Awards / Standards Acheived
- 2009 SHP IOSH Award for best achievement in the Health Care & Emergency Services
Business Needs
In September 2006, Station Manager, Martin Statham, was looking to find a solution to the large amount of paperwork and duplication of effort from frontline, control room staff and managers when dealing with accident and near-miss recording and reporting. Better scheduling and management of risk assessments was also a requirement in order to cut down on unnecessary administration and report findings more easily.
The system needed to be flexible enough to fit with the Service’s existing processes and requirements and organisational structure. Primary Health & Safety objectives were the completion of Risk Assessments and reporting of findings of Risk Assessments, active monitoring of compliance, Accident Reporting/Investigation and Audits and better information sharing across the Service.
At the time, BLFRS were using a series of Excel database systems to record H&S data. This meant that the Service was reliant on the technical knowledge and skills of the existing database owners to get out any meaningful information and statistics. When the owners of the Excel databases moved on, the technical knowledge was being lost from the team. It also left the Service with incomplete or inaccurate data.
Accident and Incident recording and investigation and findings of Risk Assessments were all being measured using disparate spreadsheets which didn’t fit well together which meant that it was difficult to administer centrally and get out any meaningful information for reporting purposes.
BLFRS were looking for an integrated system to provide a consistent approach to managing Health and Safety throughout the Service, help them share H&S information easily and allow them to properly control key processes.
Solution
Over several months, the Rivo and BLFRS teams worked together to define requirements and really configure a system that met their exact requirements to give them the central control and visibility.
Benefits
BLFRS have seen a number of benefits since implementing Safeguard. H&S Co-ordinator Wayne Stringer commented “Now we have a much more comprehensive picture of our H&S compliance. For us, being able to access real-time information and ‘ask’ the system to push out information proactively makes the difference between managing Health and Safety reactively and being truly proactive.
From an operational perspective, it saves time on station and duplication of paperwork in fire control. It automatically sends out reminders of tasks to be undertaken and informs nominated individuals such as Station Commanders that they have had an accident or near-miss in their area.
By managing Health & Safety issues efficiently, we have found that we can positively impact on the safety of our firefighters. Prompt completion and reporting of all risk assessment activity, accident and near miss reporting, active monitoring and audits has vastly improved the Health and Safety awareness and culture within the Service.
By effectively controlling risk and reducing the number of accident and near miss events, the number of days lost to the Service has also reduced. By ensuring our staff are safe, healthy and cared for whilst at work, the Service can maximise its establishment resource to improve on the quality of service we can deliver to the community at large.”
The Future
Since the launch of the Safeguard system in 2007, BLFRS has progressed accident and near-miss reporting and activity risk assessments to include all types of risk assessment such as PUWER, PPE, Manual Handling, Noise and Vehicle Accidents.
In addition, Rivo has been working closely with BLFRS to understand some of the processes that Fire and Rescue Service uses when investigating fires and conducting Post-Incident Debriefs. Using Safeguard for managing Post-Incident Debriefs ensures that data is collected in a consistent form and Safeguard’s powerful reporting function means that trends in Fire Investigation findings can be easily spotted and that any information on lessons learned from Post-Incident Debriefs can be communicated quickly and easily.
Rivo taking control of compliance management has freed up time for BLFRS to ensure their valuable internal resources are being effectively deployed to protect the welfare of Service personnel and the community at large.
Return on Investment
Since the implementation of Safeguard, BLRS have seen results in a number of areas including a reduction in the number of accidents and associated costs, improved operational efficiency and shared best practice.
Reduced accident rates within BLFRS have come from a number of different factors including ensuring the proper monitoring of warning signs, access to accurate and up-to-date information so that trends can be spotted and ensuring that corrective actions are carried out quickly and completed satisfactorily. BLFRS uses Safeguard’s task management functionality to allocate tasks via automated electronic e-mail to managers who have the financial/ managerial resources to prevent reoccurrence of the accident/ near-miss. Safeguard records the task history, thus enabling the Health and Safety Support Team have an auditable trail as to the progress made. To ensure the task is completed the owner and the person who allocated the work is sent reminders of the need to complete within the agreed time frame and Safeguard’s simple traffic light system allows the owner to keep track of the status of the task. Automating processes with Safeguard has freed up Health and Safety Manager’s time allowing them to focus on solving Safety Issues.
This white paper details the measurable financial benefits delivered to Rivo’s clients through the implementation of Safeguard.
