Improving health and safety performance –achieving ‘breakthrough’

Many organisations are actively striving to improve their safety performance for ethical, humanitarian, economic and other business reasons. Obtaining sustainable, long-lasting improvement, requires a breakthrough in culture with safety ‘in the bloodstream’ of the organisation. This paper provides some views and practical suggestions on how this might be achieved based on what are termed ‘the 7 Cs of safety improvement’ – commitment, compliance, challenge, conservative decision-making, competence, communication and clarity about priorities.

R. H. Taylor, PhD, DIC, FIEE, FinstP, CEng
Head of Environment, Health and Safety, Policy and Strategy, BNFL