“Now the real work must start...”
June 25th 2009 When we launched our draft strategy for consultation in December, we told our partners that we needed their help and support to make its goals a reality. That's why we subtitled it Be Part of the Solution.
During the following 12 weeks, in which we ran seven events in three countries attended by more than 700 delegates and received hundreds of written responses, we started to get a real sense of the deep passion and commitment of our partners to our common cause.
And we can now say with absolute confidence that we have a strategy that sets the right direction and right tone for taking forward health and safety in Great Britain. We have been delighted by the enthusiastic response from the health and safety community following publication.
Hundreds of organisations have in the last few weeks pledged to work with HSE on reducing the toll of death and serious injury and tackling the myths that cheapen and trivialise the work we do. I want to appeal to HSM readers to join us too, which they can do online at www.hse.gov.uk/strategy/pledge.htm
But we must acknowledge that this merely marks the end of the beginning, because now the real work must start – turning the words on the page into action that will save lives and show employers the real value of health and safety.
The new strategy emphasises the importance of realism and common sense. We will not make Great Britain a safer place to work by wrapping everyone in cotton wool and avoiding all risk – we will do it by being exemplars of common sense, by adopting a proportionate approach to risk management, by giving people confidence to exercise judgement and by ensuring that advice and guidance is fit for purpose.
Be Part of the Solution should also leave no-one in any doubt that the key to making health and safety at work a reality is leadership – a visible, consistent and genuine commitment to safety and welfare from the top of each and every organisation.
We know that nine out of ten of those in charge of businesses agree that leadership is crucially important for delivering improved health and safety. But in how many firms is this just rhetoric or good intentions? When each week four workers are killed at work and more than 2,500 are seriously injured, we need to see more hard evidence of that leadership in action, not words.
I believe that employers are increasingly convinced by our argument that good health and safety is good for business. But we must continue making that case. Faced with a barrage of myths and misinformation in the media, we must not be afraid to stand up for our work and to face down the cynics. We do have a good story to tell. For 30 years we were able to drive steady improvements in workplace safety. In the last five years, maintaining that has got harder. Together, with all of us as part of the solution, we can regain the momentum and make Great Britain an increasingly safe and healthy place to work.
Judith Hackitt CBE
HSE Chair More articles from Health and Safety Executive: | 
