2000 attend IOSH 2007
April 1st 2007 This year's IOSH Conference and Exhibition in Telford was officially the biggest ever – with nearly 2000 delegates and visitors walking through the doors over the two day period. The 60 or so speakers covered everything from managing occupational health on British canals to the health and safety lessons learned by the military John Hutton MP, the secretary of state for work and pensions, opened the conference with a big announcement: A joint review of the health of the nation, and invited IOSH to work with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Mr Hutton said that he would like the joint review to become an 'annual report' to provide an evidence base to help refine the government's approach to improving the health of the workforce. Announcing the partnership with IOSH, Mr Hutton said: "I'd like to ask IOSH to work with Bill Gunnyeon, my department's Chief Medical Adviser, to consider how to maximise the contribution that health and safety practitioners can make. We need to ensure that government provides them with the right support, encouraging a real cross-cutting partnership between all those with an interest in public and occupational health. "Health and safety practitioners have a crucial role to play in mentoring and supporting those joining or rejoining the workforce. IOSH is playing a critical role in leading from the front." Health issues Health issues were very much to the fore of IOSH 07, especially with the launch of IOSH's occupational health toolkit, which will give practitioners access to advice on work-related stress and musculoskeletal disorders. Professor Dame Carol Black, the national director for health and work, said that she was confident getting workplaces to contribute to improving the health of the nation was the right thing to do: "If we can improve workplaces from a health point of view we could likely get an initial return of three to one for every pound spent." She added: "This is something that you and other professionals should be getting more involved in. I hope very much that the DWP will work with IOSH to prepare a report for the Secretary of State and I hope you all play a role in helping people stay and return to work. This is an opportunity that really shouldn't be missed." The importance of occupational health was further outlined by Tony Stammers, from British Waterways, who pointed out how, by implementing an occupational health management programme, his organisation had reduced sickness absence from 10.5 days to 7 days per year, saving £1.5 million each year. Leadership from the top Getting visible leadership from the top was another clear message that many of the speakers said was crucial for strong health and safety performance. Sainsbury's Neil Lennox admitted he was fortunate to have that support: "Each of our board has been through a health and safety training course to remind them of what they need to do as leaders. It's something that pricks their conscience and helps them talk the talk and walk the walk. Imelda Walsh, our group HR director's, personal leadership has been vital and she has got health and safety discussed at every board 'huddle'. Having that in the boardroom is critical." Col Chris Manning, from the British Army, reiterated this message: "The first step is to secure top-level commitment. This is simple. When presented with the safety question, there is not one senior officer who does not sign up to it. However, a written statement is not enough. Visible, audible commitment from the very top has huge impact." Construction challenge However, for the construction industry, the challenges remain. Geoffrey Podger, chief executive of the HSE, said that despite the improved commitment towards health and safety from the industry, early indications still showed a "10-15% rise" in the number of fatalities from lowest-ever 59 deaths recorded in 2005/06. "It shows that continued vigilance is essential in this high risk industry. It will take a high level of commitment to maintain that performance. But we don't see any sign of the commitment to health and safety in construction dropping." This all shows how tough a challenge Lawrence Waterman has let himself in for as head of health and safety for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. On such a major project, with so many high risk activities and given the past health and safety record of previous Olympics, you could almost forgive Lawrence taking a cautious approach. But that certainly wasn't evident at IOSH 07. Lawrence said that managers and directors were heavily focused on health and safety issues, and had set the bar high: "We have a corporate target to build the venues without killing anybody. "It would be terrible if we built wonderful sporting facilities but do so over the broken bodies of the people who built them." More articles from IOSH: | 
