Thursday 30 August 2007

SafeContractor - the final instalment

Firstly, apologies for recent lack of blogging. My father died unexpectedly a couple of weeks ago. I am now back in action, and with plenty to blog about.

We finally said goodbye to SafeContractor in August. They were still trying to get us to use an overly wordy, repetitive and therefore ineffective Health and Safety Policy document. Plus a whole load of other issues, very similar to those we first came up against when this whole fuss started. The H&S policy was just the first thing on their list, and when we failed to persuade them that ours was much better (being clear, concise, not repetitive, and still covering all the key points) I decided enough was enough and we simply wouldn't ever convince them that their materials are (in our opinion) less safe than our own.

Here, if you are interested, is their super-long Health & Safety Policy sample. And here is our version (in draft form - the one we actually issue to staff is much prettier).

Despite being far, far longer, I really don't think there is anything substantive in theirs which is not in ours. Or at least, nothing sufficiently important to warrant the inevitable loss of clarity that would result from extending the length of the document.

Plus their sample is horribly let down by what I can only assume is a drafting error in the very first two clauses (which are almost identical).

Here is the letter I wrote to SafeContractor informing them of our decision to withdraw from their accreditation programme (copied into the HSE):

John Kinge
National Britannia Group Ltd
Britannia House
Caerphilly Business Park
Caerphilly
CF83 3GG


Dear John,

Thank you for your e-mail of 1st August.

We do very much appreciate the work that you and your colleagues have put into reviewing our SafeContractor accreditation. It is a credit to your organisation that you have paid so much attention to our very detailed concerns.

Nevertheless, we cannot escape the fact that we have very different views on managing health and safety. We think that long, repetitious documents with redundant information are dangerous as they are not read properly, the really important information gets lost amongst less important information, and they give the reader the impression (whether justified or not) of being part of a bureaucratic box-ticking exercise.

In our discussions you have indicated that you agree with these principles (of keeping documents concise, readable, relevant etc.). But, in practice, you give far less weight to these principles than we do, to the extent that those principles are completely overshadowed by the competing principle of including as much information as possible, even if it is of minimal importance, or repetitive.

I think that the first two clauses of your sample H&S Policy template are very telling:

“1.1 The Company acknowledges and accepts its legal responsibilities for securing the health, safety and welfare of all its employees, of subcontractors working on its behalf and all others affected by their activities.”

“1.2 The Company recognises and accepts the general duties imposed upon the company as an employer under the Health and Safety at Work Act and subsequent health and safety regulations appertaining to it’s [sic] operation.”

Clause 1.2 says nothing substantive that clause 1.1 does not say. While you might see this redundancy as a trivial drafting error, I think that the fact that such obvious repetition has found its way into the very first section of your sample template says a lot about the (lack of) importance given to producing a concise, readable, effective document. Clearly no-one has read through this document, thinking “Can we make this shorter and clearer? Can we make the key messages more prominent?” etc. No document (whether relating to health and safety or not) would be produced by our organisation without that sort of attention to detail. To you, attention to detail seems to mean “have we covered everything?” To us, attention to detail means “is this document as effective as possible?”

I should emphasise again that we are not rejecting your approach because we want to reduce paperwork, or that we see paperwork per se as burdensome. We are rejecting it because we think it is less safe. We firmly believe that our health and safety documents help foster a safer working environment than we would have if we followed your approach. We therefore no longer wish to seek renewal of our SafeContractor accreditation.

We will continue to work independently to further improve our materials and processes, including taking into account Jim Neilson’s and Steve Pointer’s comments about more formally documenting the process we have gone through to produce the employee-facing material that we use.

Thank you again for the time and effort you have put into this.


Yours sincerely,




Bruce Greig
Managing Director

43 comments:

DavidC said...

Hi Bruce
Sorry to hear about your dad...keep up the blogging good work.
Regards

Anonymous said...

Bruce,
I am a sole trader and have been informed that i need to seek safecontractor accreditation, what benefits did it bring during your time as accredited?

as far as i can see its not going to bring me any...... i have had no work from the contract company for over 12 months yet they want me to join and pay over £123

thanks for input

gordon

Anonymous said...

Try CHAS

Anonymous said...

Hi Bruce, understand where you are coming from. We have to join Safecontractors too. However when you said theirs was too long I was shocked at how short it was. Ours is around 70 pages and we don't even have any employees just 2 partners. We carry out Fire & Flood restoration for the insurance industry. If they ask us to jump through hoops we jump through hoops, too lucrative not too. Sometimes you just have to swallow your pride and bite the bullet. All these scheme are just people covering their backsides.
Regards
John

Anonymous said...

People who want to leave SafeContractor should watch out for the fact that unless they give 28 days notice before renewal date they will get stung for £20 "administration charge".
I think this sums up who you are dealing with !

Maurice said...

Bruce
I have to agree that Safecontractor seem more interested in securing an income than securing safety.
You are quite right in suggesting that a short, clear and effective policy will achieve so much more than an endless pile of drivel that no employee bothers to read.

Anonymous said...

Hi Bruce,

I was asked to join safecontractor for a contract a few months ago. I'm afraid i have to disagree with your comment slightly as i have found their sample policy and other guidance notes have helped us significantly. I have also found them to be very helpful when i have called to run through the paperwork. However i have taken all comments on board and if/when i incur any problems with them i shall take these into consideration.

Regards

Patrick

Unknown said...

ugg outlet online
oakley sunglasses for sale
oakley vault sunglasses
tiffany and co outlet
ugg outlet online
designer handbags wholesale
coach factory outlet online
nike trainers
nike air max
coach outlet online
lacoste polo shirts
jimmy choo outlet store
oakley sunglasses outlet
polo ralph lauren outlet
coach factory outlet
nike store uk
rolex daytona
burberry outlet online
michael kors outlet online
louis vuitton purse
tory burch outlet online
rolex watches for sale
michael kors handbags outlet
polo ralph lauren
cheap ray bans
nfl jerseys wholesale
polo ralph lauren outlet
reebok classic
nike cortez white
canada goose outlet online
louis vuitton handbags
armani outlet
cheap ugg boots
coach factory outlet online
2016826caiyan

Unknown said...

fitflops outlet sale
nike air max 90
christian louboutin shoes
beats by dre
tory burch outlet
michael kors handbags
michael kors outlet online
louis vuitton handbags
oakley sunglasses
cazal outlet
20161116caihuali

Unknown said...

thomas sabo charms
ralph lauren polo
michael kors
coach outlet online coach factory outlet
cheap ray bans
louis vuitton outlet stores
christian louboutin shoes
michael kors handbags
michael kors outlet clearance
kd shoes
20170327lck

Unknown said...

qzz0424
polo ralph lauren
tory burch outlet
ralph lauren outlet
air huarache
jordans
coach outlet store online
san francisco 49ers jerseys
philadelphia eagles jerseys
tory burch shoes
cincinnati bengals jerseys

Unknown said...

off-white
fenty puma
hermes bag
michael kors outlet online
lacoste online shop
off white hoodie
adidas ultra boost 3.0
vans outlet
adidas yeezy
nike lebron 11

QQQQQQQQQ said...

kobe shoes
asics running shoes
vans shoes
ray ban
nike air max
vapormax
curry 5
lacoste polo
off white hoodie
caterpillar boots

Unknown said...

www0903
kate spade outlet
moncler jackets
oakley sunglasses wholesale
ralph lauren uk
ugg boots
nike tn pas cher
moncler uk
nhl jerseys
off white
ugg boots clearance


biggboss13online said...

It was worth visiting your blog and I have bookmarked your blog. Hope to visit again
BIGG BOSS 13 EPISODE DOWNLOAD

biggboss13online said...

I really like reading through a post that can make people think. Also, many thanks for permitting me to comment!
Bigg Boss 13 LIVE

biggboss13online said...

Aw, this was a very nice post. Taking the time and actual effort to produce a superb article… but what can I say… I procrastinate a whole lot and never manage to get anything done.
Nazar Episode Online

Happy Mother's day said...

Happy Mother’s day, your number one source to get information about Mothers day. We’re dedicated to providing you the very best information about Mother’s Day. we are working day and night to provide authentic information about mothers day quotes,mothers day greetings.
happy mother's day messages

Ronaldo said...

Watch Your latest Pinoy Tambayan Replay shows Live, Pinoy Teleserye Today Episode Free Online, Pinoy Tv Shows Pinoy Channel

Pinoy Channel

asif said...

Everyone wants to know that How to watch Special Family dramas from Star Plus? Now we are discussing about that here.

Kasauti Zindagi Ki All Episodes

Yeh Rishtey Hain Pyaar Ke Latest Episode said...

I’ve been browsing online greater than three hours lately, but I by no means found any attention-grabbing article like yours. It's beautiful price enough for me. In my opinion, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content as you probably did, the internet can be a lot more useful than ever before.
Watch Barrister Babu Online
Barrister Babu Online
Barrister Babu Latest Episode

biggboss15fullepisode said...

123Movierulz is a movie piracy site, which allows you to download the latest
Bollywood, Hollywood & Punjabi movies. If you are a movie lover you should know

Movierulz

imran said...

Kumkum Bhagya' is a show following the life of a Punjabi matriarch Sarla Arora
who runs a marriage hall and lives with the hope of seeing her two daughters

Kundali Bhagya Full Episodes

imran said...


Kshow123 online, watch Kshow123 online English Subtitles, Kshow123 dub!
update about latest drama releases Kshow123 in Korean, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, ...


Kshow123 Online

Bawara Dil said...

Hi there, just became alert to your blog through Google, and found that it’s really informative. I’m going to watch out for brussels. I will be grateful if you continue this in future. Lots of people will be benefited from your writg. Cheers!
Kundali Bhagya All Episodes
Kundali Bhagya Full Episode
Watch Kundali Bhagya Today Episode

HUBSALT PAKISTAN said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MATH TEACHER said...

FOLLOW ME
FOLLOW ME
FOLLOW ME
FOLLOW ME
FOLLOW ME
FOLLOW ME
FOLLOW ME
FOLLOW ME
FOLLOW ME
FOLLOW ME
FOLLOW ME
FOLLOW ME
FOLLOW ME
FOLLOW ME
FOLLOW ME

porhub videos said...

porhub videos
porhub
videos porhub
x video hd
videos x hd
x video full hd
www x video hd
free hd x video
full hd porn
hd porn comics
hd porn download
hd porn free download
hd porn video download
hd porn videos free download
full hd porn download
sex video hd
sex video full hd
hd sex video download
xxx sex video hd
new sex video hd

Kasauti Zindagi Ki Episode Online said...

Hi there, just became alert to your blog through Google, and found that it’s really informative. I’m going to watch out for brussels. I will be grateful if you continue this in future. Lots of people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!

Anonymous said...


Watch and download Online free dramas in Fast Streaming and in HD Quality,
Kshow is a best and interesting dramas in English Subtitle.

K Show Live

Kasauti Zindagi Ki Latest Episode said...

I hope it will be helpful for almost all peoples that are searching for this type of topic. I Think this website is best for such topic. good work and quality of articles Thanks

Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai all Episodes said...

Wonderful goods from you, man. I have understand your stuff previous to and you’re just extremely great.I actually like what you’ve acquired here, certainly like what you are stating and the way in which you say it. You make it entertaining and you still care for to keep it wise.I can’t wait to read far more from you. This is actually a terrific website.

jacklury said...

Arrowmeds is an OTC medication supplier. Fildena 100 mg and Cenforce 100mg Prescription that we give is FDA affirmed and matches the FDA Standard like having quality, a similar excellent, quality, virtue, and steadiness as brand-name drugs, and these all meds are simply delivered utilizing the class, dependable critical by top tire Indian pharmaceutical maker. Likewise visit the best online drug store for medicinal services reasons. Simply Click on Arrowmeds.

U Know said...

Watch Your latest Pinoy Telesrye Replay shows Live, Pinoy Teleserye Today Episode Free Online, Pinoy Tv Shows watch online full HD pinoy shows Pinoy TV Replay

Bilal Shah said...

Thanks for sharing this informational content depthworld

unkown said...

韓劇線上看,韓劇推薦,韓劇排行榜,韓國電視線上看,最新韓劇,韓劇網, kortw.

sri said...

Thanks for sharing this informative content.,
Leanpitch provides online training in Scrum Master Certification , everyone can use it wisely.
Join Leanpitch 2 Days CSM Certification Workshop in different cities.


Scrum master certification online

CSM certification online

sri said...

Thanks for sharing this informative content.,
Leanpitch provides online training in Scrum Master Certification , everyone can use it wisely.
Join Leanpitch 2 Days CSM Certification Workshop in different cities.

CSM online certification

Scrum master training online

MeltyMag said...

A popular transmitida novelas online novela diária da é ou baixe gratuitamente em qualidade Full a partir de múltiplos.

MelayuDrama said...

Kepala bergetar Tonton drama Melayu Online. Tonton dan Download Drama Kepala Bergetar Episod Melayu Drama Dan Download. Tonton Gempak Terbaru Filem Malaysia. Malay Drama dfm2u, Kepala Bergetar Official Website Tonton Online Drama Melayu, Kepala Bergetar Malaysian Entertainer Chanel Live
Melayu Drama

Assignment Help said...

Hello everyone! Are you not getting assignments written on time? Then we at No1AssignmentHelp.Com provide you with assignments written on time. So you just need to visit our Assignment Help UK service and avail of the service.

vplay89 said...

vplay89
vplay89
vplay89
vplay89
vplay89
vplay89
vplay89
vplay89
vplay89
vplay89

Best Education said...

Education is crucial as it equips individuals with knowledge, skills, and critical thinking abilities necessary for personal and professional growth. It fosters informed decision-making, promotes social and economic development, and empowers people to contribute meaningfully to society. Education is the foundation for a better, more equitable world.

Immersive culture
Personal education plan