Health and safety

The health and safety of everyone involved in our business is a vital consideration in everything we do.

Policies and procedures

The Telford Homes Executive Committee is dedicated to, and actively promotes, a positive health and safety culture. This is underpinned by up-to-date policies, procedures, legal registers, risk assessments and appropriate precautionary control measures. Our comprehensive set of polices and procedures cover all our operations and are kept up to date and communicated to employees and our supply chain working on site. They identify all of the relevant risks and hazards that are likely to be encountered in the course of our work and, more importantly, set out the appropriate precautionary control measures to ensure work is undertaken safely and with due regard for people’s health.

Our processes are maintained in accordance with ISO45001:2018, and communicated to relevant employees and site operatives

We are never complacent and continue to reinforce our culture and investment in our people and their training, minimising health safety and environmental risks, now and into the future. 

We require our supply chain partners to employ competent people and encourage their continuing professional development. We expect the highest health and safety standards from each supplier, and this is a key consideration when awarding contracts. We monitor our suppliers and take the necessary steps to ensure they meet our high expectations.

GOVERNANCE

 The Group’s Health and Safety Management System is accredited to BS OHSAS 18001:2007 and during 2019–20 we will complete a migration to ISO45001:2018.

Our Health and Safety team currently has five qualified Institution of Occupational Safety and Health practitioners who provide advice across the Group and play a vital part in reviewing and developing our health and safety procedures. This is further enhanced by our Executive Health and Safety Committee and our Operational Health and Safety Forum, whose members are senior construction managers with extensive industry experience. Collectively they are instrumental in driving best practice, sharing initiatives and ensuring that we are conversant with any changes in working practices or regulations.

Training

Telford Homes operates in an industry where competent people with up to date qualifications, standards and knowledge are vital to the safe and successful operation of the business.

The Board views training, particularly through apprenticeships and our trainee programme, as an essential investment in the future of the Group and the construction industry more broadly. We also offer subsidised training to our contractors specifically for their employees, often at no cost to our partners.

We invest in a rigorous health and safety training programme to ensure that all employees have the appropriate skills and knowledge and that these are evaluated in the context of their role and prospective changes to the external environment. The needs of new employees are carefully assessed to identify and address their specific requirements and ensure their training is compatible to the role they undertake.

Performance

In the year (2020), we completed 3.03 million person-hours, with an Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) of 0.03 (2019: 0.08) and an Annual Injury Incidence Rate (AIIR) of 69. The construction industry average AFR for the period was 0.24, and the HBF AIIR for 2020 was 263. For the fourth successive year, our AIIR is better than the published HBF figures.

We carefully monitor the nature of all accidents and incidents to ensure we learn from them and adjust our training requirements and procedures accordingly. We have celebrated a record breaking 12 month period (during 2020) without a RIDDOR accident and in doing so completing over 3 million person hours work accident free. 

This year, our occupational health and safety performance was once again recognised by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) when we received our 12th consecutive gold medal award and President’s Award. These awards and the BSI certification are recognition of the very high standard of the Group’s overall approach to health and safety.

Although our health and safety performance in the year has been excellent, we continue to strive for improvement by being proactive. We will ensure that, as the business continues to grow, we have the systems in place to train new employees and suppliers in our health and safety culture, policies, and procedures.

We remain confident that our comprehensive procedures and investment in training mean that the Group is doing everything possible to minimise health and safety risks as a result of its activities, now and in the foreseeable future.