Safety Passports have been around for a long time in many industries. The Safety Passport concept is simple: To provide a nationally recognised standard of health and safety training and assessment, which is cost-effective, easily accessible, tests knowledge and caters for specific industry sectors.
The need for a single, standard level of safety awareness that can be easily verified is especially useful in an industry that deals with a vast array of contractors and subcontractors on a site at any given time. The aim of ensuring that everyone on a site has at least the same, basic knowledge of site safety can be achieved by the adoption of a ‘Safety Passport’ scheme.
The PSA has teamed up with the Safety Pass Alliance to develop a one day course suitable for the technical event production sector. The course is designed to give a feeling for the principals behind safe working as well as awareness of common hazards, with plenty of sector-specific information included.
The reason that the PSA is working with the Safety Pass Alliance is simple; they have already developed a course that is relevant to all industries. The added advantage is that when a candidate successfully completes the course and assessments, they receive a card that says so, making the core qualification portable between the growing numbers of different industry sectors that recognise the Passport. The core content of the course is set by experts from over a dozen industry sectors; this forms the basis of the content of the Technical Event Production Safety Passport.
The PSA has worked with a wide variety of industry experts including event organisers, safety professionals, company owners and production managers to develop the Sector Content. The content deals with issues such as manual handling, workplace transport and slips, trips and falls in more detail and with more industry-specific reference. In short, it deals with those hazards that present themselves more frequently in our sector.
Yes, the safety passport will cost money but, and industry-standard safety qualification has benefits that outweigh the cost. From a wider perspective, the benefit to the whole industry is a greater emphasis on self-regulation; ma far better alternative to the imposition of standards such as those imposed on the event security and crowd management industries. The Health and Safety Executive are looking to reduce the incidence of accidents in our sector, an industry that introduces its own scheme that raises awareness of and deals with the main causes of injuries can only be seen in a positive light. The PSA will ensure that the relevant authorities are aware of the scheme – this can only be done with an industry standard rather than a mixed bag of independent courses.
There are companies that do it right and companies that don’t. There are companies that say they do it right. In terms of safety training, the Safety Passport is a way to prove that you do it right. The claim that clients are not bothered about the safety policies of suppliers is a false one. The PSA has spoken with venues, event managers and licensing authorities. All are supportive of the scheme with many helping with the development of the sector day. The demand will be there for companies that adopt the scheme, the demand for companies that don’t will weaken.
A company whose workforce is well versed in safe working practices as part of a wider, better safety management policy presents a lower risk. Lower risk can mean lower insurance premiums. The PSA is communicating the benefits of the Passport Scheme to industry insurers.
The one, single and most important benefit is that greater awareness means less chance of your employees being injured or even killed. Accidents do happen but they happen less when everyone is aware of the hazards. For that reason alone, the Safety Passport should be embraced by our industry.
Again, the support for our scheme means that there is a growing demand for workers that can prove their safety awareness. Individual subcontractors are companies too so the same benefits apply.
The PSA is well aware of the number of self employed people in our sector, a large proportion of our members are individual subcontractors. We are exploring ways of reducing the cost burden of acquiring a Safety.
The PSA is building a network of Safety Passport trainers. Trainers are able to deliver courses in-house, some are able to host sessions at their premises. For individuals, we will be arranging sessions in various locations. Contact the PSA giving details of where you are based and how many likely attendees and we will let you know of course availability in your area.
Live Events recently became the first industry sector to offer online SPA Safety Passport Renewals. The online renewal process, hosted on the PSA's online training platform, involves a video presentation and multiple choice exam and was developed in association with the PSA to offer a time and cost efficient renewal course.
Passport holders can use the online system 3 months either side of their renewal date. The option of attending a classroom based course still exists.
To arrange Safety Passport Training, contact the suppliers listed: Assess All Areas Contact: Nick Love 0207 617 7377 07710 760166 nick@assessallareas.com Cobb Associates Contact: James Cobb 0870 861 2123 mail@caevent.co.uk www.caevent.co.uk
Diamond PS Contact: John Diamond 0131 554 6261 hello@diamond-ps.com www.diamond-ps.com JR Event Services Contact: John Radford 01275 545902 info@jreventservices.co.uk www.jreventservices.co.uk Production Safety Ltd Contact: Chris Luscombe 07973 159402 chris@productionsafety.co.uk www.productionsafety.co.uk Safety First Solutions Contact: Gary Lathan 0141 587 7862 gary@safetyfirstsolutions.com www.safetyfirstsolutions.com Showstars Contact: Stuart Milne 020 8215 3333 stuart@showstars.co.uk www.showstars.co.uk Stage Hire Ltd Contact: Stuart Cooper MIET 028 4173 7988 enquiries@thestagetruck.co.uk www.thestagetruck.co.uk Stagesafe Contact: Chris Hannam 01458 445186 info@stagesafe.co.uk www.stagesafe.co.uk Sygma Safety Contact: Brian Cleary 0800 043 6728 brian.cleary@sygmasafety.co.uk www.sygmasafety.co.uk The Event Safety Shop Contact: Tim Roberts, Simon James 0117 904 6204 info@eventsafetyshop.co.uk www.the-eventsafetyshop.co.uk The Safety Organisation Limited Contact: Kevin McLoughlin 0161 763 7020 07812 159 339 kevin@thesafety.org www.thesafety.org Toby Short 01752 255 933 office@rockcitycrew.co.uk www.rockcitycrew.co.uk Wigwam Hire Contact: Steve Banks 01706 363800 steve.banks@wigwamhire.co.uk www.wigwam.co.uk