Safety qualification raising standards across the board

From a young persons’ charity to a social housing association, the rising popularity of the British Safety Council’s Level 1 award is leading to widespread health and safety success

As part of its charitable mission,
the British Safety Council is
offering 100 free examinations
leading to the level 1 award in health and
safety at work to its member
organisations each calendar year.

The level 1 award, which is QCF
accredited, is also available free of charge
for all UK based schools, colleges and
other organisations working with young
people in full-time education, as well as
organisations working with those not in
education, employment or training
(NEET). These include public and private
training providers, the prison and
probation service and other charities and
institutions.

One such organisation to take up the
British Safety Council’s offer is Rathbone,
a national charity that provides
opportunities for young people to
transform their life by re-engaging with
learning, discovering their ability to
succeed and achieving progression to
further education, training and
employment.

Rathbone has more than 70 centres
throughout the UK and in 2008/2009 the
organisation worked with more than
17,000 young people to help them achieve
qualifications.

Each young person that comes to
Rathbone undertakes the British Safety
Council’s level 1 award in health and
safety at work as part of their induction
process and it is a pre-cursor before they
go out on a work placement.

Kath Farrant, a centre manager at
Rathbone, says the organisation looked at
a number of health and safety
qualifications before choosing the British
Safety Council’s level 1 award. “We
decided to deliver the level 1 qualification
because we felt it was the most
appropriate for young people,” she
explains.

Rathbone has had almost 200 young
people complete the assessment since
January and has achieved a 95% pass
rate. Even the staff have been through it
and Kath says the feedback from the
course has been very positive. “It’s
brilliant because it gives people an
awareness and greater understanding of
health and safety in the workplace, and
this will help them when they go on their
placement.”
She adds: “It’s a great selling point for
young people going into a new or first job
because the qualification will look good
on their CV to prospective employers. I
think it’s very important for young people
to have a basic knowledge of health and
safety when they go into work and it’s
invaluable for employers.”
Rathbone is delighted with the service
it has received from the British Safety
Council and will continue delivering the
level 1 award to all young people who
come through its doors.

“I would recommend the British
Safety Council’s level 1 qualification to
other companies and I have done so,”
says Kath. “When we send our
applications in for the people who will sit
the examination, we always get an email
acknowledging our application, which is
very helpful. The tests are delivered on
time and the certificates are all sent out
efficiently. It’s a very positive
experience.”
Rathbone aren’t the only happy
customers; over in Northern Ireland, Ark
Housing Association has been reaping the
benefits of the free qualification. Business
services manager for Ark, Vincent Lavery
is trying to affect a health, safety and
environmental sea change across
Northern Ireland’s social housing sector.

Read some of the statistics on the
number of housing officers injured at
work, and you soon realise why housing
associations cannot afford to treat health
and safety as a “wee bolt-on”. According
to figures from the HSE obtained by
sector-specialist magazine Inside Housing,
major injuries and those requiring more
than three days off work numbered 94 in
2002/03. By 2008/09 that number had
more than doubled to 206.

In order to keep improving the safety
culture at Ark “we took the business
decision that every member of staff would
be trained to level 1,” Vincent says. And
by every member of staff, he means
everyone from the chairman of the board
to the cleaner.

And so it was that they brought the
British Safety Council on board. The
association, which views its commitment
to social responsibility as seriously as its
safety and environmental duties, is now a
health and safety training centre for
smaller housing associations, delivering
the British Safety Council’s training
programmes to others.

Rathbone and Ark Housing Association
may have used the level 1 in different
ways and with different people but at the
heart of each was the commitment to
achieving excellent health and safety
practice.