OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH PROVISION ON LONDON 2012 PROJECT
Research highlights the benefits from effective project health management
A report has been published by HSE on the results of a research project which examined the performance of the occupational health (OH) provision on the Olympic Park and Athletes’ Village.
The OH service was established as part of a commitment to protecting the health and safety of workers on the Olympic build. It offered support to managers from a team of occupational hygienists and OH professionals working in an integrated way to prevent and treat occupational ill-health and promote healthy behaviours.
The service was guided by a strategy and targeted vibration, noise, respiratory, hazardous substances and manual handling.
Senior management commitment essential for long term impact
The OH team developed an approach called ‘health like safety’ which integrated good OH management practice into day-to-day working by using existing safety management tools such as near-miss reporting and maturity matrices as the basis for tools to target health risks.
This researchers identified four conclusions:
Exemplar project – there is agreement that the OH service was one of the “best that has been implemented on any major construction project in the UK to date”. It was well thought of by workers and managers on the site and received widespread recognition within the construction industry and beyond;
- Good business sense: cost benefit analysis suggests that the benefits of the programme of clinical treatments and health surveillance pay for the entire service. Contractors also identified a range of financial and other benefits from taking a more active approach to OH management. These could not be quantified;
- Impact on behaviour – where contractors engaged with the OH team there was evidence that both worker and manager attitudes and behaviours had been affected. The more engaged a contractor was the greater the observed changes; and
- Long term effects – there was evidence that managers and workers intended to carry forward learning from their time on the Park and Village. Managers learned a lot from working with occupational hygienists, and from the ‘health like safety’ approach. Where there was senior management commitment to the principles of good OH management, learning from the Olympic Park was more likely to have been embedded in company policies.
KEY MESSAGES
The key messages and learning points established from this research are presented below.
- Occupational health (OH) provision on the Olympic Park and Athletes’ Village has been recognised by the construction industry and beyond as an example of good practice, and one of the best implemented on any major construction project in the UK.
- inclusion of occupational hygienists in an integrated team with clinical staff enabled a co-ordinated approach across the preventative and clinical aspects of the service.
- OH team adopted a ‘health like safety’ approach, encouraging contractors to see health risk management as part of their day-to-day activities, and something that was simple to integrate with existing safety management.
- intervention had clear impacts on the attitudes and behaviours of workers and managers on site
- the team took part in senior management meetings and encouraged contractors to share their experiences with one another as a way to maximise learning and promote good practice.
- in engaging with workers on well-being initiatives, the OH team sought wherever possible to use it as a ‘way in’ to engage on wider OH and safety concerns.
- the team proactively engaged with managers and workers initially offering simple solutions to contractors’ problems as well as innovative approaches to workers (e.g. health-based competitions) that took OH messages to them on site.
- Earlier engagement with design teams and further training on OH awareness for designers, architects and CDM co-ordinators are necessary if health risks are to be more effectively designed out before they reach work sites.
- Senior level commitment and leadership on the part of clients and contractors are vital if standards of OH are to be improved in the construction industry
- cost benefit analysis of the OH provision indicated that the provision of treatment services and health surveillance on site can have substantial economic benefits, such that the costs of offering other services can be offset.
- there are elements that could be transferred across the industry, and/or appropriately scaled for more modest budgets.
Latest Construction Health and Safety News
CONSTRUCTION SAFETY NEWS – END OF NEW CONTENT
The addition of content on this website ceased on 17th April 2020.
Material posted before this date can be found by clicking on our SEARCH NEWS DATABASE function.
CDM REGULATIONS 2015: GUIDES AND TEMPLATES
Summary of our advice and tools to aid CDM 2015 compliance
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 21st April 2020HSE WARN OF NEED FOR RPE FACE FIT TEST AND CHECK
Incorrectly fitted RPE will not protect the wearer from dangers to health
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 16th April 2020CORONA VIRUS: LATEST SITE OPERATING PROCEDURES
Industry Bodies publish risk management guidance Version 3
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 15th April 2020TOWER CRANE OUT OF SERVICE SAFETY ALERT
Important advice from Construction Plant-hire Association and HSE
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 30th March 2020HSE PLAN AND CONSTRUCTION PRIORITIES 2020/21
Appointed CDM 2015 Principal Designers remain focus of HSE inspections
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 30th March 2020COVID-19 ADVICE & GUIDANCE FOR CONSTRUCTION
BuildUK support industry with advice, guidance and information
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 30th March 2020HSE TARGETING WELDING FUME CANCER RISK
Inspections to enforce improved controls required by new risk evidence
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 24th February 2020HSE TO OVERSEE NEW BUILDING SAFETY REGIME
Government to deliver biggest change in building safety for a generation
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 21st January 2020FESTIVE GREETINGS TO ALL OUR READERS
Read the rest of this article »
SELECTED NEWS POSTED RECENTLY ON TWITTER
Links to other construction health and safety related news reports
HSE LOOK TO LOCAL AUTHORITIES FOR CDM SUPPORT
Council Inspectors focus on CDM client duties – asbestos, fragility and RCS
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 14th November 2019HSE WELDING FUME REVISED GUIDANCE PUBLISHED
New research evidence on cancer link prompts revision on welding fume
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 14th November 2019STRUCTURAL SAFETY BODY LATEST NEWSLETTER
CROSS publishes reports and expert comment on a range of issues
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 18th October 2019HSE RISK REDUCTION THROUGH DESIGN AWARD
Regulator seeks to promote hazard avoidance and risk minimisation
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 18th October 2019HSE START PROJECT HEALTH RISK INTERVENTIONS
Regulator set to check health risks assessed and controls in place
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 30th September 2019AIF NATIONAL WORKING AT HEIGHT CONFERENCE
HSE Construction Head to speak at Access Industry Forum conference
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 23rd September 2019NEW HSE HAVS CALCULATOR TO HELP CONTROL RISK
New calculator includes “cautious estimates” for common tools
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 23rd September 2019IMPROVING CDM DESIGNER HAZARD AWARENESS
Research explores power of “multi-media digital tool” for design hazards
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 27th August 2019DEMOLITION FEDERATION ON RECENT INCIDENTS
NFDC ‘statement of awareness’ follows unplanned collapses
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 27th August 2019RAISING COMPETENCE AND MAKING BUILDINGS SAFER
Life-safety-critical disciplines urged to act on Interim Report
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 27th August 2019BUILDING WORKS COMPROMISED GAS SAFETY
Company and director fined after work created risk to residents
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 27th August 2019HSE SPEAK AT ACCESS INDUSTRY CONFERENCE 2019
AIF National Working at Height Conference November 2019
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 6th August 2019STRUCTURAL SAFETY BODY LATEST NEWSLETTER
CROSS publishes reports and expert comment on a range of issues
Read the rest of this article »
Posted on 23rd July 2019