safety

Peter McAteer, CEO of Sysmax, the compliance, risk and competency software platform now deploying across housing providers and contractors, discusses scalable solutions to solve the Golden Thread and Building Safety Act compliance and competency management conundrum which the sector is currently wrestling with.

Born of involvement in some of the biggest industrial disasters in history, including Piper Alpha and Deep Water Horizon, I established Sysmax driven by a passion for, in its simplest terms, ensuring people with the right skills are in right place, doing things properly. After many years of investing to get Sysmax recognised as ‘the competency and compliance platform against which all others are judged’ in the oil and gas industry, we decided to share our software’s unparalleled benefits across other sectors. After all, whether in energy, manufacturing, farming, utilities, tourism and even on Hollywood movie sets, we need competency and compliance to keep things safe and efficient. The Grenfell tragedy resonated deeply with me due to personal loss and threat to my own and my family’s lives. I offered to be an expert witness based on two highly explosive properties I had experienced. The publication of the Hackitt Report made social housing and the construction supply chain appropriate markets for our platform.

National Social Housing Safety and Compliance Week 2022 will take place 7-11 March. This year’s theme is ‘Challenge for Safety’.

The event is spearheaded by the Association of Safety and Compliance Professionals (ASCP). Dedicated to shining a spotlight on safety and compliance at an operational, strategic and cultural level, this week is an opportunity for the sector as a whole to come together to make homes safer than ever before.

Recognising that electrical safety for too long has been seen as less important than gas safety within social housing, the Association of Safety and Compliance Professionals (ASCP) has launched its White Paper: Electrical Safety in Social Housing, Transformational Change.
Written following extensive consultation with ASCP and Association of Electrical Safety Managers (AESM) members, the White Paper seeks to highlight the complexity of the work safety and compliance professionals do within electrical safety, to help them be more effective in this work and to support them in challenging the status quo where necessary. It sets out the findings of the AESM Think Tank on electrical safety as well as the common themes identified by ASCP members in discussions, round table events and surveys.

Electrical safety has generally been seen as less important than gas safety despite clear evidence that each year unsafe electrical work causes more injuries, fatalities and devastation to families and communities. The fewer incidents related to gas is largely due to the annual requirement of the landlord gas safety check. Every year, almost half of all accidental house fires in the UK are caused by electrical appliances. Electrical goods were, for example, the source of ignition in the fires at Grenfell, Lakanal House and Shepherd’s Court. The Grenfell tragedy in particular, where 72 people lost their lives in June 2017, remains an emotive and powerful driver for change.

Aico were honoured to receive Her Royal Highness Princess Anne to their headquarters on Friday 8th October, in recognition of their impact as a prominent business in Shropshire.

Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal arrived at Aico headquarters in Oswestry, Shropshire and was met by Aico’s Managing Director Neal Hooper, alongside local dignitaries Mandy Thorn, Deputy Lieutenant of Shropshire, Councillor Vince Hunt, Chairman of Shropshire Council, Owen Paterson, North Shropshire MP, Councillor Mark Jones, Mayor of Oswestry and Ruth Jones, Mayoress of Oswestry.

The preference from the ‘Health and Safety Executive’ is that access to high level areas are either restricted or prevented with plant placed at ground level. However, when access is required for complying with roof warrantees and also the clearing of debris with other maintenance issues, this is often impossible to achieve.
To find out the solution, Housing Association Magazine hears from SAFETYWORKS & SOLUTIONS MD Marco Norman, the UK’s leading ‘Safety at Height ’ experts...

Wednesday 9th June saw the success of the virtual event, ‘What Makes a Healthy Home?’ powered by Aico | HomeLINK. The event aimed to create thought-provoking discussion regarding the current standards and legislation that contribute to creating safe homes for residents and the resulting impact on the social housing sector.

In attendance were close to 300 professionals, thought-leaders and decision-makers from across the industry to hear from keynote speakers, Dr Stephen Battersby, Vice President at the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and Dorota Pawlowski, Managing Associate at Trowers and Hamlins LLP. With interactive polls, dedicated question and answer sessions with keynote speakers and networking opportunities, the conference empowered the discussion of prevalent issues within the UK housing sector.

A campaign to change-up the national conversation around social housing safety and compliance with landlords, residents, government and suppliers, is calling for safety pledges ahead of the first annual National Social Housing Safety and Compliance Week. 

Running 21st – 25th June, the inaugural awareness week is spearheaded by the Association of Safety and Compliance Professionals (ASCP), in association with CORGI, to raise standards in safety, compliance, learning, competence and collaboration for a safer future for social housing.