Switched on to Safety

This began with the affiliation of our industry accreditation body the Joint Industry Board (JIB) with the now familiar Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS).

T.Clarke decided that testing alone would not satisfy the H&S requirements or indeed the expectations of our Clients to have a fully trained workforce with up-to-date H&S knowledge.

To this end, the Safety Department embarked on a staged, structured training programme throughout the companies within the T.Clarke organisation.

Stage One involved a one day H&S course at our Head Office dedicated training facility for all London based managerial staff; this included the elements listed below and lead to the ECS Managers' Certification being awarded.

• Legislation - H & S at Work Act 1974
• Management of H&S at Work Regulation 1999
• Electricity at Work Regulations 1989
• Method Statements
• Risk Assessments
• Accident Prevention
• Safety Awareness
• Manual Handling

Over a year-long period, Stage Two involved more than 600 T.Clarke London-based, JIB graded operatives attending a one-day H&S course at our Head Office.  Every course ended with each operative sitting the Electrical Contracting Industry's ECS H&S Test.

Stage Three extended the training course to the subsidiary company employees, which involved the H&S department going 'on the road' throughout the country and carrying out H&S training and testing to the same high standard as in London, thus providing a fully trained workforce across the group.

The Final Stage of this process has ensured ancillary engineering staff are trained to the Electrical Contracting Industry Standard. This includes quantity surveyors, CAD co-ordinators and site-based estimating engineers.

This training process is repeated on a rolling three-year basis, in line with the ECS Card expiry date.

The 'Switched on to Safety' campaign is not just about training; its main thrust is to improve the organisation's performance across the whole of it's H&S Management field.