Going beyond Gold

Going beyond Gold, held at the CBI in June brought together contractors, managers and workers
involved in the Olympic construction project so they could share their experiences and help
disseminate best practice. Event organiser, Neal Stone tells HSM more about lessons from the day

As Boris Johnson, Mayor of
London, unveiled the Olympic
rings at Tower Bridge, a more
significant Olympic-related event was
taking place across London, bringing
together the London 2012 client,
contractors, managers, workers plus the
wider health and safety community to
share their experiences and help
disseminate best practice.

‘Going beyond Gold’, held at the CBI on
28 June, just one month before the
opening of the London 2012 games,
lacked the press coverage and razzamatazz
accompanying the unveiling of the
Olympic rings. It did, however very
publicly place on record the exemplary
performance achieved by the Olympic
Delivery Authority (ODA), CLM the
delivery partner, the major and other
contractors and all of those who worked
on the construction projects in managing
the many and varied health, safety and
environmental risks they faced.

The conference, organised by the
British Safety Council with the support
and cooperation of key corporate
members who delivered the London 2012
construction projects (including the ODA,
BAM Nuttall, Barhale, Carillion, ISG,
Mace and McNicholas) provided the
opportunity to review the mass of
evidence steadily being gathered to
highlight the impact of the arrangements
put in place to prevent injury, ill health
and environmental harm.

The keynote presentations were
delivered by Jason Millett, the Programme
Director for the delivery partner CLM,
Lawrence Waterman, Head of Health and
Safety at the ODA, Stephen Williams,
HSE’s Director for Operational Strategy
and the London Games and John
McClean, National Officer for the GMB
Union.

While the focus of the conference was
on leadership, workforce involvement and
safety culture, the presentations and panel
sessions ranged widely from the critical
role of the client in driving excellence, to
the contribution of HSE regulation in
helping contractors, managers and
workers achieve a very high standard of
health and safety management and in
helping to gather the evidence of impact
through the research it had funded. The
vital importance of visible and
inspirational leadership together with an
actively engaged and listened-to
workforce was spelt out time and time
again.

The presentation by Lawrence
Waterman, awarded an OBE for his
services to health and safety in the
birthday honours, brought home
graphically the magnitude of the health
challenge that the ODA and contractors
were committed to tackling. What was
clear was the awareness of all of the key
players of the health hazards posed, for
example, by working in close proximity to
contaminated soil and water.

‘Health like safety’
The approach adopted by the ODA was 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 within existing safety
management. Lawrence pointed to the
recently published research
commissioned by HSE and undertaken
by the Institute of Employment Studies in
cooperation with the ODA that gathered
the data to enable an evidence-based
assessment of the occupational health
performance of the Olympic Park
construction projects.

The substitution of high hazard leadcontaining
primer to one without lead
content in the build of the Aquatic Centre
was just one example of an initiative
designed to prevent occupational disease
in future years. Other less technical but
equally effective initiatives included the
introduction of the ‘big breakfast’ to tackle
among other things low blood sugar levels
and prevent accidents. The full research
report can be accessed at
http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr9
21.htm
What came shining through from all of
the presentations and the panel sessions
on leadership and workforce involvement,
on the contribution of young workers and
the sustainability programme
achievements, was the passion and
commitment of all of those involved from
the apprentices in their first job to those
who had worked in construction for years.

What was also clear was the
determination to build a health, safety and
environmental legacy that would not only
be taken on to other major construction
projects, including the nuclear new build
and major transport projects as Crossrail,
but shared with other sectors too.

An abiding memory was the reflection
of one of the panellists, with fifty years in
construction, who recalled that within his
working life construction deaths, a
frequent occurrence, were marked by a
whip round in the pub and little more.

Construction workers back then were
seen as expendable and easily replaceable.

Immense progress has been made; but
much more needs to be done and
hopefully the sharing of the London 2012
construction success story will assist that
process.

Details of the research reports funded
by HSE and carried out in conjunction
with the ODA, including on supply chain
management, can be found at
http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/london-
2012-games/research-reports.htm
Neal Stone is the director of policy &
communications at the British Safety
Council.