20 | 1ST - 7TH JUNE 2018 | UTILITY WEEK Operations & Assets Utility Week Awards winner case study Health and Safety Initiative of the Year • Award winner: Wessex Water • Title of project/initiative: collabora- tion with SafeWise • Annual company turnover: £525.3 million • Number of directly employed staff: 2,300 Entry criteria: 1. Quality of entry (clear, evidence- based, etc) 2. Evidence of innovation 3. Quantifiable benefits for workforce, business and customers 4. Commitment to all-round health and safety policy 5. Evidence of wider adoption/setting best practice for the industry 6. Evidence of sustainable benefits. The Utility Week Awards are held in asso- ciation with CGI and Capgemini. The 2018 Utility Week Awards will be opening soon. Sponsorship opportunities are available – contact Utility Week busi- ness development manager Ben Ham- mond on [email protected]or 01342 332116 for more information. Wessex Water and SafeWise What makes a Utility Week Award winner? We look in detail at Wessex Water’s winning entry for the 2017 Healthy & Safety Initiative of the Year Award. W essex Water worked in collabora- tion with SafeWise, a Dorset-based charity, to raise awareness among road users about minimising risk when approaching roadworks, as well as improv- ing its own understanding of that risk. In reaction to the news that SafeWise was keen to develop a new safety site in Wey- mouth, a team of volunteers made up of staff from Wessex Water cleared the area. This having proven a success, the two companies agreed to collaborate further on a variety of projects. The collaboration’s work to date has included holding focus groups, producing a road safety awareness video and animation, and providing an educational facility for schoolchildren and adults. What was the scale of the project? The most significant of the projects was a mock streetworks site at the new centre, but Wessex Water has also since held focus groups, produced an animated road safety awareness video, and allowed one of its sites to be used as a SafeWise educational facility for both schoolchildren and adult visitors. The company is now looking to introduce an improved ramp design for wheelchair users, and a more proactive approach will be taken with regard to encouraging road users to be considerate to pedestrians in the area. Among the findings that came to light was that barriers and walkways are created with the assumption that everyone can speak English, identify colours and see clearly. What was the target group? Wessex Water completes around 60,000 jobs in the road each year but claims that the SafeWise project will have a reach far broader than local motorists: “Through invit- ing children to see our roadworks mock-up, we’re able to educate the drivers and road users of the future. Numerous schools and colleges have visited the centre to date, and such is its success that there are now plans to open another centre in the region,” says a spokesperson. Wessex says using “real people” in its video means it resonates with whoever is watching it. The idea is that viewers gain a greater respect for all roadside workers, who have the right to work in a safe environment without the risk of cars negotiating past roadworks dangerously. Why this approach? Through its work with SafeWise, Wessex decided to further engage with the local community, and get its feedback on current roadwork set-ups. All of these were already compliant with the Roads and Streetworks Act, but the company’s work with Safe- Wise inspired it to work more closely with the people likely to be most affected by the roadworks. The previously mentioned focus group that was held in conjunction with SafeWise also involved Mobility UK and the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB), as well as the local fire and rescue service. The aim was to glean feedback on why Barriers and walkways are created with the assumption that everyone can speak English, identify colours and see clearly
Transcript
20 | 1ST - 7TH JUNE 2018 | UTILITY WEEK
Operations & Assets
Utility Week Awards winner case study
Health and Safety Initiative of the Year
• Award winner: Wessex Water• Title of project/initiative: collabora-
tion with SafeWise• Annual company turnover:
£525.3 million• Number of directly employed staff:
2,300
Entry criteria:1. Quality of entry (clear, evidence-
based, etc)2. Evidence of innovation3. Quantifiable benefits for workforce,
business and customers4. Commitment to all-round health and
safety policy5. Evidence of wider adoption/setting
best practice for the industry6. Evidence of sustainable benefits.
The Utility Week Awards are held in asso-ciation with CGI and Capgemini.
The 2018 Utility Week Awards will be opening soon. Sponsorship opportunities are available – contact Utility Week busi-ness development manager Ben Ham-mond on [email protected] or 01342 332116 for more information.
Wessex Water and SafeWiseWhat makes a Utility Week Award winner? We look in detail at Wessex Water’s winning entry for the 2017 Healthy & Safety Initiative of the Year Award.
Wessex Water worked in collabora-tion with SafeWise, a Dorset-based charity, to raise awareness among
road users about minimising risk when approaching roadworks, as well as improv-ing its own understanding of that risk.
In reaction to the news that SafeWise was keen to develop a new safety site in Wey-mouth, a team of volunteers made up of staff from Wessex Water cleared the area. This having proven a success, the two companies agreed to collaborate further on a variety of projects.
The collaboration’s work to date has included holding focus groups, producing a road safety awareness video and animation, and providing an educational facility for schoolchildren and adults.
What was the scale of the project?The most significant of the projects was a mock streetworks site at the new centre, but Wessex Water has also since held focus groups, produced an animated road safety awareness video, and allowed one of its sites to be used as a SafeWise educational facility for both schoolchildren and adult visitors.
The company is now looking to introduce an improved ramp design for wheelchair users, and a more proactive approach will be taken with regard to encouraging road users to be considerate to pedestrians in the area. Among the findings that came to light was that barriers and walkways are created with the assumption that everyone can speak English, identify colours and see clearly.
What was the target group?Wessex Water completes around 60,000 jobs in the road each year but claims that the SafeWise project will have a reach far broader than local motorists: “Through invit-ing children to see our roadworks mock-up, we’re able to educate the drivers and road users of the future. Numerous schools and colleges have visited the centre to date, and such is its success that there are now plans to open another centre in the region,” says a spokesperson.
Wessex says using “real people” in its video means it resonates with whoever is watching it. The idea is that viewers gain a greater respect for all roadside workers, who have the right to work in a safe environment without the risk of cars negotiating past roadworks dangerously.
Why this approach?Through its work with SafeWise, Wessex decided to further engage with the local community, and get its feedback on current roadwork set-ups. All of these were already compliant with the Roads and Streetworks Act, but the company’s work with Safe-Wise inspired it to work more closely with the people likely to be most affected by the roadworks.
The previously mentioned focus group that was held in conjunction with SafeWise also involved Mobility UK and the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB), as well as the local fire and rescue service. The aim was to glean feedback on why
Barriers and walkways are
created with the assumption that everyone can speak English, identify colours and see clearly
UTILITY WEEK | 1ST - 7TH JUNEMAY 2018 | 21
Operations & Assets
Winner’s comments“It was an absolute privilege to be named the winners of the Health & Safety Initiative of the Year, it was a fantastic evening and it was really inspiring to be in the company of great people – all of whom are achievers – regardless of any accolade they picked up on the night.
“Our work with SafeWise has gone from strength to strength and we continue to develop a new footpath and barrier arrange-ment for streetwork operations, after receiving feedback from a focus group with the RNIB and Mobility Groups, as well as the Fire and Rescue services.
“Although motivation with the SafeWise initiative never waned, there’s no denying winning the award gave us extra momentum.
“I would highly recommend others to enter the awards – it’s great to pitch your initiatives against others in your industry, but more importantly, being exposed to the inspiring teams and indi-viduals along with their ideas at the awards night will only moti-vate and inspire new ideas within your own business.”
WAYNE HANSFORD, REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE MANAGER AT WESSEX WATER
The judges’ verdictThe judges said this was an entry that has helped educate more than a quarter of mil-lion people about the potential dangers of roadworks.
Wessex Water on awards night
people avoid walkways set up to circum-navigate streetworks, and how these could be amended to look safer and be more approachable.
The direct result of this forum, which Wessex Water describes as “invaluable”, was that better images and more differenti-ated colour-coded barriers to highlight “safe zones” will be used.
What were the project’s KPIs?The main key performance indicators of the initiative were success in raising awareness, to as many people as possible, about the safety benefits of roadworks; why it’s impor-tant to navigate around them safely; and how Wessex is working with other organisa-tions to improve accessibility and how it sets up roadworks.
How was creativity demonstrated?As part of the initiative, local people were shown videos of the dangers of streetworks via social media. These videos included foot-age of motorists attending driver awareness courses at the SafeWise Centre, with the aim of making them more aware of the conse-quences of not being considerate. The video, which was also uploaded to YouTube, was a huge hit, according to the company.
It had in excess of a quarter of a million views at the time of going to press and has since received backing from Avon & Somer-set Police, Dorset Police, Travel Dorset (Dor-set County Council), and Travel Somerset (Somerset County Council).
Furthermore, it was reported on ITV News Meridian South, BBC Radio Solent, Bridport News, the Dorset Echo, the Bourne-mouth Daily Echo and Wessex FM. It is also now shown to all drivers attending a Driver Awareness Course at the SafeWise centre.
What impact has there been on the company?Using feedback it received from its focus group, Wessex says other companies within the utilities industry could adopt the same improvements it has made, for example a colour scheme that denotes “safe zones”, and the use of symbols. To build on the suc-cess of the safety video, Wessex is in the pro-cess of developing an animation for children which can be used by other companies.
“Our initiative with SafeWise has encour-aged other parts of our business to voluntar-ily take the same safety message into other
parts of our region which aren’t currently covered by SafeWise,” says the company.
“For example, a team carrying out a water main replacement scheme in Wiltshire decided to follow suit and set up a mock roadwork situation – similar to the ones we have provided to SafeWise – to demonstrate to local school children the importance of roadworks and how to stay safe near them.”
Thanks to the initiative, Wessex Water says it has achieved “a better understanding of the importance of roadworks”.
Who was involved?Wessex Water and safety education charity SafeWise.
Were there any hurdles along the way?Wessex says there have been no hurdles with the project. The collaboration between teams and SafeWise made the whole process very easy.
“It may be worth noting that as we used real members of staff in the video. Some were not aware of many takes you had to go through for a few seconds on screen,” says a spokesperson. “It was a fun, but challeng-ing, few days of filming.”
