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Review Reflect Repeat – workshops designed to making working on rail projects safer

At VolkerFitzpatrick’s head office in Hertfordshire, the team recently gathered to share ideas about how to make possessions and isolations on rail projects safer for the workforce.

PandIWorkshop EXT.jpg
PandIWorkshop EXT.jpg

People from across the business were invited to share their real-life experiences so that lessons could be learnt, and solutions could be found to everyday problems. The aim of the workshop was to review available safety regulations and expand on the criteria that are laid out. The team was tasked with coming up with a few ideas that could be tested and put into practice within a short timeframe. All ideas were welcomed, trends and common themes were discussed, and thought was given to how best practice solutions could be made more visual and pulled out of paperwork to help those that need it most - those working on site. 

Rather than use these ideas solely for the benefit of VolkerFitzpatrick, the team is keen to share the ideas with the wider industry, to help improve conditions for all those that work on rail projects.

While it’s too early to share the findings from this workshop, the team focussed on how they could improve communications and shared best practice from individual projects. From a previous workshop, one of the actions taken forward was hosting regular possession meetings online, which has proven helpful in ensuring a high level of attendance.

Mike Evans, operations director for VolkerFitzpatrick, said: “We want to continually find new and innovative ways to make working on site safer. It’s not enough to come up with good ideas - they’ve got to be put into action, made relevant to people on site, and shared across the industry. We’ve engrained this culture within our business and continue to look for ways to improve year-on-year.”