HEALTH & SAFETY ANNUAL REPORT 2013

Moving safety Forward

Contents The Crossrail programme 3 Introduction 5 Target Zero – achieving excellence in health and safety

7

Building and supporting health and safety

11

Talking safety, acting safely 25 Award-winning practice 27 Our performance 28

WE ALL HAVE THE RIGHT TO GO HOME UNHARMED EVERY DAY

A final word 31 Glossary 32

WE BELIEVE THAT ALL HARM IS PREVENTABLE WE MUST ALL WORK TOGETHER TO ACHIEVE THIS

1

The Crossrail Programme The history of Crossrail and the Crossrail Act A tunnelling operative inspects work in the western tunnel section near Westbourne Park

The idea to create a new rail line that provided better cross-capital links gained support in 1974 through the 1974 London Rail Study, published by the then Greater London Council and Department for Environment. The study proposed that the cross-Capital link needed to be more than just another Tube line. For London and areas beyond to maximise the benefits on offer, the scheme needed to feature a mainline railway that leveraged the usefulness of the existing Tube network. The idea was discarded until a 1980 discussion paper noted that Tube and rail capacity were reaching their limits. However, it wasn’t till 1989 that the Government published a Central London Rail Study which took many ideas of the 1974 study and developed them in more concrete ways. In October 1990 the Government finally gave the go-ahead to British Rail and London Transport to develop the east-west Crossrail scheme, however due to recession in the early 90s, the Bill to proceed was rejected. This was followed by years of consultations and proposals until 2008 when The Crossrail Act received Royal Assent. In 2009, after 35 years of planning and development, the Crossrail project finally started to be realised with the breaking of ground at Canary Wharf.

A new railway to move London forward Crossrail is Europe’s largest construction and infrastructure project. As a major part of the Mayor of London’s Transport Strategy, Crossrail will provide a new, fast and efficient railway for London and the south east. The new service will run through the heart of London and connect the City with Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west and Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east, providing faster journey times and greater travel flexibility. Crossrail boasts many benefits. Each hour during peak times up to 24 spacious, air-conditioned trains will run between Paddington and Whitechapel. Capacity on the London rail network will be increased by 10 per cent. Importantly, Crossrail will also give a £42 billion boost to the UK economy over a 60 year period with contracts supporting businesses and communities across the UK. With a massive 21km of twin tunnels, the line will connect 28 existing Network Rail stations with nine new stations to be built at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel, Canary Wharf, Custom House and Woolwich. Each Crossrail train will be around 200 metres long and carry up to 1,500 passengers. Around 200 million people will travel on Crossrail each year.

An ethical approach to construction Our supply chain includes a good proportion of the UK’s major construction companies and a wide distribution of sub-tier contractors. This provides us with a great opportunity to effect change in the way the UK construction industry approaches health and safety management. Jobs and skills creation, community support, environmental care and considerate construction are interwoven into Crossrail’s activities. Around 18,000 people will work on the programme and at least 400 apprentices will be trained through our supply chain. To this end, Crossrail has established a world-class Tunnelling and Construction Academy (TUCA) which will leave a lasting legacy for the construction industry. It will contribute to the development of new qualifications and health and safety standards across the industry, sharing innovation and best practice for years to come.

2

3

Our contractors are required to give their time, money and effort to our Community Investment Programme, supporting the local community through actions such as mentoring, sports activity sponsorship, and literacy and employability programmes. Sustainability and environmental activities are supported through initiatives like our work with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) to build Europe’s largest man-made nature reserve at Wallasea Island in Essex, using 99 per cent of our clean excavated material. We are also undertaking one of the most extensive archaeology programmes in the UK, as well as a high profile art programme. Our trains will save at least 20 per cent on energy consumption through their innovative regenerative braking system which will return energy to the electrical grid. To keep disruption to a minimum, all Crossrail worksites must register with the Considerate Constructors’ Scheme or a similar borough-run programme. The scheme scores and monitors sites for appearance, safety, community engagement and environmental protection.

Crossrail the company Crossrail Limited is the company charged with delivering Crossrail. Formerly known as Cross London Rail Links (CLRL), it was created in 2001 to promote and develop new lines that meet the needs of people and businesses throughout the South East, and to ensure that London continues in its role as the Europe’s leading financial and business centre. Established as a 50/50 joint venture company between Transport for London (TfL) and the Department for Transport, Crossrail Limited became a wholly owned subsidiary of TfL on 5 December 2008. Crossrail’s sponsors are Transport for London and the Department for Transport and partners include Network Rail, BAA, the City of London Corporation, Canary Wharf Group Plc and Berkeley Homes.

Introduction When I visit Crossrail project sites, I talk to the people who are delivering our programme about what health and safety means to them in their working environment. Often they will repeat the phrases that we use to describe the paramount importance of health and safety on Crossrail: ‘nothing is so important that we can’t do it safely’ and ‘we all have the right to go home unharmed each day.’ You hear these words spoken every day on Crossrail in every health and safety briefing and induction. They have a powerful resonance. Yet what matters to me is that everyone understands their own individual responsibility to make it happen. Crossrail is a massively complex infrastructure programme, the largest in Europe and we are delivering it in the midst of a vibrant city. During the next 18 months, we will reach peak employment levels of around 14,000 people. Safety has to be part of everyday life, matched by an equal commitment to enhance the health and wellbeing of all our workers.

Crossrail has set up a wide ranging health and safety programme based on our strong belief that all harm is preventable. We require our contractors to provide honest and open incident reporting and to apply this principle throughout their supply chain. Any injury, no matter how minor, must be reported and investigated to understand its root cause and to ensure that lessons can be learned across the project. We also require all contractors to plan their work activities effectively in order to eliminate risk. Our safety record is better than the UK construction industry average. We have also identified, through our Gateway scheme, many outstanding and inspirational examples of health and safety best practice that we are actively promoting across the programme and more widely within the industry. But complacency is our enemy. As the complexity of construction activities by our contractors has increased, their accident frequency rate has also risen. Whilst this is not uncommon in large infrastructure projects, we consider it unacceptable on Crossrail. This report includes a commentary of our performance against last year’s health and safety objectives and sets out our objectives for 2013-14. I am pleased to report that our health and safety management system has been recertified by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) against the British Standard for occupational health and safety (OHSAS 18001). Our mission on Crossrail is to deliver a world class railway that fast tracks the progress of London. At the same time, we aim to leave a healthier workforce and a safer industry for the benefit of future programmes.

Andrew Wolstenholme Chief Executive

4

5

Target Zero achieving excellence in health and safety Shaft and tunnels forming part of the new Bond Street station under Hanover Square

Health and safety policy ‘Target Zero – A State of Mind’ penetrates everything we do at Crossrail. It is enshrined in our health and safety policy. Transport for London’s health, safety and environment policy was aligned with a Crossrailspecific approach when it was deemed more appropriate. We have actively promoted both these policies and have made them available to all employees and contractors via the project intranet, Crossrail’s external website and on staff noticeboards. We see it as our role to: 1. Provide alignment between Crossrail’s vision and the supply chain through the Target Zero programme 2. Provide a framework standard for the contractors to work to (via the Crossrail ‘Contractors and Industry Partners Health, Safety and Environment Standard’ and contractual documentation such as ‘Works Information’) 3. Ensure provisions and arrangements are in place to ensure full compliance with the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 4. Engender a culture of sharing intellectual health and safety property between all Crossrail stakeholders and contractors to raise the level of performance within the UK construction industry.

Working at height

Never work at height: 6

• if there are safer alternatives

7

The fundamental principles of Target Zero Our Golden Rules are designed to create a safe working environment and it’s essential everyone complies with them. They will be applied firmly and fairly. Breaking the Golden Rules is a serious issue that could lead to removal from site and disciplinary action. So read them, understand them, and put safety at the centre of your day. Safety is our primary value, nothing is so important that it cannot be done safely.

We all have the right to go home unharmed every day We believe that all harm is preventable

As you work on Crossrail, ask yourself these questions every day:

What could go wrong? Would I let a loved one do this? Is it safe or should I stop?

We must all work together to achieve this

• unless you are protected by a solid barrier or, where this is not possible, a harness • unless all materials, tools and equipment are safely secured and prevented from falling Electrics Never work on energy or electrical systems unless an authorised person has: • isolated, discharged and locked to the system and tested it to prove it is safe • issued a Permit to Work stating that the work is safe to proceed Sprayed concrete works Never: • visit a tunnel under construction unless you absolutely have to

Confined spaces Never enter a confined space: • if there are safer alternatives • unless you are medically fit and trained to do so • unless the air within the space has been tested and declared safe or unless the safe system of work specifically describes measures for maintaining safe breathable air • unless an emergency plan and system is in place • without a Permit to Work recording that the work is safe to proceed Breaking ground Never undertake digging, excavation or ground breaking activities unless:

• stand under ‘open ground’ as material can fall from the face and bench – not just from overhead

• a survey of the area has been completed to identify all risks and structures in the ground

ALL PROJECTS

Driving

• stand under freshly sprayed (green) shotcrete

• a Permit to Work is in place recording that the work is safe to proceed

ALL WORK MUST BE EFFECTIVELY ASSESSED, PLANNED AND CONTROLLED. SO ALWAYS:

Never drive or operate vehicles or plant:

• stand or walk in a driver’s blind spot

• controls are in place to ensure that the ground will not collapse during the work

• assess the risk to you and all others

• unless you are authorised and medically fit to do so

• produce and comply with a safe system of work

• unless it is fit for purpose and in a safe state of repair

• expect the workplace to change and control new risks as they occur

• above the limits set for speed, weight and overhead restriction

• communicate the risks and explain the safe system to the frontline workforce

• where the risk of hitting pedestrians or operatives is not controlled

• ensure work is adequately supervised and carried out by a trained and competent workforce



Lifting Never:

• maintain a tidy workplace

• lift unsecured loads

• use the correct tools, equipment and PPE

• exceed the operating limits of any piece of lifting equipment

• stop work immediately if you think it is unsafe for you or anyone else

• use any piece of lifting equipment unless appropriately tested and inspected

• report all incidents, near-misses and unsafe situations and support those who do.



• lift unless the ground/foundation has been assessed or designed by a competent person • stand or walk under a suspended load • lift without planning it first • put your hands in a pinch point during a lift

8

9

Health and safety model

Health and safety corporate objective The 2012-13 health and safety corporate objective “to Deliver Target Zero” comprised three goals (tabled below): Goal 1: Strive for excellence in executing our construction design and management (CDM) regulations duties.

TARGET ZERO

‘INCIDENT AND INJURY FREE (IIF)’ ‘DON’T WALK BY’

Our health and safety model was developed to best serve the project and the structure of the organisation. At the heart of what we do is supply chain capability. The model reflects that our contractors are competent, aware of their responsibilities and have health and safety programmes in place that are appropriate for their activities.

Crossrail’s primary objective

‘STEP UP’

Contractors’ Health and safety programmes

‘ZERO HARM’

‘BEYOND ZERO’ Collaboration and sharing best practice

Best practice implementation contractual requirements

Result: Awareness has been increased and no concerns remained open beyond the deadline to deal with them.

Result - achieved Goal 2: Provide leadership to our principal contractors to encourage them to achieve consistently high standards in health and safety. Action: Measure this goal by establishing and implementing a Crossrail standard for supervisory competence and leadership. Result: Our Frontline Leadership Programme (FPL) to enhance supervisory skills was developed and implemented on time. The goal was achieved more quickly than originally planned. Its timescale was shortened to instruct principal contractors by December 2012 and this was achieved.

Client/project-wide rules, legislative and contractual obligations

Legislative foundation

Action: Measure this goal through the completion of CDM assurance metrics and completely deal with any actions raised in a timely way.

Result - achieved Goal 3: Develop and implement a health and safety scorecard. Action: Measure this goal through its speed of implementation. Result: The scorecard was developed and implemented using a health and safety performance index that measures activities within the six pillars of Target Zero (see page 10). The goal was achieved more quickly than originally planned. Its timescale was shortened and the scorecard was implemented by Period 4.

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

Result - achieved

WORKPLACE SAFETY

WORKPLACE HEALTH

COMMUNICATION

DESIGNING FOR HEALTH AND SAFETY

To provide a focus for health and safety activities, Target Zero is underpinned by six pillars which support measurement of health and safety performance: leadership and behaviour, communication, designing for health and safety, workplace health, workplace safety and performance improvement.

LEADERSHIP AND BEHAVIOUR

TARGET ZERO

Building and supporting health and safety Crossrail’s dedication to awareness of health and safety across the entire project was delivered this year through numerous programmes, activities and timely data capture through Rivo Safeguard incident capture and reporting software. All actions were aligned to six strategic objectives designed to realise the overall corporate goals:

Objective 1 – Target Zero Objective 2 – Leadership Objective 3 – World-class standards Objective 4 – Stakeholder engagement plan Objective 5 – Health and safety performance metrics Objective 6 – Health and wellbeing.

10

11

Objective 1 – Target Zero Our first objective was to make sure that all project staff and contractors had a good understanding of the aims of Target Zero to prevent harm to all involved in Crossrail work. This involved promoting awareness of its philosophy through procedures, programmes and practice.

Tunnel boring machine (TBM), Victoria, breaking through the tunnel eye into Canary Wharf Station box

As part of our standard procedure, all members of the Crossrail team have had an extensive induction. This included a briefing on the management system and how individuals could take personal responsibility to deliver Target Zero through their own actions and through influencing others. Our Health and Safety Management System (HSMS), which sets out in real terms the processes and procedures to deliver Target Zero, achieved British Standard Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) BS18001:2007 accreditation. Our commitment to health and safety meant we also implemented training programmes including the Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) and Construction Design Management Awareness Training. All staff working on site are required to take and pass the CSCS test and hold a valid CSCS card. Inaddition we have developed the Tunnel Safety Card, a competency requirement for anyone working in a tunnelling environment. Other actions included raising health and safety as a priority at all project meetings and events and increasing visibility of our Target Zero safety principles through on-site placement of messages promoting Target Zero. We have tried to raise issues in creative and impactful ways. At a six-monthly leadership conference live actors were used to perform a health and safety scenario to reinforce ideas of group and individual responsibility, and to show line managers how important it is they understand the consequences of their actions. Looking ahead to 2013-14 we aim to increase Target Zero visibility even further with visual standards and guidance notes for our principal contractors.

12

13

Objective 2 – Leadership

Spray concrete lining construction using shotcrete at Hanover Square

Our second objective was to develop a leadership programme for Crossrail that would bring about positive behavioural change. This involved setting up a behaviour-based safety programme with targeted workshops, creating a reporting mechanism to measure effectiveness of contractors’ behaviour-based safety programmes and developing a Crossrail leadership training course. During 2012-13 we started the first phase of our comprehensive new Behaviour Influences Behaviour (BIB) programme to show how we can each set an example for others. The programme which investigates behavioural influence within the organisation, between teams and across the supply chain, has five strands:

Crossrail leadership conference

Awareness briefings

A Frontline Leadership Programme

Target Zero roadshows

Skills and training workshops

Our aim is also to improve our contractors’ behaviour-based safety programmes. Crossrail staff received a short awareness session introducing BIB which placed the emphasis on delivery throughout 2013-14. BIB awareness briefings gave an overview of the programme, basic information on behavioural-based safety and encouragement to get involved in Tier 1 contractors’ own health and safety programmes. Drama-based Target Zero roadshows provided an interactive way for everyone on the Crossrail programme to see the benefits of personal responsibility and strong health and safety leadership. Over 1,300 people attended these roadshows including managers, supervisors and operatives. The new Frontline Leadership Programme (FLP) improves leadership skills by assessing gaps in the supervisor’s knowledge, providing tailored training modules and ongoing coaching, and pairing the supervisor with an experienced mentor. Six critical areas are covered: understanding people; decision making; resilience and focus; seeing the bigger picture; motivating others; and communicating effectively. BIB skills and training workshops for leadership and behavioural skills are planned to reinforce health and safety. They will be held in collaboration with Tier 1 contractors to share best practice, assess effectiveness and identify behaviours critical to safety which need to be monitored.

14

15

Objective 3 - World-class standards Our third objective was to achieve world-class health and safety standards through innovation and continuous improvement. A key element of this was creating and carrying out effective methods to communicate lessons learned and best practice internally and externally. We also developed a delivery scheme to assess, measure and celebrate health and safety achievements within our central section delivery contracts. In addition, we gave ourselves the quarterly goal to identify and share innovations and improvement.

Spreading best practice At Crossrail we recognise our responsibility to share what we have learned throughout the construction industry and equally to benefit from others’ experiences.

The construction team at Stepney Green celebrating completion of the largest chamber in Europe ever constructed using sprayed concrete lining techniques

We regularly review safety alerts from the industry and from stakeholders, sharing relevant information with our supply chain. We hold a bi-weekly teleconference for all Crossrail and principal contractors’ construction teams to share lessons learned from incident investigations.

Delivery – assessing and encouraging good health and safety performance We designed our delivery scheme for our central section delivery contracts to encourage contractors to go beyond contractual requirements and take pride in setting high standards that other contractors could aspire to. Through the scheme we assess, measure and celebrate excellence in health and safety performance. Every four months our Health and Safety Improvements Team assesses delivery contracts against the six pillars of Target Zero (see page 10) and awards the contract one of three levels of excellence: •

Foundation – compliance on all possible areas within all six pillars



Commendation – good practice on all possible areas within a particular pillar



Inspiration – good practice on all possible areas within more than three Target Zero pillars.

Inspiration award-holders must still show continuous improvement and excellence in all six pillars. We also use the scheme to collect and share details of what’s working well to raise standards across the Crossrail programme as a whole and to improve practice in lower-scoring areas. The result has been highly successful motivation and incentivisation within Crossrail and the broader industry.

16

Crisis management planning and mitigation Good programme management involves planning for a crisis. This year has seen Crossrail develop business continuity processes to further improve our ability to respond effectively to unplanned events. Over the last year our Gold Response Team, which deals with such events, undertook two full exercises, and there were four site-based desktop exercises. We also developed site specific emergency response plans, post-holder guides and emergency response packs. Importantly, we also developed a full emergency management system in line with the British Standards Institution’s Business Continuity Management (BCM) Standard BS25999.

17

Objective 4 – Stakeholder engagement plan Our fourth strategic objective involved developing and carrying out a plan to identify and engage with all key stakeholders. Crossrail is a vast and complex programme and we understand that to be effective with our health and safety ambitions we need to reach our to and effectively communicate with key contacts and health and safety forums across the industry. To do this we have established a stakeholder map to define:

Who we need to talk to What information we can and should exchange Where we need to go to effectively learn and disseminate Why each area needs which information When engagement is needed.

The map will aid us in the next year as we plan to take an even more proactive role in spreading Crossrail’s story and influencing the decision-making that improves the construction industry.

Tunnel operatives in the western tunnel section

18

19

Objective 5 – Health and safety performance metrics Goals need to be specific and measurable. With this in mind, we set an objective to establish and implement a mechanism for comparative reporting on health and safety performance using a defined set of metrics.

Engineers ready TBM, Elizabeth, to be lowered into the shaft at Limmo

We have reviewed and improved reporting in this area by implementing an electronic dashboard of charts and tables which clearly shows each contractor’s performance based on data gathered from our Rivo Safeguard incident capture and reporting software. Part of our process involved assessing and improving the validity of what was measured and how it was collected.

Improvements in measuring health and safety performance Performance is measured through our Health and Safety Performance Index (HSPI). The performance index figure we assign to each contractor is based on two measures of each of the six Target Zero pillars – a measure of effort in terms of inputs/activities (ie leading indicator performance) and the latest Gateway score of effectiveness of activities. We decided which leading indicators were best to measure in consultation with our contractor community. Their input helped us identify activities within each Target Zero pillar that would highlight good performance and which should reduce on-site risk. Although each pillar was given equal weighting, individual activities within each pillar were given a weighting depending on their perceived influence on outcome. In this way we formulated a robust framework for measuring contractor performance. The key benefits were that: •

Contractors were able to clearly see where they were and reflect on driving up their own performance index score



Friendly competition to improve performance scores emerged between contractors increasing the focus on health and safety



Safety action teams formed to assess what could be done to improve their scores



We gained interest from other UK major infrastructure organisations in setting a common measurement standard to drive health and safety behaviours to benefit the industry.

Performance improvement (Health and Safety Performance Improvement (HSPI) pillar 6) which measures task and investigation close-out and contractor audits performed extremely well with an overall 93 per cent improvement in HSPI over the year. Workplace health (HSPI pillar 4) indicated good engagement by principal contractors with regard to prescreen and random drugs and alcohol testing, with an overall improvement in HSPI score of 53 per cent for the year. Design for health and safety (HSPI pillar 2) performed well above the contractual requirements throughout the year. The result for the year was that overall health and safety performance met contractual expectations from the first reporting period, with a steady improvement over the course of the year. While it is clear that health and safety performance is moving in the right direction, we recognise that there is still room for improvement. Additional measures to assess performance in each of the key six Target Zero pillar areas are currently being developed and a review of leading indicator scores is planned for.

20

21

Improving reporting through data analysis To make our health and safety procedures even stronger we analysed areas of delivery over the course of the year and recorded our key findings.

People versus plant We analysed data trends in incidents and coordinated this with information from our Golden Rules Observation Forms (which are structured around our key rules for health and safety). We found the highest risk areas within this area to be: human factors; people/behaviour and training; and inadequate supervision. The top three causes were: failure to recognise a hazard; unsafe use of equipment/vehicle/tools; and failure to follow supervisor instructions. We took three key actions to address these issues: •

We reviewed communication methods such as the traffic marshal forum and improved pre-task briefings



We developed and delivered a campaign highlighting the dangers of plant and people interaction and promoting the sharing of best practice throughout a project



We reviewed and improved hazard and operability (HAZOP) studies to ensure a pro-active approach to identifying activities that could impact on people when using plant.

Lifting operations We were quick to react to an increase in incidents involving lifting equipment and performed a thorough analysis of preceding incidents (see Reporting of injuries and near misses on page 28). We found that human factors, people, behaviour or training accounted for nearly half of all lifting operation incidents’ root causes. Sub-categorising the causes showed that the main issues were down to staff not following existing procedures. Crawler and gantry cranes featured highly in the crane types involved, primarily due to gantry cranes hitting an object. We took three key actions to address these issues: •

We delivered a correct lifting campaign by an external crane specialist to principal contractors and Crossrail team members



A poster campaign was delivered to all sites



We rolled out tool box workshops.

Human factors The analysis of root causes of incidents (see page 29) throughout the year pointed repeatedly to human factors. With this in mind we:

22



Developed a human factors focus within our Behaviour Influences Behaviour programme



Developed a closer focus on principal contractors’ behavioural programmes



Decided to redevelop the investigation module used in our Rivo Safeguard incident capture and reporting software so that we can extract more detailed information on causes of incidents arising from human factors.

TBM, Elizabeth, being lowered into the shaft at Limmo in east London

23

Objective 6 – Health and wellbeing Our sixth strategic objective was to improve the health and wellbeing of everyone involved in the Crossrail programme. This involved ensuring contractors complied with occupational health requirements embedded within works information. We also evaluated the effectiveness of the national scheme for the management of occupational health in the construction industry Constructing Better Health (CBH), and whether this offered value for money.

Occupational health provision Our assurance activities showed that during the year there has been a vast improvement in the level of occupational health provision in our supply chain. As a result of the findings of these activities we are also planning to bolster our ideal of world-class occupational health management in 2013-14 through: •

Pre-placement health checks



Regular statutory health surveillance



Pre-commencement/induction drug and alcohol testing



Health and wellbeing management training programmes



Communication about the full range of occupational health services available



Referring individuals to occupational health services for support following illness



Improving communication and raising awareness about health and wellbeing, including coordinated health campaigns and better coordinated health initiatives



Planning and implementing a fatigue management policy



Ensuring health policies, standards and procedures are up to date





Making sure all occupational health service providers have achieved the Safe Effective Quality Occupational Health Service (SEQOHS) accreditation by December 2013 and have a service level agreement in place with their client Providing valuable health research that will benefit the wider industry.

CASE STUDY - THE PADDINGTON OLYMPICS – AN EXERCISE IN AWARENESS Our Paddington Project team held its own version of the Olympics to help increase awareness of health, safety, quality, environment and security. Five teams competed for gold, silver and bronze medals in 12 events relating to these areas. Each team had a captain, competitors and supporters from the Crossrail team and contractors. As well as memory games relating to slips, trips and falls based on research into incidents, walkovers and potential risks, there were also physical challenges including a ‘Waste and Resources Use Pentathlon’. In this innovative way, the Paddington team used the excitement around the Olympics to provide an interactive and engaging focus on key areas of health and safety, and to bring client and contractor teams together to share viewpoints on environmental issues. Similar competitive events have been proposed for the future.

“Protecting the health of construction workers is of critical importance to Crossrail and occupational health has a key role to play in identifying and controlling health risks. Through the adoption of Constructing Better Health standards and the implementation of Crossrail’s own occupational health standard we are targeting frontline personnel to ensure they are fit for work and fit for life.” Andy Mitchell, Programme Director

Investigating and using the Constructing Better Health scheme Following an assessment of the benefits, we adopted the national industry standard Constructing Better Health to help ensure consistent and regular health checks are applied across the board. Contractors are expected to run monthly site-based health campaigns and provide annual lifestyle screenings to 50 per cent of staff. Our contractors have engaged well and to date 6,000 workers have had health assessments.

Talking safety, acting safely Improvements to our health and safety management system Our health and safety management system (HSMS) is made up of three elements: our health and safety policy and supporting policies; our regularlyreviewed health and safety manual; and the Crossrail Management System (CMS) – an online portal to the manual and all related documents.

In 2012-13 we reviewed our HSMS twice and, after consultation, integrated processes for health, safety, environment and quality. The result was that we identified 14 opportunities for improving health and safety, on which we are now making good progress. To further optimise our system, the Health and Safety Team also completed a comprehensive effortsversus-benefit analysis. Areas of significant effort which showed little if any benefit to the system and to Crossrail as a whole are being eradicated. Areas of positive benefit are also being assessed on a regular basis to provide an ambitious system that is fit for purpose, meets regulatory requirements, is clear to staff and functions well rather than just being compliant. We will continue with full annual reviews of our HSMS to keep our practices current and considered. A testament to our processes was the OHSAS 18001: 2007 re-certification of Crossrail’s quality, environment and occupational health and safety management system following an audit in May 2012. Only minor non-conformities and suggestions for improvements were raised. We have put in place plans to take action on these issues and on any health and safety non-conformance raised by interim audits.

We realised that our contractors’ performance on occupational health was inconsistent and that a lack of understanding of requirements may have previously led to non-compliance. To combat this we ensured that proper health checks were undertaken on all workers and followed up periodically. Our Occupational Health Standard is a mandatory requirement for all contractors and their sub-tier. We have assisted small and medium-sized enterprises’ understanding of and access to occupational health services, raising the bar and transforming the culture in this area. We also produced a Healthy by Design guide to help designers build in legal requirements at an early stage.

24

25

Working with the Health and Safety Executive to improve standards In March 2013 the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published its Crossrail Intervention Strategy for Tunnelling and Ground Works. We have welcomed this strategy document as it will help us with: •

Championing and ensuring a common sense approach to health and safety through strong leadership from the Crossrail client team and supply chain



Creating a commitment to ensuring and developing competence of all involved in the construction phase



Actively promoting the benefits of worker involvement in management of site health and safety.

HSE and Crossrail are keen to use lessons learned and extend the good health and safety practice developed during the Olympics across the Crossrail programme and ultimately create a lasting legacy that will benefit the UK tunnelling industry of the future. We have worked with HSE to develop a Crossrail Health, Safety and Environmental Standard. It sets clear objectives for our work and how these will be managed and achieved. Any issues raised on site will be addressed by a Crossrail Health and Safety Leadership Team and we will have regular meetings to: •

Progress implementation of the Crossrail Health, Safety and Environmental Standard



Identify health and safety issues raised and the progress of the leadership team in tackling these



Assess the need for interventions on site to provide reassurance across the programme.

working within Crossrail and on principal contractors sites has a safe, healthy and environmentally sound workplace. Over the year we have provided a number of initiatives raising the profile of vehicle safety and road safety not just for our workers but for the general public. We hope these will be adopted by future major construction programmes as a benchmark for good practice. We consulted with the Cyclists Touring Club and the London Cycling Campaign to produce a lorry driver training programme accredited by Havering College of Further and Higher Education. We have trained 5,300 drivers and this figure is set to double by the end of the programme. Analysis of driver feedback so far shows 90 per cent agree it makes them safer drivers who are more aware of vulnerable road users. We have also worked with the Metropolitan Police Cycle Task Force to hold cycle safety events across the capital, which allow members of the public to take a view from the seat of a large goods vehicle and understand where blind spots can cause danger. Consistent visibility is key to safety awareness. Every issue of our internal e-newsletter Connect In-Brief features a safety message alongside news of best practice and health and safety campaigns. The printed newsletter On Site which we distribute to worksites also features regular articles highlighting health and safety.

Award-winning practice Our dedication to excellence in health and safety has been recognised through the awards we have received during the year.

Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) Award for Transport and Logistics

Through our work with HSE, as their client, we will work within their strategy document and intervention plans to target key areas such as transport, temporary works and structural collapse risks, work at height, management of contractor communications and welfare.

IOSH judges praised our initiatives designed to reduce the risks associated with large goods vehicles. These included translating road safety information into 18 languages, holding legal awareness seminars, improving junctions near worksites and implementing a lorry driver induction training programme (LDIT).

Keeping safety on the agenda

Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) Railway Group Award for Occupational Health

Over the year we have been actively reinforcing strong communications channels on health and safety. Starting in July 2012 we ran three Target Zero Health and Safety Forums for our principal contractors covering specific high risk issues such as vehicle safety equipment compliance and lifting operations, as well as promoting cross-contractor communication with safety innovations, shared lessons and updates on our Gateway scheme to assess, measure and celebrate health and safety achievements. We established a quarterly joint forum with the construction trade unions keeping safety as the first item on the agenda. To show our commitment to full consultation and engagement with Crossrail staff we drew Crossrail staff representatives from all across the Crossrail programme into a new Safety, Health, Environment and Facilities (SHEF) Committee. In response to a Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) May 2012 audit we also used the SHEF Committee in consultation with project managers to develop an inspection process to ensure everyone

26

CASE STUDY IMPROVING DRIVERS’ VISIBILITY Our contractor BBMV which works on our Whitechapel and Liverpool Street station tunnels has shown a pro-active approach to safety and innovation by installing 360 degree surround view system on vehicles. The system uses ultra-wide angle cameras mounted around the vehicle. A composite view is displayed in real time on the driver’s screen showing an image which looks like it has been taken from above the vehicle. The result is that excavator operators can easily see any person or equipment movements around them, greatly reducing risk.

Success continued when Crossrail was named the winner of the inaugural IOSH Railway Group Award for Occupational Health in November 2012. The award recognised our Health and Wellbeing Strategy which combatted ill health by instituting a scheme to protect the health of workers on Crossrail. IOSH felt the project would leave a lasting legacy for the whole industry with other UK companies now adopting its measures.

Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Gold Award Crossrail was awarded the RoSPA Gold Award. We were able to show that we have achieved a very high level of performance, demonstrating well-developed occupational health and safety management systems and culture, outstanding control of risk and very low levels of error, harm and loss.

27

Our performance

On-site reporting and analysis At Crossrail we don’t just follow our Golden Rules of safety (see page 8), our construction site teams regularly record and report on incidents through observation forms using our online Rivo data management system. The impact of this initiative has been demonstrated with over 3,000 forms being completed in the year, providing invaluable local compliance data to help inform the H&S programmes at site.

Assurance activities Surveillance checks

Reporting of injuries and near misses Details of all RIDDOR reportable incidents are reported each year to the Health and Safety Executive in line with legal requirements. Injury rates RIDDOR reportable injuries (per 100,000 hours worked) Lost time case injuries (per 100,000 hours worked) Fatalities Hours worked

2010-11 0.06

2011-12 0.11

2012-13 0.19

0.11

0.21

0.64

0 6.2 million

0 9.0 million

0 13.4 million

During 2012-13 we undertook scheduled surveillance checks on 16 areas. Key areas included: •

Accident reporting and investigation



Electrical isolations



Management of temporary works



Permit-to-work arrangements



Selection and monitoring of sub-contractors



Vehicle management



Working at height.

We carried out additional checks in response to issues and incidents relating to breaking ground, work on sprayed concrete linings, tunnel safety and site security.

Our analysis shows that of these RIDDOR injuries the three most common categories of incidents were: body part in pinch points; manual lifting, handling and carrying; and slips, trips and falls from level. We actively encourage near miss reporting and received over 2,300 reports during the year. The top three categories of near misses reported were: unsafe systems of work; access and egress; and incorrect selection or use of personal protective equipment. These trends have helped further inform campaigns and sharing of good practices, alerts and lessons learned within our contractor community. The strategic initiatives set out in this report have been developed to address these trends. Crossrail recognises the trend in RIDDOR reportable incidents and lost-time cases and, whilst this is not uncommon on large infrastructure projects, remains dedicated to delivering long-term improvements to our health and safety performance and the industry as a whole.

We spent the latter part of 2012 putting in place a new assurance process to look at key subjects across multiple sites and to provide clear insight and early identification of issues.

Compliance and contract audits Over the reporting year we also undertook 26 compliance and contract audits on Crossrail contractor departments. The areas covered included design, occupational health, health and safety management arrangements, incident reporting, business continuity, site welfare and first aid, legal registers, risk management and incident closure.

Assurance of construction design and management (CDM) Actions we took to ensure all areas of the programme remain compliant with CDM regulations included 13 risk-based assurance checks and two full system audits across multiple sites. We also provided support for Crossrail management certifications, provided training courses, gave on-site support for system users and provided workshops on 10 Principles of Prevention.

28

29

A final word Construction of the Dean Street ticket hall

Throughout the year we have striven to keep health and safety at the top our staff and contractors’ agenda. In a dynamic and practical way we have changed our data reporting, learning from events, audits and inspections to continually improve and refine the information we can glean to make our worksites safer. As can be seen from this report we have also placed a great emphasis on creating an equally high level of occupational health services across the supply chain. Although there are many excellent health and safety measures in place on the Crossrail programme, we realise we cannot be complacent. We recognise that meeting compliance isn’t enough and that there are areas on which we can still improve. As we move forward, working with the Health and Safety Executive, our contractors and internal teams, we will be constantly on the lookout to improve processes and look at innovative practices to keep the health and safety philosophy of Target Zero at the forefront of team members’ minds. This is our commitment to make Target Zero a reality.

30

31

Glossary of terms BBMV

Balfour Beatty, Alpine BeMo, Morgan Sindall, Vinci Contractors

BCM

Business Continuity Management

BFK

BAM Ferrovial Kier

BIB

Behaviour Influences Behaviour

CBH

Constructing Better Health

CDM

Construction Design and Management

CMS

Crossrail Management System

COSHH

Control of Substances Hazardous to Health

CPCS

Construction Plant Competence Scheme

CRL

Crossrail

CSCS

Construction Skills Certification Scheme

CSM

Common Safety Method

SCL

Sprayed Concrete Lining

SEQOHS

Safe Effective Quality Occupational Health Service

SHEF

Safety, Health and Environmental Facilities

TfL

Transport for London

VMPS

Vehicle Movement Planning System

BBMV Balfour Beatty, ALPINE BeMo Tunnelling, Morgan Sindall and VINCI C Construction Joint Venture

32

DSJV

Dragados Sisk Joint Venture

FLP

Frontline Leadership Programme

GROF

Golden Rules Observation Form

HAZOP

Hazardous Operations

HSE

Health and Safety Executive

HSPI

Health and Safety Performance Index

IIF

Incident Injury Free (collaboration model)

IOSH

Institution of Occupational Safety and Health

LDIT

Lorry-Driver Induction Training

LGV

Large Goods Vehicle

LRQA

Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance

LU

London Underground

OHSAS

Occupational Health and Safety Advisory Services

PPE

Personal Protective Equipment

RIDDOR

Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations

ROGS

Railways and Other Guided Systems (Safety)

RoSPA

Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents

33

Work at Connaught to increase the size of the 550m Victorian tunnel, ready for the new Crossrail trains and overhead lines

34

‘Safety is our primary value, nothing is so important that it cannot be done safely’ Steve Hails - Crossrail Health & Safety Director

www.crossrail.co.uk Moving LONDON Forward