Thames Water Health and Safety Awards 2014

Lanes Group has been shortlisted in four out of seven categories in the Thames Water Excellence in Health and Safety Awards.

The annual awards for Thames Water teams and their contractors are designed to encourage and celebrate best practice in health and safety across the company’s services.

Lanes Group’s Utilities Division, which operates 75% of wastewater network services for Thames Water, has been shortlisted for:

  • Best Practice in Health and Safety Collaboration
  • Best Health and Safety Achievement
  • Innovation of the Year
  • Young Person of the Year.

Lanes Group Utilities Framework Director Conrad Ashby said:

“We are delighted to have been shortlisted in four of the seven categories. This recognition reflects months of hard work by all our teams to achieve a step change in behaviour and performance on health and safety.  We have a number of strategic initiatives in our health and safety plan, and we are passionate and committed about our need to continuously drive forward and improve.

“The awards recognise the collaborative approach that’s essential to best practice in health and safety. As such, they are allowing us to see the very good ideas implemented by other contractors, allowing us to learn from them and improve still further.”

In the Best Practice in Health and Safety Collaboration, Lanes Group, Thames Water and Lanes Group’s supply chain partner, Cappagh Browne, submitted an entry detailing a new easy-to-understand format for field teams to adhere to procedures of safe working in different confined space scenarios.

The entry for Best Health and Safety Achievement, describes the industry-leading programme put in place to ensure every Lanes member of staff receives the correct training and skills development, and the benefits in terms of service delivery and health and safety performance.

For Innovation of the Year, Lanes submitted its Essential Standards, a new workplace guide and training tool, which uses cartoon-style images and instruction icons, backed by process maps, to show best practice in all aspects of business delivery, including health and safety.

For Young Person of the Year, Lanes Utilities put forward Sarah Hurcomb, its Health, Safety, Quality and Environmental Manager, who has devised and led a Serious About Safety campaign that has helped reduce the Thames Water contract’s Accident Frequency Rate to near zero.

Conrad Ashby said:

“The broad range of people who have helped devise and implement the business development programmes described in our submissions, reflects our whole team approach to health and safety.”

The winners in each award category will be announced at a ceremony on 19 June 2014.

Lanes Group is the UK’s largest independent underground pipe repair and rehabilitation specialist. The company employs more than 350 staff on its Thames Water contract. In 2013, it unblocked 120,000 drains and repaired thousands more across the water company’s region.

Essential Standards was a key element of a submission that won Lanes Group the Construction News Specialists Health and Safety Excellence Award 2014.

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