Lanes Group health and safety award winners

Lanes Group has won two prestigious national awards in less than a week after the company developed an innovative picture-based guide that is transforming the way it sets workplace standards and trains staff.

The company, the UK’s largest independent supplier of underground pipeline and utility services, first won the Health & Safety Excellence Award at the Construction News Specialist Awards 2014.

Then, on Tuesday (March 27) it was informed it had achieved the RoSPA Gold Award for occupational health and safety for the fifth year in a row – qualifying the company to receive a RoSPA Gold Medal.

The double success completes a hat-trick of awards – because Lanes, which operates 23 depots across the UK, also won the Construction News Health and Safety Excellence Award 2013.

Lanes Group Managing Director Wayne Earnshaw said:

“These successes reflect our commitment to the highest possible standards of health and safety. We’re delighted with this recognition, but will get right back to continuing to develop our training, procedures and technology with the aim of improving our health and safety performance still further.

“We are serious about safety, because a safe business is good business, for us as a company, for our staff, our clients and the wider public.”

Lanes Group’s new Essential Standards, a comprehensive workplace guide to health and safety plus other key elements of its business, including customer service and operational procedures, featured strongly in submissions for both awards.

The company’s Utilities Division developed Essential Standards from an earlier initiative called What Good Looks Like, created to support the implementation of a wastewater network services contract with Thames Water, the largest contract of its kind in the UK.

A core element of Essential Standards is a series of illustrations that show operational teams how work sites should be set up and activities carried out. These illustrations are supported by easy-to-follow process maps. Together, they are used by operational teams as a day-to-day reference guide and for staff induction and training.

Essential Standards underpins Lanes’ health and safety programme, Serious about Safety, which has contributed to a real and positive step-change in operational behaviours.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents RoSPA Awards are designed to set a national benchmark for occupational health and safety excellence. Entrants must give detailed answers to 10 searching questions about their approach to health and safety, backing it up with documentary evidence of performance.

The Construction News judges were impressed with the way Lanes Group showed it was determined to set health and safety standards that can be understood by everyone in the company, generating “impressive” results.

They said: “What Good Looks Like is very simple, yet very effective.” The judges praised the way Lanes encourages individuals and team to take personal, positive action on health and safety, and shows them clearly how it can be done.

The award was collected by Lanes Group Technical Director Andy Brierley and Lanes Framework Director for the Thames Water contract Conrad Ashby.

Andy Brierley said:

“We are now determined that all our clients and our staff will benefit from Essential Standards. We’re rolling it out across the company, starting with the rail division, which is launching a digital version in this summer.”

Conrad Ashby said:

“The judges could see that Essential Standards is a core element of a wider strategic approach. This involves innovative ways of working, such as new web-based digital management systems. It’s very exciting because it’s a continuous process, and is a journey that has only just begun.”