National Highways Area 12 Asset Support Contract in Yorkshire and North East, managed by A-one+ Integrated Highway Services has achieved seven million working hours free of a Reportable Injury Disease and Dangerous Occurrence (RIDDOR).
During this period the contract has delivered around £360 million value of work for National Highways and is now part way through a contract extension ahead of transition to the new Scheme Delivery Framework in April 2022.
This landmark achievement has been reached through Area 12’s embedded behaviour-based safety culture, encouraging all employees and supply chain to make the right choice because they want to. A-one+ has a long history of engagement and continuous improvement, using it’s award-winning strategy, Wellbeing, Inclusion, Safety, Health and Environment Strategy or ‘WISHES’. The strategy is aligned with the six focus areas of ‘Home Safe and Well’which is National Highways approach to ensure that no one should be harmed when travelling or working on the strategic road network.
The strategy is refreshed annually and progress against activities reviewed monthly It is a ‘live’ strategy using intelligence from our safety observation trends, parent Company (Jacobs/Colas/Costain) initiatives and awareness of industry issues through safety alerts. The A-one+ Safety App makes it easy for anybody to report observations and improvements through a simple App. Each observation is discussed at a weekly operations meeting, providing wider awareness of what is really happening on sites and helps A-one+ to make quick improvements and eliminate or reduce risk.
A-one+ has over several years used tools to help create the right safe environment such as: ‘Be Safe’ cards for all employees, empowering them to stop work if unsafe, daily focussed start of shift briefings and monthly ‘stand-down’ SHE briefings through site supervisors to promote conversations and engage with all operational workers. A-one+ also hold a quarterly Supply Chain Safety Improvement Group, bringing together safety professionals and leaders from all the key supply chain to learn and share best practice.
Brian Statham, General Manager, Area 12 said: “This is an incredible milestone that all our staff and dedicated supply chain partners should be immensely proud of achieving. Our challenge is to maintain ‘Zero Harm’ to the end of the contract and leave a legacy we will all be proud of. We will continue to work tirelessly to ensure safety remains our top priority for our people, customers and communities.”
National Highways Regional Director, Yorkshire & North East, Simon Boyle, said: “This is a remarkable achievement and I would like to congratulate all our colleagues at A-one+ on reaching this landmark figure.
“Safety for our road workers and customers remains the top priority at National Highways. Motorways and A roads can be hazardous working environments and achievements such as this are only possible by having an excellent safety culture.”
