Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 1ST - 7TH JUNEMAY 2018 | 21 Operations & Assets Winner's comments "It was an absolute privilege to be named the winners of the Health & Safety Initiative of the Year, it was a fantastic evening and it was really inspiring to be in the company of great people – all of whom are achievers – regardless of any accolade they picked up on the night. "Our work with SafeWise has gone from strength to strength and we continue to develop a new footpath and barrier arrange- ment for streetwork operations, after receiving feedback from a focus group with the RNIB and Mobility Groups, as well as the Fire and Rescue services. "Although motivation with the SafeWise initiative never waned, there's no denying winning the award gave us extra momentum. "I would highly recommend others to enter the awards – it's great to pitch your initiatives against others in your industry, but more importantly, being exposed to the inspiring teams and indi- viduals along with their ideas at the awards night will only moti- vate and inspire new ideas within your own business." WAYNE HANSFORD, REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE MANAGER AT WESSEX WATER The judges' verdict The judges said this was an entry that has helped educate more than a quarter of mil- lion people about the potential dangers of roadworks. Wessex Water on awards night people avoid walkways set up to circum- navigate streetworks, and how these could be amended to look safer and be more approachable. The direct result of this forum, which Wessex Water describes as "invaluable", was that better images and more differenti- ated colour-coded barriers to highlight "safe zones" will be used. What were the project's KPIs? The main key performance indicators of the initiative were success in raising awareness, to as many people as possible, about the safety benefits of roadworks; why it's impor- tant to navigate around them safely; and how Wessex is working with other organisa- tions to improve accessibility and how it sets up roadworks. How was creativity demonstrated? As part of the initiative, local people were shown videos of the dangers of streetworks via social media. These videos included foot- age of motorists attending driver awareness courses at the SafeWise Centre, with the aim of making them more aware of the conse- quences of not being considerate. The video, which was also uploaded to YouTube, was a huge hit, according to the company. It had in excess of a quarter of a million views at the time of going to press and has since received backing from Avon & Somer- set Police, Dorset Police, Travel Dorset (Dor- set County Council), and Travel Somerset (Somerset County Council). Furthermore, it was reported on ITV News Meridian South, BBC Radio Solent, Bridport News, the Dorset Echo, the Bourne- mouth Daily Echo and Wessex FM. It is also now shown to all drivers attending a Driver Awareness Course at the SafeWise centre. What impact has there been on the company? Using feedback it received from its focus group, Wessex says other companies within the utilities industry could adopt the same improvements it has made, for example a colour scheme that denotes "safe zones", and the use of symbols. To build on the suc- cess of the safety video, Wessex is in the pro- cess of developing an animation for children which can be used by other companies. "Our initiative with SafeWise has encour- aged other parts of our business to voluntar- ily take the same safety message into other parts of our region which aren't currently covered by SafeWise," says the company. "For example, a team carrying out a water main replacement scheme in Wiltshire decided to follow suit and set up a mock roadwork situation – similar to the ones we have provided to SafeWise – to demonstrate to local school children the importance of roadworks and how to stay safe near them." Thanks to the initiative, Wessex Water says it has achieved "a better understanding of the importance of roadworks". Who was involved? Wessex Water and safety education charity SafeWise. Were there any hurdles along the way? Wessex says there have been no hurdles with the project. The collaboration between teams and SafeWise made the whole process very easy. "It may be worth noting that as we used real members of staff in the video. Some were not aware of many takes you had to go through for a few seconds on screen," says a spokesperson. "It was a fun, but challeng- ing, few days of filming."

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