INSTITUTION OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
AND HEALTH
LONDON METROPOLITAN BRANCH
Report of the Branch Chair 2014/2015
The year 2014 to 2015 has seen the London Metropolitan Branch face some testing
unplanned challenges. However, by staying true to our motto of being ‘a group of
friends that get things done’, we have continued to successfully deliver a high standard
of activities for members and the wider community.
During the year two key committee members stood down for personal reasons at the
same time as we faced the problem of having to find a new branch meeting venue due
to unavailability of the previous venue. Whilst it always sad to say goodbye to people, I
fully understand and respect the reasons that Trevor Jennings and Steve Wicks left
the committee and I would to express my sincere thanks to them for their dedication to
the branch and their personal support to me.
I am delighted that we have found a wonderful new home at the Victory Services Club
and would like to personally thank those that helped me during this testing period. I
would like to specifically thank Alex Wood who ensured that all technical requirements
in terms of AV and IT would function for our first meeting and Curtis Aning-Bonsu who
ensured that all financial transactions were managed in a diligent and compliant
manner.
During the year we also lost our Networks Support Officer, Jacqui Moore, who decided
to leave IOSH for other opportunities. Despite losing Jacqui, I am delighted that we
have Sarah Phoenix as our new Networks Officer and thank her for all her support and
the way that she quickly settled into the role to become an integral part of our team.
We started the year with new members joining the committee and I am indebted to
them all for the way that they quickly settled into the team and took responsibilities to
help us continue delivery of our strategy. Some of the personnel changes required
people to move into different roles, one of which was the creation of a new position of
Communications Coordinator. Maeve O’Hara stepped into this demanding role and
has delivered an exceptional performance in continuing the great work performed by
Martin Kirk in maintaining our website, but also developing the role of leading
campaigns. I would like to thank Martin for moving aside from his website role to take
the lead as an Educational Development Advisor in support of the branch. A key
element of our focus during the year has been preparation and support of the IOSH
‘No time to lose’ campaign on occupational cancer. We have delivered awareness
updates at several branch meetings and provided materials for members to utilise at
their own workplaces. We are currently working to deliver a seminar later in 2015
where occupational cancer will be part of a health themed event.
The committee have worked on two very specific projects during the year; one is
working with a disabled sports club in West London and the second is the launch of
our PIPER initiative (Partnership for Innovative Practitioner Engagement in Research).
As part of the disabled sport project we have been able to make a positive contribution
to the community by providing defibrillation equipment and first aid training, as well as
sponsored clothing. Whilst the sports club project delivers practical support for the
community, it is also a valuable opportunity to show that safety practitioners can deliver
sensible risk management that enables participation. I would like to thank Maeve
O’Hara, Anne Isaacs and Curtis Aning-Bonsu for all their hard work in making a
difference and bringing a smile to children’s faces.
Working with Greenwich and Middlesex Universities we successfully launched the
PIPER initiative to facilitate the engagement of health and safety professionals in
research. A workshop was held in September 2014 to identify the needs of branch
members with regard to health and safety support, and areas of concern that could be
addressed through a programme of research undertaken by MSc researchers in 2015.
This resulted in engagement with approximately twenty interested members from
diverse industry sectors including education, government, transport, oil & gas,
pharmaceuticals, construction and health. A second workshop in January 2015 linked
academics, MSc students and practitioners to investigate potential projects based on
their interests and capabilities. As the students and practitioners now start working
together I look forward to being able to share and showcase the research outcomes
during the coming year. Whilst Anne Isaacs and I have led the initiative from the
committee, we could not have achieved the results without the passion and support of
Maeve O’Loughlin who is one of our members and an academic at Middlesex
University.
We continued our branch strategy of international impact by welcoming visitors from
South Korea during January 2015. After attending our branch meeting I hosted a
dinner meeting with the students where we discussed process safety and chemical
management processes and systems. I thank branch members Richard Woods and
Jenny Forster Davidson for their support with this visit.
We continue to focus on our strategy and with support from Sue Manthorpe, Jessy
Gomes, Alexis Correa and Philip Baker we conducted a thorough review to produce a
new strategy that will ensure we maintain a clear and focussed direction through to
2017. Our strategy continues to receive interest and praise from several other IOSH
networks and I have been very pleased to share what we have done for the overall
benefit of members and the profession.
I am also very pleased to report that we continue to support the IOSH London
Construction Section, which now has its own dedicated page on our branch website. I
am grateful to Philip Baker who not only is Chair of the Construction Section, but is
also a very active member of the branch committee. Philip has led a very strong
programme of construction topics at his section meetings and has also actively
supported the Association of Project Safety (APS) by ensuring IOSH branch members
were kept informed of the CDM 2015 consultation proposals.
Another area of focus during the year has been to provide development seminars for
members. This has included advice on CV’s, interviews, marketing, job search, use of
social media and also topics such as CPD and IPD processes. I thank Philip Baker for
taking the lead in this topic area and building strong relationships with specialist
recruitment agencies to deliver on this element of our strategy.
I would like to thank Sue Manthorpe Catherine Casey for their dedication to providing a
very wide and varied branch meeting programme involving all elements of safety
management, with several presentations challenging us as professionals to ensure we
are able to be astute business people as well as technical experts. We continue to
analyse the feedback and explore ways to capture data that will help us improve. We
are delighted that the overall rating is that we deliver programmes that are appreciated
and valued by branch members. I pay particular thanks to the branch meeting team of
Jessy Gomes, Bartek Zdrowowicz, Claire King and Christine Wright for their hard work
behind the scenes to ensure the branch meeting venue and networking area continue
to provide the high standards we expect.
During the year, we had to find a new lead for the branch meeting team and I am
sincerely grateful to Alexis Correa for volunteering to join the team and take this key
position. Alexis continued the great work of others, but has also managed to
successfully bring a fresh pair of eyes and ideas to move us forward on our path of
continuous improvement. No reflection of the Branch programme would be complete
without recording thanks to Christine Wright for her dedication and passion to organise
and deliver a very successful quiz evening in December 2014.
Through joint working with the IOSH Fire Safety Management Group we delivered a
successful one-day seminar at Millwall FC in October 2013 attended by over 100
delegates. The event included very high profile and respected speakers from the fire
industry and a member of parliament who delivered the keynote opening address.
Securing a West ham supporting MP to speak at bitter rivals Millwall was certainly a
coup. The branch also worked with the IOSH Food and Drink Group to deliver a Day
in Court event that re-enacted an occupational road traffic incident with delegates
forming the jury.
During the year I continued to support opportunities to provide audio and written
articles on safety related topics that have been published in a wide range of
professional publications and websites. I also thank Philip Baker who very kindly stood
in for me as guest speaker at The Queen Mary University London award ceremony.
On a personal note I was honoured to receive Charted Fellowship of IOSH at the 2014
Networks Conference. I am very proud to lead such a dedicated and professional
team that continue to be ‘a group of friends that get things done’, rather than just a
committee. I welcome all new members joining our team for the coming year and look
forward to providing continual improvement to implement our strategy and move the
branch forward. In closing, it would be remiss not to thank all members that continue
to support branch activities. Without your support our work would be in vain.
Nigel Burgess
Chair
May 2015