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Developing the competency of managers in the field of safety
management
Aidan Nelson
Director Policy & Standards
International Railway Safety Conference
October 2002
Competence……
• The ability to undertake responsibilities and to perform activities to a recognised standard on a regular basis
• A product of practical and thinking skills, experience and knowledge, which is influenced by personal attributes such as attitudes, beliefs and values
Continuous improvement……
• A person, a team of people or an organisation is competent when they work consistently to an expected level of performance.
• Expected levels of performance change over time
• Competence and a positive safety culture require aligned values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours
Senior management teams: why?
• Past focus on competence too narrow• Assessment criteria underpinning Railway
Safety Case Regulations (2000)• Due diligence and organisational learning • Evidence of repeating management and
system failures • Ladbroke Grove Inquiry: “Where it is not
already in place, a safety management strategic leadership team should be established in each company in the industry” (part two, recommendation 14)
Research suggestssenior management teams• Are technically competent but lack general
management skills
• Constant change means they have little time for building on experience and preventing repeat mistakes
• Lack formal processes for risk assessment other than financial
• Increasingly need to be able to identify key data to make decisions / measure performance
“Strategic safety management” describes the way a senior team
• Directs how safety is managed within the business
• Sets goals for safety performance
• Sets aside the organisation’s resources to achieve these goals
• Controls safety performance
Aims
• Support improvement in the competence of senior teams to manage safety strategically
• Help senior teams deliver their Railway Safety Case commitments
• Assist the development of a progressive safety culture in individual organisations and the wider industry
• Support continuous improvement in safety performance at all levels in the rail industry
Philosophy
• Safety management is but one aspect of risk management
• Risk is inherent in business processes • Safety performance can be continuously
improved • Cultural issues must not be swept under
the carpet• What are we not doing that we should be?
Good practice guides
• Advisory not mandatory, focus is maintaining and improving safety performance, not compliance
• Self-assessment processes not external audit
• Can be tailored to meet an organisation’s needs
What’s in the SSM good practice?
• A description of what all senior teams need to be able to do
• A recommended process for self-assessment and improvement
• Guidance and tools
SSM software
• Automates SSM self-assessment process and gives senior teams the ability to….• Assess their competence and performance
from a number of perspectives• Predict team performance given its current
composition and structure• Make a range of useful comparisons
Companies are now using the results to:
• Develop senior team & company performance• Clarify the organisation’s strategic safety
management priorities and identify how best to meet them
• Test if company safety plans are fit for purpose • Decide what the team needs to do and how
individual members can contribute• Review how the team makes & acts on decisions• Identify training & development needs of existing &
prospective senior managers
Developments
• In-company ‘kick start’ briefings • Mentoring programme: confidential and
independently delivered• Closer links with other leadership initiatives• Challenging the “unwritten rules” of railway
safety • Assimilating results to enable 2nd edition
software & 3rd edition of the good practice guides to be released in December 2002
With particular thanks to:
• Competence Assurance Solutions
• Heathrow Express• Railtrack GWZ• GNER• Thameslink• London Lines• AMEC• JacksonEve• DRS
• South Central Trains• First NW• Anglia Railways• Scotrail• SW Trains• Alstom• Eurostar• Carillion• Thales