Transcript No Slide Title

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
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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……
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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?
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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 suggests
senior management
teams
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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
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business
Sets goals for safety performance
Sets aside the organisation’s resources
to achieve these goals
Controls safety performance
Aims
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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
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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
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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
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need to be able to do
A recommended process for selfassessment 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:
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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
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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:
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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
Want to know more?
www.railwaysafety.org.uk