星空传媒

Introducing the Super Planning Supervisor. He gets involved from a project鈥檚 inception. He keeps the designers in line. He鈥檒l be visiting site to check on contractors. And he鈥檚 effective in reducing accidents.

Who is this paragon? He鈥檚 the brainchild of Stephen Coppin, who heads up health and safety for a 拢2.2bn refurb programme to create 1000 Jobcentre Plus offices for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). Coppin looked at the traditional role of planning supervisor, introduced with the Construction (Design and Management) (CDM) regulations in 1994 and widely considered ineffective, and worked out what changes were needed to make it work.

Coppin鈥檚 planning supervisors 鈥� known as 鈥楨nvironmental Health and Safety Co-ordinators鈥� 鈥� have a much broader role than their traditional counterparts. They are involved from day minus-one, organising and assessing surveys and once the job is on site, they鈥檙e still in the thick of it, carrying out audits and getting involved in accident investigations.

Coppin came on board in 2002, part of a small team seconded to DWP from Bovis Lend Lease. The Jobcentre Plus programme, which sees the combination of Jobcentres and social security offices, was already underway, but the new team overhauled the procurement process, selecting 14 framework contractors by April 2003.

At this point Coppin introduced the Environmental Health and Safety Co-ordinator roles. This meant he had to track down 16 competent people, three area co-ordinators and 13 regional ones, to be seconded onto the core team at DWP Estates.

Not an easy task. And it was central to DWP鈥檚 safety strategy. So much so, that when Coppin was recalled to the Royal Engineers, where he worked for 12 years, to go to Iraq in February 2003 the DWP appealed to the MoD to give them their man back. He spent just five days in Iraq.

Coppin set his sights for the co-ordinators pretty high. It wasn鈥檛 enough for candidates to be members of the Association of Planning Supervisors. Coppin does not consider the entry requirements of 10 years in construction and an open-book exam stringent enough. He wants IOSH (Institution of Occupational Safety and Health Technician Safety Practitioner) and NEBOSH (National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health) qualifications together with relevant experience in a number of areas including refurbishment, surveys, training delivery and performance monitoring.

Selection process

Having shortlisted 45 people, Coppin and his panel gave them all a good grilling. Coppin says that he was surprised at the lack of knowledge in some cases, given that these were well-paid people from firms like Atkins, Schal, Bovis Lend Lease, Mace and EC Harris. He noticed particular holes in candidates鈥� knowledge of occupational health and the new asbestos regulations.

So what do these Super Planning Supervisors have to do? Everything that a tradition planning supervisor does under CDM, and a good deal more too (see box, below).

The main difference is that the EHS co-ordinator is involved from the start and throughout the construction process. Often a client will appoint a planning supervisor late on in the design phase, so his influence over surveys and the design process is limited. And there are few planning supervisors who can face up to the pressure of the programme when checking the contractor鈥檚 Health and Safety Plan and say 鈥淗ang on, we need to look into this鈥�.

So, for example, the EHS co-ordinator will hold a pre-asbestos survey meeting, bringing together the main contractor and the M&E contractor who is likely to be disturbing any asbestos. And there are formats for the surveys to make them more readily understandable.

Coppin鈥檚 system also sees the EHS co-ordinator making visits to site, a rare occurrence for a traditional planning supervisor.

On this project the EHS co-ordinator is part of the team rather than an occasional consultant. He works closely with DWP Estates鈥� project manager to make sure the health and safety plan, method statements and risk assessments are in place. It鈥檚 the project manager鈥檚 responsibility, but he is advised by the EHS co-ordinator. Similarly the client鈥檚 project manager is responsible for audits and checks.

The EHS Co-ordinations are seen as having a 鈥榩olicing鈥� role by the contractors because of these audits. But, says David Raine, head of the safety, health and environment department for Styles & Wood, one of the framework contractors, the marking system is totally fair and transparent. And the contractor knows what is required because he is given a Code of Practice at the start of the programme. The contractor鈥檚 subcontractors and suppliers also have the code and price to work in that way. So, for example, if someone turns up on site with trestles, the site manager will tell him to think again.

But the co-ordinators are valued too. Midas鈥� health and safety manager Steve Cockerell pinpoints the advice and guidance they provide and the information sharing which happens at regional contractors meetings. 鈥淭hey are a good source point of contact if we have any problems,鈥� he says.

But are they effective?

The statistics seem to show things are improving. From April 2001 to March 2002, before Coppin got involved, there were four 鈥榤ajor鈥� and six 鈥榤ore-than-three-day鈥� accidents in 500,000 working hours. After the EHS Co-ordinators came on board, between August 2003 and February 2004, there were two 鈥榤ajor鈥� and two 鈥榤ore-than-three-day鈥� accidents in 2,303,467 working hours. Since then there have been no accidents or incidents in 1,036,000 hours.

鈥淭heir sites are safer because of the monitoring system,鈥� says Raine. 鈥淲e have had to be more thorough in our planning and more diligent when we get on site.鈥�

Could this approach work on other projects? The role of Planning Supervisor is likely to be changed as part of the ongoing and long-running review of the CDM regulations. Indications are that the name will be changed to Planning Co-ordinator, but that role in unlikely to be as wide-ranging as the Jobcentre Plus鈥檚 EHS Co-ordinators.

Several of the contractors working on the roll-out have already taken all or parts of Coppin鈥檚 system to other clients. Styles & Wood are amalgamating parts of the Code of Practice into their own procedures. And, says Raine, DWP鈥檚 insistence on CSCS cards means they can sell a fully qualified supply chain to other customers. Midas is currently adapting the code of practice to use on its sites, and plans to introduce a similar scoring system on projects to monitor its site managers and site conditions.

There has been much interest from the HSE and from the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), which advises central government. 鈥淲e want to sell the whole lot,鈥� says Coppin. 鈥淚t could work at any government department.鈥� And the rest of us have a chance to learn more at the Health and Safety Summit on 24 February for which Coppin is preparing a paper.