Record attendance at Working at Height Best Practice Forum
A record number of delegates attended this year’s Working at Height Best Practice Forum, sharing their experiences and thoughts with like-minded professionals to help advance the safe operation of powered access, shape best practice and improve safety standards.
Facilitated by the UK’s largest powered access company, Nationwide Platforms, the event has grown in size and stature to become one of the UK’s leading powered access safety conferences. This year, the event was attended by more than 320 senior health and safety managers and directors representing a cross-section of sectors, industries and professions throughout the UK.
Driving innovation and safety, Nationwide Platforms took the opportunity to introduce a number of new products at the event including the latest version of its SkySiren® PCS™ (Pre-Crush Sensing) secondary guarding system, which has now been designed for use on scissor lifts. The new system provides the highest level of operator entrapment protection for scissor lifts and follows on from the successful introduction of SkySiren® PCS™ for boom lifts last year (see: http://bit.ly/SkySirenPCSPR). Currently undergoing a supervised release with selected partners, full-scale production is scheduled for 2017.
Other new products on show included the company’s SkyTel™ material handling attachment, which has been designed for the safe and efficient handling of mobile telecom antennas, and its latest innovation in safety, SkyScreen™, which has been designed to minimise the risk of dropped objects from the basket of an access platform when working at height.
As well as discussing best practice ideas and having thought provoking discussions with the industry’s leading suppliers and associations, delegates also took part in interactive breakout sessions on emergency rescue, onsite MEWP management and the latest developments in secondary guarding.
There were also a number of presentations from industry experts, including Nationwide Platforms’ Managing Director, Jeremy Fish, who opened the event with a speech on leadership. Skanska’s Senior H&S Manager, Nick Wing, gave an insightful presentation on the importance of ‘aggregation of marginal gains’ in regard to health and safety developments, while HSE’s Principle Inspector, Ray Cooke, commended the UK’s health and safety record with a presentation that concentrated on working at height. Finally IAPS Group’s Managing Director, Steve Couling, discussed the advances in tracked access product development. Honorary guest speaker, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, was also present in the evening to share his inspirational experiences on endurance, leadership and safety.
Jeremy Fish, Nationwide Platforms’ Managing Director, said: “In these uncertain times strong leadership is as important as ever. Unfortunately as leaders, we are still not doing enough to make our industry a safer place to work. Leadership is about having guts to stand up for what you believe in, showing others the way and taking them with you. The event is about encouraging leaders of businesses to come together and inspiring them to take responsibility. It is important that they lead by example to help make our industry a safer and better place to work.
In that respect, it was great to see so many leaders in one room dedicated to improving safety standards within the industry. It was also encouraging to see delegates interacting with suppliers about the latest powered access machines and experiencing the very latest safety innovations. This year saw the introduction of SkySiren PCS for scissor lifts, as well as the chance for many to experience SkyScreen and SkyTel for the very first time. The feedback we received has been encouraging and we look forward to working on this year’s comments, ideas, and insights in order to develop the next generation of products and services that users of powered access expect from a market leading powered access company.”
The Forum also featured a number of fun and exciting activities throughout the day and close to £4,000 was raised for the company’s chosen charity, MacMillan Cancer Support. This amount was matched by Nationwide Platforms’ parent company, the Lavendon Group, with a grand total of £7,818 being donated to MacMillan.
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Testimonials
Nationwide Platforms have always embraced the ethos of the Birmingham Gateway Project. On such a diverse and complex project, Nationwide Platforms delivered and maintained a service which allowed safety and a complex programme to run in parallel. Continued support and initiatives throughout the lifespan of the project afforded us the opportunity to experiment with new products with a view to making work at height a safer environment to be in.
Nationwide Platforms in association with Mace delivered an on-site demonstration day covering emergency descent procedures and pre-use inspections which was a huge success and the sessions were delivered to more than 180 operatives in five different languages. Through engagement with our supply chain, Nationwide Platforms have introduced and trialled various new products on site with the full support of Mace on every occasion. Over the last three years the relationship between Mace and Nationwide Project has become very strong and without the continued support, commitment and professionalism of the team at Nationwide Platforms none of this would have been possible. I look forward to working with Nationwide Platforms in the future.
Mace Environmental Safety and Health Manager, Paul Gaughran
Nationwide Platforms’ off-site support in the planning stage and during the onsite activities was second to none. It was also extremely helpful in assisting with the programming and completion of our works. The onsite team were courteous, helpful and always on time.
Nationwide Platforms’ equipment was also of a great quality with all the latest safety features we would expect and more. The performance all round would lead us to have no issue with both recommending and hiring Nationwide Platforms in the future.
AMCO Rail (Scotland) Sub Agent, Gordon Paterson
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