News
06/07/07 MBE for West Construction Safety Campaigner
Tom Harper of ISG Pearce in Bristol has been at the forefront of a determined campaign to raise levels of site safety awareness amongst micro businesses, which have less than five members of staff and collectively employ 92 per cent of the industry’s workforce.
“These businesses have a massive impact on our industry’s safety performance and yet they are ‘time poor’, hard to reach and do not attend conventional safety awareness activities and events,” explains Tom.
As the regional co chair of the Health and Safety Commission’s Working Well Together campaign, Tom has led some ground breaking site safety initiatives that are influencing construction site safety nationally.
Concerted pilot campaigns in Devon and Somerset have involved a partnership between building control officers, contractors and ConstructionSkills to hammer home a strong safety message to micro SMEs.
Following the evaluation of these campaigns, a South West region wide programme is now being rolled out over the next two years, creating a model that can be replicated nationally.
Tom also recently won recognition in the construction industry for chairing the development of the first nationally benchmarked course for designers in construction and the development of a Constructing Excellence South West ‘Essential E’ programme for small contractors.
In the last year, Tom has been involved in developing programmes to assist young people and unemployed adults into construction.
Tom Harper said: “As an industry we have become more creative in our approach to construction and listening to and delivering client objectives – we must now use this creativity to continue to minimise construction site accidents.
“I am very grateful to the ISG Pearce, who have always been fully supportive and have backed the considerable work time that I have spent on industry-wide safety issues.
“The creative thinking and collaborative approach that has been a key sector factor in these site safety initiatives is a hallmark of ISG Pearce’s way of working.”
Tom Harper also sits on the National Steering Group for this initiative.
