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ABCs could save construction industry millions

By TJ (30-07-2007)
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Learning and Development News - ABCs could save construction industry millions

ConstructionSkills today announced that it has made an agreement with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to bring the award-winning Government Achieving Behavioural Change (ABC) health and safety course to the wider industry. The announcement was made at yesterday’s industry launch of the Behavioural Change Programme, which was led by Lord McKenzie, Minister with responsibility for Health and Safety.

The Achieving Behavioural Change (ABC) course, which will now be available through the ConstructionSkills Site Safety Plus scheme, was previously known as the DWP Jobcentre Plus (JCP) ABC course. This one-day Behavioural Change Programme was developed as part of the JCP National Rollout Project; the refurbishment of over 900 Jobcentres and Social Security offices in Great Britain, one of the largest government construction programmes in recent years.

All management and operatives working on DWP’s Jobcentre Plus project were obliged to attend and pass the ABC course, and to obtain an appropriate passport to work card.  The course was specifically written to address working in occupied buildings, identifying typical hazards that would be found during refurbishment works and encouraging operatives to think and behave safely towards others.  Its success helped the Jobcentre Plus project reduce the average Accident Incident Rate (AIR) nearly 10 ten times fewer than the Construction Industry Average for that year, equating to minimum project savings of £8.9 million over £600m construction spend. It was also recognised as best-practice in several cross-industry award schemes.

With the project having now come to an end, ConstructionSkills has stepped in as part of its Sector Skills Council remit, to ensure that a wider section of industry can access the learnings of this valuable course – particularly taking it into the wider construction market beyond refurbishment. ABC will now be delivered by ConstructionSkills, as part of the Site Safety Plus lifelong learning health and safety training suite. The course will be immediately made available through the ConstructionSkills training division – the National Construction College (NCC) – as well as now being available for accreditation through the ConstructionSkills approved training providers across the UK.

Kevin Fear, Head of Health, Safety and the Environment at ConstructionSkills, and a speaker at the event, added:

“ConstructionSkills is delighted to be able to roll out this successful course as part of the Site Safety Plus scheme. The ABC course developed by DWP Jobcentre Plus is a great example of Government, industry and ConstructionSkills working together to achieve a shared objective of driving down accident rates on construction sites.”

All Site Safety Plus courses are available through the National Construction College, and registered companies can claim CITB-ConstructionSkills Grant to help with the costs. Courses are supported by a range of publications and the SMSTS course is recognised by the Chartered Institute of Building, The Institute of Civil Engineers and The Institute of Occupational Health and Safety.

For further information, visit www.cskills.org/sitesafetyplus , call 0844 844 1315 or email smsts.dept@cskills.org

 

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