University safety project achieves industry acclaim

The research was funded by the industry through the Minerals Industry Research Organisation and the Quarrysafe system is one of several outcomes from work instigated by Dr Patrick Foster, Senior Lecturer at CSM.

The British Aggregates Association (BAA), the trade association that includes many smaller quarrying companies among its membership, is now promoting Quarrysafe to its members as part of its scheme for assessing operating standards of members’ sites. Richard Bird, Executive Officer of the BAA stated: ”We consider Quarrysafe as the basis for health and safety management in quarries for our members. Larger operators generally employ their own in-house health and safety managers but for the smaller family business this is not always a practical proposition. Quarrysafe has provided the smaller operator with an understanding of how a modern H&S management system works as well as providing the framework to develop safety systems tailored to suit their own individual operations.”

Quarrying company WBB Minerals, which has a large site in Newton Abbot, worked with CSM by giving access to their sites for the research phase of the project. Andy Price, Integrated Systems Manager for WBB Minerals said: “The development and testing of Quarrysafe within WBB Minerals has helped to identify gaps requiring specific focus within the Company, mainly relating to aspects of workforce involvement. The tool sits well alongside our existing integrated management system and I would certainly recommend it to others as a means of targeting resource for continuous improvement."

The research, recently published in academic form in the journal Policy and Practice in Health and Safety, included several months interviewing and observing management and workforce in thirteen UK quarries owned by WBB Minerals. Data was gathered relating to a wide range of areas such as senior management practice, competence and training, objective-setting and review, communication, occupational health, system audit, workforce involvement and effectiveness of procedure, including the perceptions of people working at all levels.

Jon Bennett, the Camborne School of Mines researcher who developed Quarrysafe, says: “CSM has expertise in all aspects of mining and quarrying, from geology, extraction and processing to management skills. As well as teaching and academic research, we work closely with industry and this is an example of how our expertise can benefit the sector. Quarrysafe provides a freely available template of good practice that any quarrying company may use to review their progress in moving towards a safer working environment and I am very pleased that the BAA has taken it on board.” Quarrysafe may be viewed at www.quarrysafe.co.uk