Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

at 05/05/2009 09:41

Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service has been given top marks for the way it manages health and safety issues.

The service has received a Level 5 award – the highest level possible – following a comprehensive inspection of health and safety management by RoSPA (the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) last month. This awarded Cornwall an overall health and safety performance rating of 93%.

As a result of this outstanding result Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service has been invited to attend a prestigious awards ceremony being held at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham on 15 May.

RoSPA was commissioned by the service to carry out the audit of its health and safety management processes as part of a two-year plan to raise the level of compliance for Health and Safety management in the Fire and Rescue Service.

RoSPA Inspectors spent five days in Cornwall visiting fire stations and talking to fire service staff. Their inspection covered five main areas:

Policy
Organisation – including allocation of responsibilities and organisational procedures.
Planning and implementation
Measuring performance
Audit and performance review

The final report praises the improvements which have been carried out over the past two years and concludes that the service has reaped the benefits of the work it has put into development of the overall management systems.

Particular praise is given to the service’s health and safety policy which, it says, demonstrates the Chief Fire Officer’s personal commitment to safety.

“The improvement within the overall health and safety management system is most commendable” says the report. “The staff involved and the Brigade as a whole should be proud of their hard work and achievement”.

The results of the inspection have been welcomed by Ted Simpson, Deputy Chief Fire Officer, who leads the service’s health and safety team. ‘I am delighted that the Fire and Rescue Service in Cornwall has achieved the highest standard in Health and Safety Management” he said. “This has been a two-year project that has finally been rewarded by gaining the independent RoSPA level 5 award’.

“I would like to thank Area Manager Mark Blatchford and Claire Gittins and all the members of the Health and Safety team whose hard work and commitment ensured the service met all the key criteria.”