Newsletter September 2009
New Award
Ai Solutions have set up a new ToolKit Excellent Practitioner award. The award is designed to recognise expert, exceptional and excellent performance by individuals using our ToolKit Compliance System and to identify them to the wider audience of ToolKit users. The award is open to all ToolKit users and will be given to high achievers in their field in implementing compliant CDM processes that demonstrate their individual competence as practitioners and promote 'joined up working'. The first award will be announced in September.
The process of implementing an effective and compliant CDM process across a medium to large organisation is a complex one. Many Clients find the process very difficult because they become embroiled in trying to understand the niceties of the legal meaning of the regulations to them, their peers and seniors. They are necessarily concerned with the consequences of their in-action (including a visit to court or worse). They focus on how they can get round the regulations rather than evolving a practical, well organised, open management system to comply with the law and reduce the risk of accidents.
Good examples of this are the time spent in trying to avoid the 'clients responsibilities' and the '30 day' threshold before invoking the regulations. If the time spent on these issues had been spent on implementing a robust CDM process for all projects in the organisation, much time, money and lives could have been saved.
The diversion of good management resource from their key responsibility - managing the process - has an entirely negative effect on the organisation's ability to perform well - or at all - in a joined up working scenario which holds the key to success in saving so much resource, time, money and of course lives in the CDM Management context. The result is that with very few exceptions, the management of CDM is done on an ad hoc basis until 'the chips are' as it were 'down'; an accident has happened.
Refreshingly, there are people in our ToolKit environment who have led and implemented a compliant CDM process across their organisations resulting in compliant, joined up, working processes. We would like to establish them as ToolKit Excellent Practitioners. As such they are available to share their expertise with other users and to help move the joined up working approach that many of us are so keen on to a new level.
ToolKit CS - September 2009 Release
We have an enviable reputation in keeping our software both current with the HSE's regulations (so that our users are able to comply with them), and in keeping our software up to date (so that it is easy to use). This month, we will finalise our second 2009 biannual release and make it available for distribution in early October. This release is an 'update'. We have a free workshop on Thursday 17th September to allow users to evaluate the new release and meet our development team.
We have spoken before about our ongoing commitment to upgrade our software into the .Net environment. This has become an exciting but massive project taking several man-years to complete. The challenges include the formulation of paths for integration with other products and joined up working for instance. We anticipate that the upgrade may be available towards the end of 2010 but are unable to commit to a release date at this stage.
CDM2007 Survey - Make a difference
We have heard from one of our customers that the Construction Clients' Group (CCG) has instigated a survey in regard to the future impact of the Construction (Design & Management) Regulations. The regulations are now set to be reviewed by the Health & Safety Executive, and the Construction Clients' Group is anxious to make sure that the voice of ALL businesses is heard in that review. We at Ai Solutions support the need to have the 'client' voice heard before changes to the regulations are discussed.
The Construction Client's Group has commissioned Pye Tait Consulting to survey client representatives through an online questionnaire that can be completed on the following link http://www.pyetait.com/surveyzone/cdm-ccg.asp
The Construction Client's Group is seeking to improve the Regulations, ensure safer construction practices throughout the UK and raise the profile of the Regulations, thereby reducing the number of clients who may otherwise face prosecution.
If you would like to know more about this project please contact Adrian Smith on 01423 509 433 or [email protected].
More Information
We regularly receive updates from our customers and contacts about changes to legislation, the latest rumours and so on. We try to be selective with what we pass on and acknowledge our sources as appropriate. If you have information of general interest in the Health & Safety, and particularly, CDM and Asbestos Management arena, then please let us know by e-mail if possible.