Event report

No Harm: What's the Problem?
6-7 February 2003, Newcastle, UK

Over 80 delegates gathered at St James' Park, Newcastle on 6-7 February 2003 for the second major IMCA safety seminar with a programme dedicated to improving offshore safety, towards the zero-injury goal.

Onshore and offshore management and operational staff, together with a range of specialist consultants, client and regulatory representatives attended the seminar. They heard a range of presentations on topical issues and participated the small group discussions dispersed throughout the two days. A new feature was safety trading, where a number of IMCA's contractor members showed their own safety initiatives, sharing experience and learning from each other's own good ideas.

Feedback from delegates shows the variety of session formats and issues covered, from theoretical 'how can we improve safety?' to personal accounts of incidents and their effects were highly valued. IMCA's SEL committee benefited from valuable feedback and input for current and future initiatives.

Programme

• Presentations:
  • Learning from incidents:
    - A&R wire failure
    - Uncontrolled release during diver lift bag operations
    - Fall from height into the sea
  • Is behavioural safety management effective in all cultures?
  • A client's view of how to improve offshore safety
  • Integrating human factors into safety management
  • Think 'what if' not 'if only?'
  • Delivering behavioural change
  • Safety from an offshore perspective
  • How to deliver change
  • IMCA initiatives:
    - Leading safety performance indicators
    - Working at height video
• Small group discussion sessions:
  • Why are we still having accidents?
  • Safety culture and human factors
  • How to deliver change

A CD containing the presentations and reports on the discussion sessions is available to members on request.

Event Report

IMCA's second annual safety seminar 'No Harm - What's the Problem?' was held in early February at Newcastle United's football stadium. This event built on the success of 'Working Safer Offshore', held the previous year.

"This year's event looked at where delegates left off last year, how far we've come since and how we can, and will, continue improving safety performance," explains Hugh Williams. "Early in 2002 IMCA Council published a safety statement that very much set the scene: 'The target for IMCA is an injury-free workplace. As part of the process to achieve this, a substantial continuous improvement in the LTIFR (lost time incident frequency rate) figures is to be achieved in 2002 by making use of the IMCA initiatives and by each member's use of its safety management system. Accordingly, IMCA encourages all members to set aggressive targets in order to achieve the ultimate goal of an injury-free workplace.'"

Some 87 delegates from nine countries attended the sessions that focused on current IMCA safety initiatives and they rose to the invitation to provide input based on their experiences either implementing their own safety initiatives or as part of the offshore workforce striving to stay injury free. The small group discussion sessions worked well and reported back to the seminar as a whole on how management and workforces can work together to enhance safety.

The seminar proved to be a highly stimulating couple of days with really frank presentations from those involved in offshore incidents, including what went wrong, the effects on those involved, what had been learnt and how similar incidents can be prevented in the future. There's a face plus family and colleagues behind every statistic and all can be harmed by an accident.

This year's event included a safety 'share fair' with IMCA members exhibiting and sharing their good ideas, current initiatives, experiences and best practice from their own organisations. This provided an opportunity for all delegates to spend time discussing with each company various aspects of how they are trying and succeeding to improve offshore safety; and learning from each other.

Speaking to delegates as they left after a tour of the Magpies' ground, it was clear that, like last year's event, the seminar had produced something extra - perhaps because of the combination of the right subjects with people committed to safety, perhaps because of the open way that all the delegates from different parts of IMCA's membership felt free to talk about this very important matter.

The real value however of this event will be the accidents it prevents.