Connexus Homes Limited pledge to keep listening and involving our customers to ensure that all customers are safe and feel safe in their homes.
Fleur Whittingham, Head of Health and Safety and Compliance, Connexus
National Social Housing Safety & Compliance Week
24th June, 2021
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This week Connexus is supporting National Social Housing Safety and Compliance Week. #saferhomes
National Social Housing Safety and Compliance Week is about creating safer homes by coming together, listening to residents and colleagues to deliver changes to transform safety culture.
This week is essential to raise awareness and shape best practices by working together for the future of safety in social housing and shining a light on safety cultures and behaviour.
Connexus have always taken your safety seriously, but this week and beyond is about what more we can all do now to avert potential disasters of the future by committing to small and large actions today and tomorrow.
Here is the Pledge we have made to help keep you safe in your home:
On Friday, Connexus’ head of health and safety and compliance, Fluer Whittingham, alongside Victoria Tomlinson, Director of Property, will present a case study discussing the successful ‘Together with Tenants’ campaign, launched last year.
Together with tenants focused on strengthening the relationships between our customers and allowing them to work with us to make sure that we make good on our promise of delivering high-quality, affordable housing
Health & Safety and Connexus Colleagues
Connexus is committed to keeping customers safe in their homes and will actively listen and engage with customers, to ensure that they are and feel safe in their homes
Fleur Whittingham, Head of Health and Safety and Compliance, Connexus
Health and Safety is an essential priority for us as a business and something we are embedding into our culture. Health and safety training is vital in helping Connexus colleagues understand its importance and role in sustaining a culture with Health and Safety at its heart.
In 2020 Conneuxs strengthened its senior management team by the new appointment of Health and Safety and Compliance Manager, Fleur Whittingham.
Fleur is making positive changes in 2021 by recruiting a dedicated Health and Safety business partner for the repairs team.
The Health and Safety colleagues have enhanced their learning and development by attending HSE-run courses on HAVS, resulting in rewriting policy and procedures, ensuring we keep all employees safe using power tools.
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The PRIDE values at Connexus are embedded in our culture, and all colleagues at Connexus have pledged to Pride in Health and Safety by familiarising themselves with the company Health and Safety policy and understanding their responsibilities.
- We are PASSIONATE
- We are RESPECTFUL
- We are INVOLVING
- We are DETERMINED
- We are EFFECTIVE
“I take “Pride for Safety.”
I will take reasonable care of my Health and Safety and that of others who may be affected by my acts or omissions at work.”
Training sessions delivered to the Connexus leadership group helps to inspire a shift in understanding, expectations, and behaviours that drive the implementation of an improved safety culture at Connexus.
Key objectives:
- To establish the legal framework underpinning health and safety practices
- To explore the implications and impact of actions and behaviours at work
- To promote positive challenge and safety excellence in maintaining safety at work
- To encourage individual accountability to lead by example, even when no one is looking
- To develop trust and the environment necessary that encourages a proactive approach to doing the right thing
- To embed the safety culture by leading and living the values and ‘making a difference..’
We have a dedicated learning and development programme at Connexus. We are committed to keeping colleagues up to date with the latest training and procedures in place for health and safety.
Over the past year, an astonishing 1448 training sessions were held, and remarkably, due to the pandemic, the majority of these have been online!
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Case study
RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) training sessions are held yearly at Connexus and play a vital role in keeping colleagues safe in the workplace.
Reporting near misses to avoid future injuries is embedded in the everyday working best practices at Connexus
The problem:
The repairs team spotted a near miss and reported it to the Health and Safety team. They identified that a review was required due to potential injuries occurring while manoeuvering rolls of carpets.
Investigation:
To enable the colleagues to cut the rolls, they were either stored horizontally on an A-frame, where they could then be rolled out to the desired length and cut to size (much like you see in a carpet store), or the vertical roll was unchained from the wall and manual handled to the floor, rolled out, cut, lifted and restored. A full lino flooring roll can be in excess of 100kgs.
The solution:
Research was carried out to understand the cost implications of purchasing the lino in ready cut to size sections for the job; this would eliminate the risk of storing and working with large, heavy rolls. The cost difference, although more (to purchase the pre-cut carpet) was minimal, and it was agreed with all parties that this was the way forward as not only did it mean we could eliminate the risk as mentioned above, we also were not paying for and storing larger quantities than needed.
There would be extra costs saved by a two-person team not going back to the distribution centre to move, lift and cut the rolls.
The carpet fitters were consulted about their working methods and whether they felt that buying in pre-cut carpet would assist them moving forward in the role and reduce the risk to them and the manual handling they were undertaking
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The Benefits:
The outcome means we can altogether remove the risk to our colleague of manual handling injuries, which are likely to be back and muscle injuries from lifting big rolls. It also means we are no longer required to send a two-person team to depots to handle and cut rolls, as the pre-cut flooring would now be in manageable sizes the majority of the time.
There were benefits for the organisation is not having to store carpet and risk it being damaged. Also, as a just in time approach has been adopted, this has benefitted our customers, and by not having to buy in bulk and store rolls, a wider choice of finishing’s is available to them