Embracing Wellbeing
Putting our People First
The places we create are designed to enhance wellbeing, so health and safety is a priority – for our employees, our tenants, contractors and everyone who visits us.
OUR RECORD OF
EXCELLENCE
Canary Wharf Contractors Ltd (CWCL)
We have a truly outstanding safety record across our construction sites. In 2018, we had 14 reportable incidents and our lost-time injury rate was 0.14 (2017: 0.24). At our Wood Wharf development, we achieved 1.89 million safe working hours without a lost-time accident (LTA), something we are particularly proud of. There has been only one LTA in the 5.6 million working hours since work began on the project.
Canary Wharf Management
We were delighted to be recognised for our focus on health and safety with a RoSPA Gold award for the fifth consecutive year.
In 2018, we also created a new role of compliance officer. Through proactive safety management, the compliance officer is ensuring all statutory requirements and standards are met across the Estate, and is working with Tower Hamlets Council on specific safety issues.
Tenant collaboration
Tenants are key partners in ensuring health and safety across our Estate. We run regular forums for tenants every year to discuss health and safety and raise any matters of concern. We also offer face-to-face fire safety training to all tenants, including fire marshal and fire extinguisher training. In 2018, we trained 604 individuals.
Working with contractors
Excellence in health and safety can only be achieved through partnership with the contractors we work with. They must also buy into a health and safety culture. In 2018, 94.7% of CWCL contractors were enrolled as members of the SafeContractors Scheme (target: 85%). We are working with all of them on a new safety handbook for implementation across our building projects, and have rolled out behavioural safety training to all trade contractors to engage them in our safety approach.
CWCL has also joined the Build UK group, which covers major contractors across the UK and provides a platform for meeting regularly and sharing best practice.
Focusing on mental health
Public understanding of mental health issues has improved considerably in recent years, but there is still much progress to be made. In 2018, we launched a new programme and policy to address mental health and support all our employees across the Group. We have trained 29 staff members as mental health first aiders, who are available to give confidential support to any employee.
We also used our occupational health newsletter to discuss mental health issues and ensure employees are aware of the support resources available to them, including advice lines and mindfulness sessions, and are working with trade contractors to raise awareness of the issues. A major mental health awareness campaign is planned, and as part of this we aim to develop an internal network of employees who can discuss and raise issues around mental health to help us better address them.
Our 2018 progress
