Hi All


I have been asked to pull together a board report on the pros and cons of both centralised and disseminated models of safety management. We presently just have me centrally covering 27 Branches. I have been asked whether we should be looking at Branches managing their own safety with me centrally auditing and monitoring or whether we increase the central service and have a more hands on approach.

Just wondered what others did and what you thoughts were on both approaches. Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

I suggest that the disseminated model is better than a solely centralised one.

Local managers are better able to manage their own local operations = they know the people, they know the site peculiarities, they know what really happens (i.e. not what central management expect, believe and are told). If they are sufficiently informed and educated on what good H&S looks like, targeted to achieve results and held responsible and accountable for their own operations, it will work.

However, a central team is easier to manage, easier to train and communicate with and allows a good team ethos to develop, at the expense of h&s being a Head Office function and responsibility.