This is a great question, which made us look at ourselves from a different perspective. We are always so busy looking to the future that we don’t often take a moment to see what we’ve achieved and what we’re doing to practice what we preach ourselves.

Our group is made up of three companies; Mandate Systems Limited, Mandate Solutions Limited and Mandate Learning Limited. Mandate Systems is pushing the business forward into new markets and is continuing to develop “PressureSafe” following on from the success of Mandate Solutions’ “CoffeeSafe”. Both Mandate Systems & Mandate Solutions are passionate about the safety of pressure systems and with almost 30 years experience in this discipline the company’s mission continues to be that it aims to help businesses improve the safety standards of all pressure systems.

How is the group measuring improvements  it has made to safety in the workplace? We can clearly see that we haven’t had any injuries or fatalities so that's a good starting point! Based on the understanding that there is always room for improvement we looked deeper into this question in relation to  to the Approved Code of Practice (ACoP). Our motto is ‘there’s always a better way, we just haven’t found it yet!’

All three businesses have safety at the heart of every process. Back in 2011, we reviewed the standards of the inspection industry by starting at home. 

Constantly searching for better ways of doing things, we:

• Significantly  improved our delivery of Written Schemes of Examination (WSE) reports etc. Our quality audit of the system and customer feedback was always good, but there were still areas where we could do better. 
• Implemented system security and server reliability. All our servers moved to the cloud to deliver resilient and more secure services. 
• Provided Health & Safety (H&S) training. A third of our staff have National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health (NEBOSH) certificate training. Five are now members of The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). 
• Invested heavily in technology and software. Improvements to the reporting system has reduced the auditing and delivery time down from 28 days to an average of two, from the time the examination takes place. 

Many of these improvements came through our work with customers in the wind turbines and coffee machine industries, industries as they were being let down by the inspection industry. The standard of examination was inconsistent, unreliable and costly creating a wide range of examination scope, including cases of 15 minute examinations, which doesn't seem sufficient for thoroughness.

The criteria for a safe system is seen by most to rely on Regulation 8 "Written Scheme of Examination" and Regulation 9 "Examination". This has been a problem from the outset, as other sections of the Regulations that are ignored hold equal importance. 

The emphasis on Regulations 8 and 9 has meant the pressure industries manufacturers and distributors have not realised the importance of Regulations 6 “Installation” and Regulations 12 & 13 “ Maintenance and Repair”, i.e. those regulations that emphasise that a system must not give rise to danger. 

Regulation 11 “Operation” is also often critically missed when users or owners are not informed of their obligation i.e. how they should operate and their responsibilities to ensure the safe operation of the equipment.

Mandate Systems’ task was to help improve safety with a clear method of how to follow these Regulations. We began with IOSH accredited training, for over 500 service engineers, who had no idea of their responsibility for adhering to/ implementing the Regulations.

The course adds to the engineer’s core competence and demonstrates that they have understood the legality of the statutory examination and have a standard and consistent method of examination, reporting and training.

So we have sent 500+ engineers out into the world, armed with knowledge of the Regulations, advising end users of the safety requirements for pressure systems. They will also carry out statutory examinations to many pieces of pressure equipment that were not previously examined.

To answer the original question “what have we done in 2018 to improve safety in the workplace?” We have started well but there’s a big climb ahead and this is just the beginning.