Putting the focus on education

New features include an exciting partnership with the British Safety Industry Federation (BSIF), which will stage the BSIF Safety Awards at the event. The BSIF will invite entrants in its Product Innovation Awards to pitch their products to a judging panel in front of a live audience. Winners will then be announced.

The British Safety Council has curated the main conference programme, which has been designed to support the continuing professional development of delegates. Best practice guidance will be shared across key industry topics such as workplace wellbeing, personal resilience, embedding a health and safety culture, mental health and legal compliance, while the impacts of Brexit will also be explored.

Additionally, the Safety Dialogue Theatre, sponsored by 3M and the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), will feature seminars covering respiratory hazards, training and competence, hearing, fall protection and the Locher Project, which is aimed at encouraging younger people to champion health and safety issues.

The third seminar platform, Safer Logistics, sponsored by A-Safe and Toyota, offers a programme of seminars providing practical advice on overcoming safety challenges surrounding warehouse and forklift operations. Another area of discussion will be load integrity on HGVs and vans. Seminars will be led by both sponsors, and industry organisations – the Health and Safety Laboratory, the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport, the Fork Lift Truck Association and regulatory body for workplace transport training, RTITB. The BSIF and United Kingdom Warehousing Association will lend their support. 

Meanwhile, the NEBOSH Education Pavillion, managed by the National Examination Board of Safety and Health, will provide access to a multitude of training providers. This area of the exhibition, centred around a café, has an ‘Ask The Expert’ feature and will also offer networking opportunities.

The main conference programme begins with Chris Green, a partner at law firm, Weightmans, delivering an overview of recent health and safety prosecutions. Mark Davies will present an interactive session that focuses on building personal resilience and the importance of rest and recovery. Founder of the RyderMarsh consultancies, author and culture change guru, Professor Tim Marsh, closes the first day with a spotlight on wellbeing in the workplace. 

The second day kicks off with a case study from Sue Greatorex and Richard Byrne of BSS Industrial, part of Travis Perkins. In this session, the commercial director and safety director will highlight the work BSS is undertaking to achieve effective collaboration with its key supply chain partners on health and safety.

This is followed by an interactive panel debate chaired by the British Safety Council’s Louise Ward, which brings together senior representatives from law firms Weightmans and Pinsent Masons and a leading figure from the UK watchdog, the Health and Safety Executive. The three panellists will discuss emerging trends in regulation.    

Chris Green of Weightmans returns to highlight the HSE’s controversial fee for intervention, the sentencing guidelines and new developments emerging from the health and safety regulator’s 2016 strategy.  

Kevin Bridges, partner at Pinsent Masons, will touch on Brexit and its potential impact in the medium-to-long term and will also look at the new sentencing guidelines. 

Behavioural safety and culture change expert Mark Ormond, director at Tribe, will bring the day to a close with a presentation on the role of effective conversations in driving improvements in health and safety culture and performance. 

The final day begins with a focus on Mates in Mind, a mental health initiative, which aims to raise awareness of the prevalence of mental health in the UK and which is sponsored by the British Safety Council.

Finally, a two-hour mock trial, will enable the audience to experience a court room situation first hand. Divided into two parts, the trial follows an accident on a construction site that leaves a worker suffering concussion and broken bones.

The Health & Safety Event shares its location with Maintec 2017, Facilities Management 2017 and the newly-launched Fire Safety Event.