North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service is celebrating success yet again having won the prestigious RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Gold Medal award for the sixth year running and achieving a Highly Commended in the Emergency Service Sector major awards, building on the previous two commended major awards.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), a safety charity, launched its awards programme 55 years ago. The scheme looks not only at accident records, but also entrants’ overarching health and safety management systems, including important practices such as strong leadership and workforce involvement.
David Rawlins, RoSPA’s awards manager, said:
RoSPA firmly believes that organisations that have demonstrated their commitment to continuous improvement in accident and ill health prevention deserve recognition “North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service has shown that it is committed to striving for such continuous improvement and we are delighted to honour it through the presentation of an award.
The majority of RoSPA’s awards are non-competitive, marking achievement at merit, bronze, silver and gold levels. Organisations maintaining high standards can win gold medals, president’s awards and orders of distinction.
North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service recognise that the health, safety and welfare of its employees is an integral and fundamental part of its function. Consequently, best practice will be adopted where possible to ensure that the Service complies with its legal duties and fulfils its moral obligations to its employees and other people who may be affected by its activities.
Chris Anderson, Deputy Chief Fire Officer says:
The achievement of the ROSPA Gold Award and being highly commended for our approach to assuring the health, safety and wellbeing of our staff is a great achievement. Not only does it reflect well on the work and professionalism of the Occupational Health and Safety Team, it evidences the strong safety culture we have developed across the Service and is a credit to all of our staff in that respect. Although we will continue to strive for improvement, I would like to offer my personal thanks and appreciation for the work undertaken to put us in such a strong position.
