Common solutions

Enablers for efficient and effective health and safety management.

This section sets out key enablers for efficient and effective health and safety management. They are termed common solutions and cut across all risk areas. They describe how we can meet our shared health and safety objectives.

Health and safety intelligence

Taking strategic and tactical decisions

Competence and culture

Digital and technological transformation

Health and safety intelligence

Our railway needs trusted health and safety data. By sharing accurate and complete information we can support effective collaboration. Through cutting-edge risk analysis we can turn data into insights and actions.

Working together, we will exploit the value of data to support efficient and effective health and safety management.

We will modernise the Safety Management Intelligence System (SMIS), the industry agreed source for sharing safety event data, and develop new interfaces with company systems.
We will improve how accidents are investigated and how information about causes is shared.
We will continue to develop the capability to collect, collate, and use health and wellbeing data.
We will combine information from different sources and harness modern analysis techniques to provide actionable insights.
We will develop the next generation of risk models and tools. We will empower people across the industry to use them to inform national and local decisions.

Taking strategic and tactical decisions

Our people need to be confident and capable to take decisions that protect health and safety and meet wider business objectives.

Together we will develop competence and confidence in taking decisions.

We will embed the principles of Taking Safe Decisions.
We will develop and embed similar frameworks for taking decisions that affect health and security.
We will enable front line staff and managers to feel confident in making tactical decisions using tools such as G-FORCE.
We will continuously improve risk management capability through the widespread use of RM3.
We will improve how we understand and communicate hazards and risk controls. We will adopt a common language and shared tools so we can work together to manage key risks.

Competence and culture

Front line staff, managers, and leaders need the right skills, mindset, and capability to deliver health and safety improvements.

As an industry we will make sure we have the right skills, mindset, and capability.

We will use structured approaches to identify the skills and capability we need now and in the future.
We will use tools and technology to build capability and attract, train, and retain talent.
We will foster a coaching culture where developing, improving, and learning from successes and/or failures is seen as ‘business as usual’.

Digital and technological transformation

New technology can transform health and safety. There are significant opportunities from the use of Artificial Intelligence, adaptive systems, and digitisation. New technologies can improve performance and customer satisfaction. We need to design, implement, and manage it well so we get the benefits without introducing new problems.

We can unlock the potential of new technology by working together.

We will use data and operational feedback to understand where new technology will have the biggest impact.
We will foster a culture of innovation to get the most from new technology and deliver improvements quickly and cost-effectively.
We will embed health and safety by design principles when new technology is introduced.
We will use effective processes to assess and manage risk to health and safety when changes are made.