Association of Colleges

Background

"Health & Safety Champion" is an award for Colleges, announced by AoC in autumn 2004. 
The Award, sponsored by JTL, is open to all Further Education, Sixth Form and Tertiary Colleges in the United Kingdom. 
 
Aim

The award aims to recognise Colleges that are able to demonstrate to the wider FE sector, by example, the benefits of following good safety and health practices.
The award is the result of collaboration between AoC and the sponsors. The topic may relate to the one chosen for the European Week for Safety and Health at Work (EWSHW).

Award Criteria

Entries are assessed by the Education Specialist group of IOSH. The assessors are interested to see some of the following:

• Risks tackled at source through good management, particularly the effective use of risk assessment and implementation of its findings
• Effective occupational health measures
• Successful implementation in, or transfer to, future workplaces
• Compliance with relevant legislative requirements, preferably going beyond minimum requirements
  Involvement of learners in planning and/or application
• Real improvements to the learning experience
• Attention to equal opportunities

The above list is not exhaustive, any more than the health and safety approaches in the sector can be listed exhaustively. Colleges are encouraged to submit projects which they feel are innovative or exemplary and which they think the assessors and the sector would be interested in learning about. 

2009 Award - and how to enter

Details and appication form can be found in H&S Briefing 11/09.

Background - Past Awards 

2008 Champion Award
Details of the 2007 Champion Award are contained in H&S Briefing 04/09. The winning College was Leeds College of Building

2007 Champion Award
Details of the 2007 Champion Award are contained in H&S Briefing 07/08

2006 Champion Award
European Week 2006, under the slogan 'Safe Start!', was dedicated to young people to ensure a safe and healthy start to their working lives. Of course, this is exactly what Colleges are dedicated to!

There were awards for first place and one highly-commended entry.

Entries were all of a high standard but IOSH decided that the winner was:
North Lindsey College with its entry A Dynamic approach to raising the standards of learner health & safety

Runner-up and highly commended was:
Chichester College with Safe Start by Risk Assessment.

2005 Award
The main theme for European Health & Safety Week in October 2005 was noise at work, with the slogans “ Stop that Noise!”, and “Noise at work – it can cost you more than your hearing.” Its purpose was to raise awareness of the risks associated with noise at work and to promote effective preventive measures. This included looking at how noise gives rise to, or makes worse, other workplace hazards. Noise can also play a significant role in workplace accidents and increasing stress levels.

The 2005 winner was South Kent College for its Noise at work initiative. Leeds College of Building was “highly commended” for its Stop that noise project.

2004 Award
Information on the 2004 award ceremony and the winning entries can be found in   College Health and Safety Champion Award Ceremony

AoC hopes that this annual event will help to keep the profile of Health & Safety as high as possible in Colleges.

This is, after all, where we can ensure that good (rather than bad) habits are learned and taken on into the world of work.