Safe in the knowledge

Health and Safety 09 North will take place at the Reebok Stadium in Bolton on the 6-7 October. With a free seminar programme, free exhibition and free parking, the event promises to deliver the latest in health and safety information in a time-efficient and cost-effective way. One of the main attractions is the free conference and seminar programme which includes sessions organised by the event's official educational partner, British Safety Council (BSC). The seminar topics have been chosen by BSC to provide maximum benefit to the visitor. The educational programme includes a seminar entitled 'Helping young people manage the risks that they will face in the workplace' presented by Neil Stone from BSC. According to BSC, young people are twice as likely to have an accident at work as their adult counterparts. This seminar will survey the measures put in place by BSC, and others, to raise young peoples' awareness of the risk of injury and ill-health. Also on the BSC's seminar programme is a presentation from Nigel Bryson of Bryson Consulting entitled 'People support what they help create'. This will identify the business benefits that effective workforce involvement brings to health and safety issues, such as reductions in accidents and ill-health and increases in productivity or service performance. Based on case studies, the presentation will identify how effective workforce involvement can help drive continuous improvement of health and safety performance. Another seminar which could prove useful will be given by Paul Clow of DuPont Safety Resources. Entitled 'Managing safety: simple everyday help for managers and supervisors', it seeks to give practical advice for managers and supervisors. He will argue that it's often easy to know in theory what to do to manage safety, but less easy to know how to do it in practice. A full programme of seminars can be found at www.healthandsafetyevents.co.uk. Away from the seminars, there's also an impressive line-up of exhibitors of products and services. For example, there are providers of personal protection equipment including glove specialists such as Ansell and Marigold Industries, safety eyewear providers such as Scott Health and Safety, and innovative workwear from the likes of DuPont. Exhibitors also include training providers, such as Training 2000 which offers courses in mechanical handling such as reach trucks and counterbalance trucks. A number of high-profile organisations and institutions are exhibiting at the event and will be available to offer advice on a range of safety issues. For example, the Health & Safety Executive, as well as conducting a seminar session to provide an update on its recent asbestos campaign, will have a team of advisors on hand to answer questions. The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health will also be represented. A full list of exhibitors can be found on the event website. A new addition to this year's event is Arco's Safety Experience. Arco, a leading supplier of workwear and workplace safety products, will be launching the latest edition of the Arco catalogue and will be staging a series of runway shows on the mezzanine level at the Reebok Stadium. Tim Else, event director, says: "By working in partnership with the UK's leading safety suppliers and service providers, as well as the industry's most respected organisations, we are able to deliver an innovative format which is ideally suited to today's information-hungry, time-poor visitor. This, combined with elements such as the free parking makes the regional Health and Safety 09 events extremely cost effective."