Tarmac’s innovative new Safety Park - a UK first
“We want to leave a safety legacy for those people who join the company and industry in years to come; it’s vital we invest our time and resources into giving our people and our partners world class learning opportunities.”
Peter Kay, Head of learning and development
In 2018, we created a UK first and industry leading Safety Park at our Nether Langwith site near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.
The dedicated learning facility has been set up as part of an operational site where new operators will be able to gain hands-on practical experience and training relating to the different areas of our business. It will be home to our operational inductions, the professional operator development programme and training in both technical skills and behavioural safety
The concept for safety park was born following visits by Simon Grey, director of health and safety, and senior vice president Martin Riley to Thames Tideway and fellow CRH business Rudus in Finland.
Simon said: “The move to create a safety park came following collaboration with our colleagues in Finland,we want to harness the benefit of this safety training innovation to really push our standards and lead the way in the UK.”
Phase one of the Safety Park opened in the Autumn of 2018. In this first phase, training focused on quarry operators, occupational hazards as well as colleague and contractor onboarding – all new starters in an operational role will attend the safety park for their formal introduction to the business and essential new-starter safety training.
Matt Gibbs, senior manager for operational competence, said: “The Safety Park will give us real time learning opportunities to improve safety related topics such as isolation and stored energy training, conveyor safety and mobile plant safety as well as highly skilled tasks such as confined space and rescue training.
”Peter Kay, head of learning and development, said: “It’s a really exciting time for Tarmac as we work up such a transformational change for our approach to safety learning. We’re reinvesting the Apprenticeship Levy and using our leading position to work with industry partners to really help us push for higher standards across our business and the wider industry.
“We also want to leave a safety legacy for those people who join the company and industry in years to come; therefore, it’s vital we invest our time and resources into giving our people and our partners world class learning opportunities to continuously improve our health and safety standards.”