Health and safety award for 17th consecutive year

Published: 3 May 2023

Derby Homes has received the prestigious RoSPA Order of Distinction (17 consecutive Golds) 2022 award.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Awards scheme, which receives entries from organisations around the world, recognises achievement in health and safety management systems, including practices such as leadership and workforce involvement.

We were recognised in helping our staff, customers and the public to stay safe throughout 2022.

We have health and safety responsibilities for 630 employees, including 81 undertaking apprenticeships, over 40,000 tenants and the management and maintenance of 12,500 properties.

Over the past 12 months we have made a number of changes. These include expanding the use of our safety management system software to provide a higher level of action monitoring and accountability.

Standout achievements this last year

Derby Homes have been responsible for delivery of Derby’s homeless strategy since December 2017 and this has meant working in high-risk areas, such as managing temporary accommodation (Milestone House) and the outreach work undertaken by REST (Rehousing Engagement Support Team).

REST staff are out in the city centre day and night, engaging with people who are homeless and have already had a huge impact on the number of people rough sleeping in Derby.

Meanwhile, all staff can report accidents, incidents and near misses directly from their PC or mobile phone. Whilst this has always been the case for most staff, the new system is much quicker and simple to access from a phone and has increased incident and near miss reporting.

We commissioned Savills Consultancy to carry out a wide-ranging audit of our compliance in managing the six major health and safety risks in social housing:

• fire
• electricity
• gas safety
• asbestos
• water hygiene
• lifts

To help improve communication with residents, we have started replacing notice boards in communal areas with digital boards, as well as including regular advice to our tenants in our newsletters, through our social media channels and updating our external website pages.

Maria Murphy, Managing Director of Derby Homes was thrilled at the announcement of the award.

“Our health and safety programme is designed to deliver excellent services for both our staff and customers.

“I’m a big believer that health and safety should be more than an internal process and that we have a moral responsibility to spread this ethos and skills to the wider community as part of our core business.

“We as an organisation continue to demonstrate our commitment to train community partners, being a national leader in promoting domestic sprinklers and our sector leading approach to supporting vulnerable individuals.

“I’d like to congratulate everyone who was part of this remarkable accomplishment for a 17th year."

About the RoSPA Awards

Competitive awards go to the best entries in 24 industry sectors including construction, healthcare, transport and logistics, engineering and education. They are presented annually for the most outstanding performance in health and safety by a company or organisation within each particular industry or sector.

Entrants must be able to demonstrate a robust and high-quality safety management system together with a minimum of four years’ consistently excellent or continuously improving health and safety performance.

Housing