PLANNING AND DELIVERING SAFE WORK
19 November 2014
Edition 3
Welcome to the Planning and Delivering Safe Work
Cascade
Key Programme
Dates:
Welcome to the latest Planning and Delivering Safe Work (P&DSW) Cascade.
We are continuing to make good progress with our training programme. To date
we have trained: 189 Safe Work Leaders (SWLs) and 41 Planners. We have also
trained 39 line managers who will be the “Authorising Authorities” in the new
permit system.
There are now 67 trainers who are qualified to deliver the Safe Work Leader
training course, so the numbers of courses will soon ramp up very rapidly.
The immediate key
programme
milestones are:
Ongoing – Training
24 Novemeber –
Supplier training
commences
28 November –
Proscient available on
NR internal servers for
training
Martin Frobisher
Programme Director (P&DSW)
Briefing Material & Version Control
We are aware that the programme will be touching everyone that works on the railway
infrastructure and we are keen to maintain as much transparency about the programme
as possible.
We will continue to share our most up-to-date material on our Safety Central pages
and keep you updated with any developments via these cascades:
Planning and Delivering Safe Work Safety Central
01 December – Next
Railway Contractors
Certificate review panel
06 December –
New Rule Book
becomes valid
If you have any feedback
on this cascade or on
any questions regarding
the Planning and
Delivering Safe Work
programme, then please
email us at:
[email protected]
Our latest video update brief can be found at the link: PDSW Video Update Nov 14
http://www.safety.networkrail.co.uk/
[email protected]
Training News
The momentum for our Safe Work Leader training is growing and, as we
make more trainers available, we will be increasing the number of courses
running. We have now started training in Anglia, LNE and Scotland and are
concurrently running Safe Work Leader, Planner and Authorising Authority
courses.
The early courses have been attended by Network Rail employees but from
Monday 24th November training will begin for employees of companies in our
supply chain.
Feedback from the early courses has been positive and SWL pass rates
have been as follows:
 87% received a full pass
 4% of candidates failed a single test by a small margin and will be
permitted to resit the single test without having to resit the course
 9% of candidates have failed to reach the required standard
Roles and Responsibilities Update
Planner and Authorising Authority are key roles within the new electronic permit
to work system.
Planners will use the new electronic permit system to prepare the plan and
outline the recommended protection methods for the task. They will then have
the permissions to issue the permit to the Safe Work Leader
Photos of the first SWL courses in
Bedford (top photos) and Romford
The Authorising Authority will review the permit and have a challenging
conversation with the assigned Safe Work Leader. The purpose of this
conversation is to make sure that all safety aspects of the task have been
considered and that the proposed plan is the safest and most efficient.
Contractor Use of SWL
On the 30 October, we published the letter
about contractor use of SWL. The purpose of
the letter was to clarify how a Principal
Contractor Licence holder (PCL) can use
SWLs provided by:
Trade Union Consultation and Validation
Both consultation and Validation are proceeding well.
• themselves; or
• a sub-contracted PCL holder; or
• a sub-contracted Railway Contractors
Certificate (RCC) Supplier
Copies of the letter can be found on Safety
Central at the link:
SWL Provision Letter 30 Oct
http://www.safety.networkrail.co.uk/
Our latest round of Trades Union consultation was Friday
14th November. Good progress has been made at national
consultation and the next step will be to meet with local
trades union representatives for area consultation meetings.
We will be holding a separate consultation with
representatives from TSSA to consider the duties of
controllers.
[email protected]
Control of Work (CoW) Update
The Electronic Permit Software (Proscient) is still
undergoing comprehensive load testing since being
uploaded to Network Rails servers. It has been proven to
be reliable at a peak rate of 3500 permits created per
hour.
SWL Identification On-Site
We have finalised the design of the new hat
covers and armbands that the SWL will be
wearing to identify themselves.
The picture below shows how an SWL 1 will be
identified.
Railway Contractors Certificate
(RCC) – Review Panel
We held our first two RCC Review Panels on 05
Nov and 17 Nov, on the back of which we are
now sending out emails to all suppliers on the
potential RCC Supplier list advising them whether
or not we are progressing their RCC application.
Our deadline to Suppliers to challenge this
decision with sufficient justification is 28 Nov.
Our next RCC Review Panel meets on 01 Dec.
Rule Books Changes
The rule book changes formally introduce the SWL duty, and the way that the changes have been written allows for
both current and new methods of working. This enables us to adopt the new arrangements when we are ready to
go live.
The two handbooks describing the new arrangements are as follows:
 Handbook GE/RT8000/HB20; General duties of a safe work leader (SWL) working outside of a possession,
Handbook GERT8000-HB20
 Handbook GE/RT8000/HB21; Safe work leader (SWL) blocking a line, Handbook GERT8000-HB21
For detail on all of rulebook changes the RSSB has published the guidance at the link:
Rule Book Briefing Leaflet GERT8000-RBBL
http://www.safety.networkrail.co.uk/
[email protected]