About
The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) is a registered society under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, whose mission is to promote and protect sporting shooting and the well-being of the countryside throughout the United Kingdom and overseas. It has a membership of over 150,000. The organization has eight sites all over the UK and a Headquarters in Marford Mill, Wrexham.
As a result of the Association’s internal H&S review in 2022, they recognised that there was a capability gap in terms of some elements of Occupational Health & Safety expertise. Saxon Safety were approached to fill the gap, concentrating on carrying out an initial H&S audit, providing ad-hoc H&S advice and carrying out annual fire risk assessments of two sites.
The overarching role for Saxon Safety as the Health & Safety Advisor is to provide Health & Safety support to management and employees, achieved by assessing, guiding, and advising accordingly and providing assurance.
What We Did
- External Professional Health & Safety Advice
- H&S Audit
- Fire Risk assessments for two sites
Challenges
An initial assessment was key and was based on the information given in the form of examples of documentation and verbal narratives. The assessment found that a purposeful culture of Health and Safety was present, however, more could be done to ensure that a positive safety culture is encouraged within the whole organisation. This can be achieved from a strong and detailed policy and clear leadership in terms of Health and Safety from the Senior Managers.
Outcome
In four years BASC have engendered a core positive occupational health & safety culture. Key indicators include:
- Allocating resources by appointing an internal Health & Safety Officer and providing suitable training for the role
- Having Health and Safety as a permanent agenda point on the CEOs monthly meeting, as well as forming a Health & Safety Committee. Its first meeting with all staff that have health and safety responsibilities was carried out at Headquarters in May 2024
- Standardisation of activity risk assessments and method statements
- Regular audits and management housekeeping walk abouts
- A robust incident and near miss reporting system
- Setting high standards in conforming to government regulations and guidance, an example being fire safety at the two sites, (Marford Mill and Dunkeld), have improved their risk ratings from moderate to tolerable. This was achieved by Saxon Safety giving expert guidance, BASC engaging with the process and allocating the necessary resources and the site administrators implementing the requirements with the utmost rigger.
In summary BASC strive to set the highest standards in occupational health & safety and continues to look at ways for improvement.
