The Relationship Between UK Schools and HSE

Since HSE inception forty years ago, their role has changed a lot, and nowhere is that more true with their involvement in the safety of schools.

When HSE was first born, in the aftermath of the Flixborough, it was a bold piece of legislation designed to make workplaces safer, but that was never designed to its only role. It’s important to remember that the original name of the act that allowed for the birth of HSE was the “Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974”. That “etc” embodies one of the most important aspects of HSE, which is that, though a safe workplace is vital, the government should also step in to ensure the safety of other public spaces as well.

And so it is that HSE has entered into our schools as well. The result of this has been overwhelmingly positive. No-one would argue that HSE’s continued campaign to remove asbestos from school buildings is a bad thing. It’s a perfect example of why we need HSE. The invisible hand of the market alone cannot effectively clean up the asbestos disaster on its own, and we need someone to step up and tackle the issue head on. HSE was created for precisely this sort of job.

“Now HSE Want to Ban…”

We should rejoice that we live in a country which is so safe that mocking HSE for being “too safe” counts as a news story. You’ve probably heard some outrageous claims about HSE’s involvement in schools, but these claims are usually exaggerated, taken wildly out of context, or not a result of HSE but a decision made by the school itself.

Do HSE want to ban children playing conkers in schools? No, they do not. Do HSE want to ban playing pin the tail on the donkey in schools? Nope, guess again. Do HSE want to ban school ties? Not right this time either. The list goes on and on, and HSE are tirelessly releasing myth-busting statements every month.

HSE Just Want What is Best For School Children

However, sometimes myth-busting is not enough. Recently, HSE’s chief, Dame Judith Hackitt spoke out about HSE’s reputation. She argued that the over-zealous attitude some schools have towards health and safety runs a risk of making a mockery out of genuine health and safety legislation. HSE’s role in schools is important, but if their voice is drown out by “overprotective parents and risk-averse teachers” then students will grow up thinking that health and safety is some kind of joke.

We are lucky enough to live in a country where children are so well protected from the dangers of their school that health and safety does seem like a joke to them. Students are only able to feel this way because their schools are much safer than schools were before the creation of HSE. Those same children will grow up to have jobs in workplaces where rates of fatal injury have fallen by an enormous 86 percent since the creation of HSE.

Racking Inspection Training Means Continuing HSE’s Quest to Educate

HSE’s role in British schools makes a lot more sense when you consider that the aim of any health and safety legislation, health and safety training, or health and safety press release is to educate. Teaching people how to be safe around pallet racking goes hand in hand with teaching people how to use pallet racking, and this is why pallet racking inspection training is so important.

At Storage Equipment Experts, education is at the core of what we do. Our racking inspections and racking inspection training is very much in line with HSE’s belief that health and safety is essentially a matter of teaching people how to be safe. Fines and the laws are an important enforcement tool, but education is at the core of what we do.

HSE recommend expert racking inspections because they know how important a well-educated opinion on safety is. HSE’s continued involvement in schools and continued involvement in the warehouse industry is about creating the same thing: a safer and more intelligent workforce for the future.

School yourself in the basics of racking inspection and racking safety with our free racking inspection checklist.

Better yet, contact us for expert racking inspection training from a SEMA approved racking inspector.

Racking Inspections are Essential for the Safety of Any Business and Safety is Essential for Any Ethical Business

14th May 2016 marks the 16th annual World Fair Trade Day, an event promoted by the World Fair Trade organisation. This year’s event specifies that people should “be an agent for change” (with particular emphasis on the “for”) and, at Storage Equipment Experts, we wholeheartedly support this idea. In its own small way, we sincerely believe that racking inspections help to improve the supply chain of international business by making it safer and therefore more ethical. That is why we support World Fair Trade Day.

The Link Between Racking Inspections and Ethical Business

We’ve spoken at length about the connection between safe business and sustainable business, and the link between safe business and ethical business is very similar. The continuing crisis in Indonesia related to the production of palm oil is a perfect example of how safe business, sustainable business, and ethical business are linked. After all, some of the main issues with palm oil are that its production is unsafe, unsustainable, and therefore unethical.

Ethical palm oil production is an issue that affects everybody and that everybody can affect. That’s why being an agent for change is so important. To give just one example, after a lot of petitions and a lot of boycotts, coffee chain Starbucks finally caved and adopted a sustainable palm oil policy. A big part of this, we hope, will be a safer supply chain. And you can’t have a safe supply chain with racking inspections and racking inspection training.

You may not think that where you choose to buy your coffee matters, but it does. Just as racking inspections matter to the global supply chain.

How can Racking Inspections and Racking Inspection Training Make the Global Supply Chain Safer?

The global statistics for workplace accidents makes for staggering reading: 2.3 million deaths a year, 6,300 deaths a day, or one death every 15 seconds. No matter which way you spin it, it’s a lot of people needlessly dying. It’s easy to become desensitised to enormous numbers like that, and so another way to think of it is like this: if the whole world had a population of 71 million (only six and a half million more than the current population of the UK) 63 people would be dying every day as a direct result of workplace accidents.

More stringent racking inspection legislation would help to change that. True, it wouldn’t solve the problem overnight, but warehouses are a huge part of the global supply chain and so unsafe warehouses are a global issue.

We tend to hear about global warehouse safety issues in the news when something dramatic happens. The two warehouse explosions in Tianjin, China were caused by unsafe warehouse practice and led to big protests and international media attention. In much the same way, the Flixborough warehouse disaster 1974 led almost directly to the creation of HSE in the UK. It’s great that we choose to react to tragedies like these with calls for more warehouse safety, but we shouldn’t have to wait until a huge tragedy happens to take action.

The sad truth is that many warehouse workers in the global supply chain don’t die in attention-grabbing disasters such as the tragedies that occurred in Flixborough and Tianjin. For many people, the tragedy is a day-to-day work environment where profits are put before safety and where workers are underpaid, undertrained, and unsafe. Sadly, this is the case in the US where a large percentage of warehouse staff are working with no health insurance for less than the living wage.

This need not be the case, as racking inspection training, safety protocol, and ethical business practices can help to increase profits. The attitude that the global supply chain needs to shake off is that ethical and safe business is the enemy of their wallet. In the long term, this just isn’t true.

At Storage Equipment Experts, we support World Fair Trade Day because we believe that fair, safe, and ethical trade benefits everybody. We are proud to be a company whose racking inspection training and SEMA-approved rack inspections help to make British workplaces safer. Our role in the global supply chain may be small, but we are certain that it’s positive. Racking inspection training is the cornerstone of safer, more sustainable, and more ethical global supply chain.

Contact Storage Equipment Experts for SEMA-approved racking inspections from the UK’s foremost experts in racking inspections and rack inspection training.

This year’s Business Show promises to be a big event for small British businesses, but is it really worth all the hassle?

Being the owner of a small business can be extremely rewarding, but it’s never simple or easy. Important decisions need to be made every day and as 2016’s Business Show draws nearer, many businesses might be wondering what’s in it for them.

What is the Business Show?

It’s a simple concept with a huge following: the business show is a two-day event where small business owners and influencers gather to network with each other. Some “networkers” are looking for investors, contributors, customers, or maybe even future employees. Others are looking for advice and inspiration, or perhaps they want to give advice and inspiration to others.

With about 25,000 business people in attendance, the possibilities for business owners at the Business Show are almost endless, but is it right for you?

Racking Inspections, Racking Inspection Training, and Small Business

At Storage Equipment Experts, we spend a lot of time networking with small businesses. Our day-to-day work means delivering racking inspection training to small business staff and SEMA-approved racking inspections to warehouses across the UK. We like to help small businesses by making them safer. Often, when small businesses meet, it’s a mutually beneficial relationship.

This, in essence, is what the Business Show is all about. It pushes businesses beyond the idea that capitalism is all about competition. Sometimes, a lot of the time actually, business is about working together.

However, it’s important to know what you want to get out of B2B conversation. We deliver top-quality racking inspection training and expert racking inspections in accordance with HSE standards. Though, for some businesses, networking is less clear cut. When business people are unclear about what they want in a business-to-business exchange, the results can be ugly.

Not being prepared is a big mistake for many small businesses at networking events. Sure, you want to talk to people, but why? And what do you want to say? This is where the elevator pitch comes into play. In other words, if you can’t explain who you are and what you want in the space of an elevator ride, then you’re not sufficiently prepared for a networking event.

Suppose you bump shoulders with a big leader or influencer in your industry. What would you say to them? How would saying that benefit your business? If you don’t know the answer to those questions, then you need to think of one before you run the risk of seeing them at a networking event and having nothing to say.

The Business Show 2016 will not be the Perfect Opportunity for Everyone

Not every single small business in the UK is attending the Business Show 2016. Some of that might be a lack of awareness, budget constraints, time constraints, or maybe just bad organisation. However, there are many small businesses that will have made a conscious decision not to attend the business show even though they could have done.

The reason for this is that the Business Show is not some magic event that will suddenly make your company successful. It is a networking event, like many other networking events, which businesses need to be clear and realistic about if they plan on benefiting from it. If you can’t think of any way that networking at the Business Show will help your business, then perhaps you need to put more thought into what will help your business.

Sometimes it helps when events are specific. At Storage Equipment Experts, we are always sure to attend the big health and safety events. We are also clear about our aims at these events; we want to learn about the latest developments in the world of warehouse safety.

Networking is about knowing what you want. We believe that interactions between small businesses can be very fruitful. That’s why our business model is based on ensuring other companies receive the UK’s best racking inspection training and best racking inspections.

Whatever you’ve decided to do with regards to the Business Show, contact Storage Equipment Experts to network with the small business which delivers the best racking inspection training and pallet rack inspections in the UK.