Member Article

National award for Matthew's safety work

Construction and development specialist Southdale’s Health and Safety Manager has been recognised with a top industry award.

Matthew Bostwick, who has held the post for six years, has been named as Best Individual Health and Safety Leader by the National House-Building Council. Since Matthew joined Southdale in January 2007, the company’s NHBC All Builder Average for Health and Safety has reduced from 13 points to 0.7 points.

This massive improvement has come at a time when Southdale’s business has grown exponentially, with more employees working on more sites across a wider geographical area.

Paul Moore, Managing Director of Southdale, which has offices in Halifax, Darlington and Warrington, said: “Matthew has instilled an ethos of health and safety which runs throughout the company and its supply chain, from myself through to everyone on site, whether or not they are directly employed by Southdale. This award is hugely deserved, because it reflects Matthew’s drive to make construction a safer industry, not just within Southdale but in other companies as well.

“Matthew’s work has led the company to a number of NHBC Better Than Best Practice awards, multiple Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Gold and Silver awards and ISO 18001 accreditation. These include praise in the NHBC Health and Safety Awards 2010, as well as three RoSPA Silver Awards and a RoSPA Gold.

Matthew says: “I just want everybody to be the best and to ensure that people and the company do not have problems and, most importantly that there are no serious accidents. You have people’s lives and livelihoods at risk, so it is important that everybody adheres to best practice.

“Matthew established a health and safety committee, featuring members of the board, and ensured each site has a safety representative, a role not always held by an employee of Southdale, it can be somebody who works for a sub contractor.

Southdale Director Trudie McCormick says: “The reason Matthew is a very special leader in health and safety is the culture that he instils throughout the company. He doesn’t go from site to site shouting the odds, he communicates his messages in a way which engages and supports the people whose health and safety is affected in any situation.

“Matthew’s support of smaller sub-contractors helps these businesses to put practices and procedures into place which allow them to tender for, and win, work with larger contractors. He is also a part of a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) working group to share experience and best practice throughout the industry. Showing his commitment to his specialism, Matthew is a committee member of the West and North Yorkshire Construction Safety Group, and has attained a range of certifications, as well as chairmanship of the West and North Yorkshire Working Well Together Group.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Recognition PR Business Team .