Member Article

Second award highlights Matthew's dedication to health and safety

Construction and development specialist Southdale’s Health and Safety Manager has landed his second major award inside eight months.

Having been named the Best Individual Health and Safety Leader by the National House-Building Council last summer, Matthew Bostwick has received an award from the Chartered Institute of Builders.

Matthew, who has held the post for seven years, has received the Committed to Construction in West Yorkshire Health and Safety Award.

Trudie McCormick, Managing Director for Southdale in Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “From the Group Managing Director, throughout our staff in offices and on sites across the North of England, and across our supply chain, hundreds of people have benefited from Matthew’s work. He has driven an ethos of health and safety all through the organisation in a way which has really been taken on board by everyone at Southdale and those who are not directly employed by the company, but who work with us. I cannot emphasise enough how deserved this further recognition of Matthew’s efforts is.”

Since Matthew joined Southdale in January 2007, the company’s NHBC All Builder Average for Health and Safety has reduced to 0.7 points, significantly below the national average. 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.

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 said: “I am obviously very happy to receive this award, but we would not have achieved anywhere near as much if it weren’t for the support I have received from the group and regional boards, and for the way everyone at Southdale has embraced health and safety. It is all about putting things in place so that everyone can take personal responsibility, because that is where health and safety must start for every single person in any organisation.”

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.

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.

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