Matt Cryer, RoSPA Awards Standards Manager, gives some top tips on entering our awards scheme.

RoSPA’s Health and Safety Awards scheme began nearly 70 years ago, in 1956. Over the years, it has grown to become a truly global celebration of achievement, with nearly 2,000 entrants from over 50 countries worldwide.

Despite the huge variety in geographies, this amazing safety community has many shared safety and health challenges and by working together, we can make greater progress in meeting RoSPA’s vision of life free from serious accidental injury much more swiftly than if we were working in isolation.

So, why enter?

The RoSPA Awards community acts as a catalyst for the sharing of best practice – we all learn from each other. The Awards have created a hub for networking, with regular events and mentoring opportunities. The Awards Excellence Forum enables all entrants to join and learn from others, hear entry advice and updates and access best practice presentations from peers. In addition, you can get one-to-one support with your entry from experienced mentors through our network of Awards Ambassadors. We can facilitate a weaving of relationships, through which information, ideas and creativity flow. Relationships and communication have a strong role to play in driving positive, lasting, cultural change.

Another valuable benefit for entrants is that they can use the Awards scheme as an aid to development. They offer a way to benchmark health and safety practice (both internally and externally) on an annual basis, so can demonstrate year-on-year growth and consistency. An awards entry acts as a reflective learning tool, encouraging self-reflection and professional development.

Making an entrance

The 2024 Awards are now open for registration. It’s worth registering early on in the process if you can, as early discounts are available typically up to around mid-November. Also, it will give you the opportunity to enter in all the competitive categories you want to and to make sure you receive your award at a presentation event in 2024.

Once you register, you will receive your online entry login details and can begin work on your submission. For most categories the submission deadline will be January 24 2024 and you will receive notification of the results in late-March.
Here are some things to bear in mind when crafting your awards submission.

Firstly, as you prepare, take time to...

• Reflect

• Involve your team

• Tell your health and safety story

• Gather and review suitable evidence documentation.

Here are some key themes to consider:

• Leadership: How are you using leadership to inspire safety culture – both at group/local level?

• Consultation in addition to communication: Demonstrate genuine two-way consultation and involvement with staff in developing and managing continuous improvements

• Learning from experience: Investigation, learning and remediation when things go wrong. Enforcement action or serious accidents can impact your grade – although your management response is to such incidents is also considered

• What are you proud of? What has gone really well in the last year?  What step-changes have you made?

For those entering the Industry Sector awards, consider what the highest performers look like. Leadership, innovation and culture are all key things to showcase, as is thought-leadership and sharing outside of your own organisation.

Entered before?

If you’ve already entered the Awards and are looking to progress to a higher grade in 2024, ensure that you meet the scope of the questions fully and provide suitable evidence examples – don’t leave gaps. Lack of sufficient examples of evidence is a common problem. Use the feedback report from your previous entry to help. Note the positive observations, notes on omissions, and advice comments from the assessor.

Some top tips for getting registration-ready from our administration team

• Procurement: Get RoSPA set up as a supplier on your procurement system/portal. Remember – we need a purchase order before we invoice you
• Contact: Think about who is the best contact throughout the year, not just for payment/initial registration. And don’t forget to add [email protected] to your safe sender list
• Continuity: If you are a 2023 entrant, know your 6-digit reference number– build your history
• Discounts: You get a discount on entry if you are a RoSPA Member.

What Awards are available?

The majority of the Awards presented are non-competitive and mark achievement at Merit, Bronze, Silver and Gold levels. Gold Medals, President’s Awards, Orders of Distinction and the Patron’s Award are presented to organisations sustaining the high standards of the Gold level over consecutive years.

Competitive awards go to the best entries in more than 30 industry sectors including construction, healthcare, transport and logistics, engineering, manufacturing and education.

The top accolade is the Sir George Earle Trophy, which is selected from the industry winners. This prestigious prize has a strong focus on legacy. Winners have legacy goals built into their selection process, generating a strong ongoing engagement with RoSPA’s mission of reducing serious accidental injuries. During the year they receive the Sir George Earle Trophy, winners sit on the RoSPA National Occupational Safety and Health Committee, which brings together the major players in workplace health and safety and acts as an advisory body to RoSPA, identifying the latest and biggest issues.

Once you have entered for an achievement or industry award, there are also a range of free-to-enter RoSPA Awards for specific areas such as health at work, falls prevention, inspiring women and workforce involvement. You can enter as many of these categories as you wish to.

Entry to the 2024 RoSPA Awards is open now. Find out more at: www.rospa.com/awards

Matt Cryer is Awards Standards Manager at RoSPA.