Chopper charity choice

20/11/2007

Safety conscious water workers are helping to keep a life saving charity airborne.

A cheque for £7355 has been handed over to the Great North Air Ambulance from Northumbrian Water’s Care for Safety Challenge fund.

The donation is the latest award from the charity initiative which has raised more than £175,000 since 2004.  Other employee-nominated charities which have benefited from the water company scheme include Mencap, RNLI and St Teresa’s Hospice at Darlington.
 
The challenge uses raising money for chosen charities as an incentive for employees across the region to think more about health and safety at work by spotting and reporting risks resulting in reduced accidents and improving the standard of accident and incident reports.

Each time a genuine potential health and safety issue is reported or an accident or incident is reported and paperwork is completed to a good standard a donation is made to the reporting department’s chosen charity.

In the tariff of fund donations, the biggest single amount, £3000, is payable if there are no health and safety reportable accidents involving employees being absent from work during a calendar month. The donations taper down to £30 for high standard accident reports.

To help sharpen employees’ focus on the need for quality, the fund gets ‘fined’ £30 for poor reporting of accidents.

The Great North Air Ambulance cheque was presented by Northumbrian Water leisure rangers Paul Perryman and Will Lovat to paramedic John Ker and pilot Mike Tideswell at the ambulance base at Otterburn, Northumberland.  A further cheque for £105.82 from anglers at who fish at Fontburn reservoir, near Morpeth, was also presented.

Dean Lawson, Northumbrian Water’s health and safety adviser, said: “The Care for Safety Challenge fund acts as an incentive to our employees to think more about health and safety at work.  The more they spot and report safety hazards, the better the chances of reducing future potential accidents and the bigger the fund becomes.  This is a great way for the company to give something back to the communities it serves.”

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For further information contact Cara Hall on 0191 301 6720.