Promoting Good Health & Satefy Practices
We regularly promote good health and safety practices via our Newsletters and website and when Regional Managers visit farms.
We know that a lot of LKL farms are working hard to improve heath, safety and welfare of staff on their farms and we wanted to celebrate some of those successes and share what they have been up to.
I am pleased to say that we had a number of nominees from our Regional Managers and during our last Heath and Safety committee in June we sat down to discuss the top 3 nominations and choose the winning team.
See our July Newsletter to read more about the top 3 Nominees and their health and safety journey during the last couple of years.
https://www.lklservices.co.uk/files/ckeditor/newsletters/Julynewsletter.pdf
The 2024 Nominees
The Nominee Farms were :-
- Woodhorn Group
- The Downing Partnership
- Heaselands Estate
All these teams had an ongoing commitment to Health and Safety training including refresher training and had risk assessments in place which were shared with staff and they invested in new equipment such as a telehandler working platform or cow recovery bucket and PPE including hi vis.
There was a general understanding that health and safety improvement is a journey and that there is always something else to be doing. They were all committed to ongoing conversations and review of health and safety standards and risk assessments and health and safety monitoring on their farms.
After much deliberation the committee have nominated Heaselands Estate as the winning team for 2024 for the LKL Farm Safety and Welfare Champions award and this was announced at the recent Dairy Conference.
M Jeal - H&S Advisor for LKL said that 'It was clear when speaking to Sam Picot, Farm Manager at the Heaselands Estate Dairy that they had successfully developed a safety culture within their team of 10 staff.'
'What stood out was the understanding that everyone has different skill sets and making sure that everyone was given tasks that they were competent to do or were supervised and supported whilst they built up their skills. Staff were always encouraged to call out if they were unsure about a job and encouraged to stop and ask for help.
Communication within the team is high and they have clear arrangements for handovers between shifts using Whats app groups, making sure that any health, safety and welfare concerns, broken equipment, hazards or near misses etc are communicated within the team so all staff are aware as they start their shift.'
The team has a number of Romanian staff, and team member Marian, was particularly mentioned as working hard when training sessions are organised to ensure everyone is fully engaged in the training and ensure a successful learning outcome.
We would like to commend all nominees for their ongoing hard work to improve health, safety and welfare for staff on their farms and they certainly set a good example as to what can be achieved especially when the whole team is engaged, their input is valued and that they are working towards the same goal.
We would like to congratulate the Heaseleands team as this years winners.
