RoSPA Award for Walsall College

Walsall College has won a Silver award in the prestigious RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards 2011. The Silver award was presented at a ceremony at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel, at the National Exhibition Centre, on 19th May 2011.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), a safety charity, launched its awards programme 55 years ago. The scheme looks not only at accident records, but also entrants’ overarching health and safety management systems, including important practices such as strong leadership and workforce involvement.

David Rawlins, RoSPA’s Awards Manager, said: “RoSPA firmly believes that organisations that have demonstrated their commitment to continuous improvement in accident and ill health prevention deserve recognition. Walsall College has shown that it is committed to striving for such continuous improvement and we are delighted to honour it through the presentation of an award.”

Matthew Cutler, Health, Safety and Environment Manager said: “This is a great achievement for the College in its first year of application for the award. The judging criteria only allows first time applicants to receive a bronze award, but the strength of the application and management of Health and Safety at the College was judge to be worth getting a silver award at our first attempt. I shall look forward to improving this further over the coming year with a view to getting a gold award next year.”

The majority of RoSPA’s awards are non-competitive, marking achievement at merit, bronze, silver and gold levels. Organisations maintaining high standards can win gold medals, president’s awards and orders of distinction.

Competitive awards are presented in more than 20 sectors, and specialist awards recognise excellence in specific areas, such as the management of occupational road risk. The RoSPA Occupational Health and Safety Awards 2011 are sponsored by NEBOSH (The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health), the leading health and safety professional examining body.