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Creating a positive safety culture is recognised as an essential aspect of effective safety management. As part of a project sponsored by the UK offshore oil industry and the Health and Safety Executive, The Keil Centre has developed a Safety Culture MaturityŽ Model, which provides a structured safety culture improvement process. The Safety Culture MaturityŽ Model assists organisations in establishing their current level of safety culture, and identifying the actions required to improve their safety culture.

The Safety Culture MaturityŽ Model is set out in a number of iterative stages. Organisations progress sequentially though the five levels, by building on their strengths and removing the weaknesses of the previous level. It is therefore not advisable for an organisation to attempt to jump or skip a level.

The Safety Culture MaturityŽ Model consists of ten elements, described below

• Visible management commitment
• Safety communication
• Production versus safety
• Learning organisation
• Health and safety resources
• Participation in safety
• Risk-taking behaviour
• Trust between management and frontline staff
• Industrial relations and job satisfaction
• Competency

The Keil Centre has developed a Safety Culture MaturityŽ workshop to facilitate objective discussion about safety culture and to identify specific actions to improve safety culture. Training in the licensed use of the Safety Culture MaturityŽ process and materials has been successfully provided to internal company staff in several industrial sectors, and for reputable health and safety consultancies who act as our distributors outwith the UK.

The Safety Culture MaturityŽ Model was developed in partnership with a number of organizations who had successfully developed their safety culture and performance. It describes key features of each stage of safety culture development. Since first use in 2000, the model has been amended and improved. It has also been:-

• commended by winning an award for effective employee involvement in health and safety
• validated by, in a large multinational manufacturing organization, conducting several site assessments in different countries and languages, and establishing that the site with the best safety performance achieved the highest Safety Culture MaturityŽ ratings, with the lowest performing site having the lowest ratings
• used to assess change over time, by conducting a second assessment after two years, and demonstrating that Safety Culture MaturityŽ ratings and performance had improved.

Safety Culture MaturityŽ has been used successfully in many countries and sectors including aviation, road and rail transport, petrochemicals, offshore oil and gas exploration and production, steelmaking, food manufacture, electronics and health care.

Safety Culture MaturityŽ uses include:

• Assessing an organization, site or department
• To assess change in safety culture over time
• Obtaining employee perceptions, as part of a larger safety improvement project
• To help select or assess the effectiveness of a behavioural safety programme
• For management development purposes, to provide a practical illustration of what safety culture involved, and provoke discussion

The Safety Culture MaturityŽ model, materials and process has been adapted for some organizations, to ensure it is aligned to tasks they undertake, and their safety management aspirations and systems.

Safety Culture MaturityŽ materials are available in English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian and German. The Keil Centre also has capability to deliver projects in Polish and Swedish.

For more information on how the SCMM may be used in your organisation, please contact ronny@keilcentre.co.uk

Please note: Safety Culture MaturityŽ is a Registered Trade Mark of The Keil Centre Ltd