British Steel has today been awarded the North Lincolnshire Council Outstanding Contribution to Workplace Health Award.
At an event held at the Scunthorpe site this morning, British Steel - along with other companies such as Network Rail, Ongo Housing and Clugstons – was recognised by the council for its contributions to workplace health.
Achieving ‘Outstanding’ status is by no means a small feat. British Steel has achieved this by maintaining the high standards towards health, safety and wellbeing in the workplace since achieving gold status in 2012. This includes working in collaboration with other public health agencies to bring services to the site such as smoking cessation support, weight loss support, mental health first aider training and mental health awareness sessions.
The Occupational Health team also continued their weekly health bus visits, back and knee physio classes, free health checks, and continuous promotion of the monthly health topic with the help of the many health champions across site.
Paul Martin, British Steel Managing Director, said: “I’m really proud of our Occupational Health team and our many health champions across the business; we wouldn’t be receiving this award today without their valuable work. Their skills and leadership have led to a definite increase of good health among our employees.
“Our health champions are from a wide range of disciplines across plant and include representatives from Occupational Health, Communications, Facilities, Health, Safety and Environment and iron and steelmaking employees.
“They’ve shown themselves to be a dedicated working group, each bringing with them a variety of skills and knowledge to communicate health messages and increase well-being awareness across site.
“Prior to 2010, when we first became involved with the North Lincolnshire Healthy Workplace Awards, I couldn’t have visualised the improved attitude towards health today 7 years later, and we have our health champions to thank for this. Despite their busy workloads and diverse backgrounds, our champions have achieved this with the vital support and leadership from the Occupational Health team.
“So a big ‘well done’ to our health champions and thank you to North Lincolnshire Council for this award.”
During the ceremony, health champions from those companies present received awards for their work from North Lincolnshire Council Leader Rob Waltham and British Steel’s Managing Director for Primary Products, Dave Nicol.
There was the opportunity for the attendees to discover more about the other health schemes the council provides through its health ‘market place’. Organisations, such as the Cook4life team, Weight Management, Smoking Cessation and Heartstart were in attendance to provide information and support as well as showing the services they provide.
Councillor Rob Waltham said: "It is great to see one of our major employers - British Steel - win the outstanding contribution to the workplace health award. They have demonstrated a real commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of their employees and this is good to see.
"The awards give us the opportunity to recognise some fantastic achievements and I am pleased for British Steel."
Picture caption: Paul Martin, British Steel’s Managing Director, Jill Caley, Occupational Health Nurse Advisor, Sharon Smith, Occupational Health Manager and North Lincolnshire Council leader Rob Waltham at the presentation.