The NHS sets leaders up to fail – and then recruits more in the same mould

It’s my job to support and develop senior NHS managers. And I’m deeply worried that we’re setting them up to fail – then recruiting more in the same mould.

I’m a former primary care trust director; I now work as an executive coach, helping NHS executives to improve their skills. Many of my clients lead trusts whose leadership has been deemed “inadequate” or “requires improvement” by the Care Quality Commission – but few of them are genuinely bad leaders. The problem is that they were hired to do one job, and the requirement is now for something quite different. Yet they’re not being helped to change their approach, and when their trusts run into trouble they are being replaced with people likely to encounter exactly the same set of problems.

Most of these leaders were hired to lead foundation trusts at a time when NHS providers were being encouraged to compete with other trusts for business; to invest in new services; to develop their own organisations at the expense of other providers. To make use of the freedoms granted to foundation trusts – including the ability to borrow money at commercial rates – they hired leaders with commercial, transactional and financial skills: hard-edged, competitive businesspeople who could expand their market share.

But then the environment changed. Trusts were – quite rightly – put under greater pressure to improve service quality and patient safety. And demand rose much more quickly than budgets, so the tariffs paid for trust services were cut year after year. Soon, many new services were struggling to repay the investments made in them. In a world of shrinking revenues, those skills in business growth suddenly looked out of place.

Meanwhile, health system leaders began pushing a new agenda – one built around collaboration between organisations, professionals and sectors. To protect healthcare nowadays we need people to work together, rather than to compete: the emphasis is on building services around the patients’ needs, rather than the providers’. The Sustainability and Transformation Plans and the Five Year Forward View create a need for leaders who have emotional intelligence; who are approachable and listen to their staff; who put the public’s needs above those of their trust; who can share power and responsibilities with other organisations. And in that context, the skills and approach of many NHS leaders look hopelessly outdated.

Too often, leaders are remote and isolated. Poor links between ward and board mean that board members often remain unaware of emerging problems. To deliver great care, you need your staff behind you – but we’ve spent years recruiting empire-building business leaders who have no feel for the kind of hands-on, visible leadership required.

The characteristics once seen as assets have become liabilities

We end up with chief executives who find themselves receiving a lot of criticism, and being pushed out – creating huge damage to their careers and reputations. But it’s the system that’s let them down, not them letting down the system. Nobody’s given them the right advice or development or challenge, and the characteristics once seen as assets have become liabilities.

Unfortunately, trusts’ recruitment practices haven’t changed to reflect the need for a new kind of leader – so when these more commercial, transactional managers fail, trusts are too often replacing them with new figures cut from the same cloth. Many trust chairs are still stuck in an empire-building mindset; job descriptions focus on financial and operational experience; and recruiters are often cynical about the softer skills required for staff engagement and partnership working. So the trusts select new managers well-suited to facing the challenges of five years ago, and organisations head off towards a fresh set of failures.

What’s to be done? For a start, trusts need to refresh their recruitment practices – taking their cue from NHS Improvement’s new leadership framework, and shifting away from a narrow focus on technical competences towards a values-based approach. The solution is not simply to swap our existing leaders for a new set. The NHS cannot afford to lose a swath of senior managers. Many of these people could develop the skills we need, we just need to help them to do so. After all, we require doctors and nurses to refresh their skills regularly, revalidating their qualifications; and these days, the disciplines of management and leadership are changing just as fast as medical practice.

It’s hard for senior leaders and managers to reflect, train and change their approach. Most already work 60 hours a week, and seeking new skills is too often seen as a confession of weakness or incompetence. But this is a nettle we must grasp. For many of our senior leaders are ill-suited to the task in hand. If we are to serve the interests of NHS organisations, staff, leaders themselves and, above all, patients, we must reshape our leadership cadre – equipping it to understand and address the vast new financial and organisational challenges facing the NHS.

If you would like to write a blogpost for Views from the NHS frontline, read our guidelines and get in touch by emailing sarah.johnson@theguardian.com.

Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to read more pieces like this. And follow us on Twitter (@GdnHealthcare) to keep up with the latest healthcare news and views.

The NHS sets leaders up to fail – and then recruits more in the same mould

The NHS sets leaders up to fail – and then recruits more in the same mould

It’s my job to support and develop senior NHS managers. And I’m deeply worried that we’re setting them up to fail – then recruiting more in the same mould.

I’m a former primary care trust director; I now work as an executive coach, helping NHS executives to improve their skills. Many of my clients lead trusts whose leadership has been deemed “inadequate” or “requires improvement” by the Care Quality Commission – but few of them are genuinely bad leaders. The problem is that they were hired to do one job, and the requirement is now for something quite different. Yet they’re not being helped to change their approach, and when their trusts run into trouble they are being replaced with people likely to encounter exactly the same set of problems.

Most of these leaders were hired to lead foundation trusts at a time when NHS providers were being encouraged to compete with other trusts for business; to invest in new services; to develop their own organisations at the expense of other providers. To make use of the freedoms granted to foundation trusts – including the ability to borrow money at commercial rates – they hired leaders with commercial, transactional and financial skills: hard-edged, competitive businesspeople who could expand their market share.

But then the environment changed. Trusts were – quite rightly – put under greater pressure to improve service quality and patient safety. And demand rose much more quickly than budgets, so the tariffs paid for trust services were cut year after year. Soon, many new services were struggling to repay the investments made in them. In a world of shrinking revenues, those skills in business growth suddenly looked out of place.

Meanwhile, health system leaders began pushing a new agenda – one built around collaboration between organisations, professionals and sectors. To protect healthcare nowadays we need people to work together, rather than to compete: the emphasis is on building services around the patients’ needs, rather than the providers’. The Sustainability and Transformation Plans and the Five Year Forward View create a need for leaders who have emotional intelligence; who are approachable and listen to their staff; who put the public’s needs above those of their trust; who can share power and responsibilities with other organisations. And in that context, the skills and approach of many NHS leaders look hopelessly outdated.

Too often, leaders are remote and isolated. Poor links between ward and board mean that board members often remain unaware of emerging problems. To deliver great care, you need your staff behind you – but we’ve spent years recruiting empire-building business leaders who have no feel for the kind of hands-on, visible leadership required.

The characteristics once seen as assets have become liabilities

We end up with chief executives who find themselves receiving a lot of criticism, and being pushed out – creating huge damage to their careers and reputations. But it’s the system that’s let them down, not them letting down the system. Nobody’s given them the right advice or development or challenge, and the characteristics once seen as assets have become liabilities.

Unfortunately, trusts’ recruitment practices haven’t changed to reflect the need for a new kind of leader – so when these more commercial, transactional managers fail, trusts are too often replacing them with new figures cut from the same cloth. Many trust chairs are still stuck in an empire-building mindset; job descriptions focus on financial and operational experience; and recruiters are often cynical about the softer skills required for staff engagement and partnership working. So the trusts select new managers well-suited to facing the challenges of five years ago, and organisations head off towards a fresh set of failures.

What’s to be done? For a start, trusts need to refresh their recruitment practices – taking their cue from NHS Improvement’s new leadership framework, and shifting away from a narrow focus on technical competences towards a values-based approach. The solution is not simply to swap our existing leaders for a new set. The NHS cannot afford to lose a swath of senior managers. Many of these people could develop the skills we need, we just need to help them to do so. After all, we require doctors and nurses to refresh their skills regularly, revalidating their qualifications; and these days, the disciplines of management and leadership are changing just as fast as medical practice.

It’s hard for senior leaders and managers to reflect, train and change their approach. Most already work 60 hours a week, and seeking new skills is too often seen as a confession of weakness or incompetence. But this is a nettle we must grasp. For many of our senior leaders are ill-suited to the task in hand. If we are to serve the interests of NHS organisations, staff, leaders themselves and, above all, patients, we must reshape our leadership cadre – equipping it to understand and address the vast new financial and organisational challenges facing the NHS.

If you would like to write a blogpost for Views from the NHS frontline, read our guidelines and get in touch by emailing sarah.johnson@theguardian.com.

Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to read more pieces like this. And follow us on Twitter (@GdnHealthcare) to keep up with the latest healthcare news and views.

The NHS sets leaders up to fail – and then recruits more in the same mould

Amy Winehouse charity sets up home for female recovering addicts

The Amy Winehouse Foundation has partnered with a housing provider to open a home for women recovering from alcohol and drug addiction, on the fifth anniversary of the singer’s death.

Known as Amy’s Place, the recovery house, which will be in operation from Monday, is based in east London and aims to help recovering female addicts reintegrate into society and sustain their recovery. It will be made up of 12 self-contained apartments, four of which are two-bed, and can house up to 16 women.

Dominic Ruffy, the special project director at the Amy Winehouse Foundation, said it decided to set up Amy’s Place because of the general lack of women-specific services for addiction treatment in the UK, despite research showing that women have a far greater chance of relapse without such support.

“There are about six women-only rehabs, and beyond that, there’s an even greater paucity of women-specific recovery housing beds,” he said. “There is only one other women-only recovery house in London and it’s only a four-bed with a six-month waiting list.”

Ruffy, who has been in recovery himself, said while traditional rehab was usually made up of detoxification and intensive psychological treatment, a recovery house was a safe place for people to come out of treatment and be reintegrated into society, with support workers to help guide them.

“Picture a person who is 14 years old, has come from a broken home, hasn’t engaged at school, ends on a path of addiction and winds up at 25-26 years old going to rehab, learning how to get clean, and then leaving rehab and being told to get on with it. It can be as simple as not knowing how to go about getting your benefits or engaging in college.

“Our experience shows if you give people an extended period of time post-traditional rehabilitation treatment, you will improve the percentage of people who stay clean [in the] long term. We have a saying in recovery that the drink and drugs aren’t our problem, it’s living life clean and sober.”

Residents at Amy’s Place will be supported using a “co-production model”, which gives them shared control over the services that aid their recovery. To come up with the programme, the foundation consulted several women at the women-only rehab centre Hope House in south London, who described what their perfect recovery house would look like in terms of activities, workshops, personal development pathways and length of stay. Together, they created a three-month programme for new residents of Amy’s Place, which includes holistic activities such as yoga, relapse prevention groups, and potential skills and employability based workshops.

Laura, 35, a former heroin addict and mother of three, is planning to move to the east London centre after an upcoming stint in rehab. She told the Guardian: “I think it’s really important to have a place like this when you’re in recovery. It’s a new experience to come off drugs. Some people suffer from anxiety, some people suffer from other stuff, and it’s reassuring to have some support and help with finding a home and getting a job, getting back into normal routine life, which you didn’t have before as a drug addict. You have to learn it all as new.”

Laura said an all-women’s home would give her time to concentrate on herself, adding: “There are no men around, no distractions to help you run away.

“My aim is to be drug-free and to get back into life, and deal with my underlying issues that made me want to use drugs in the first place. I really want to leave this chapter of my life behind and start a new future with my kids and husband-to-be.”

Ruffy said it was important to have women-only recovery houses because “women tend to come into recovery with a host of complex issues, whether that’s physical, mental or psychological abuse”.

He said the foundation’s consultation with women in rehab showed that they all preferred a women-only house because “they wanted to ensure they were either safe and away from ex-partners, or safe from their issues around co-dependency, around men … It was evident there was a clear need and the women would feel more secure in an environment [where] they knew they weren’t going to be troubled by aspects from their past.”

Amy Winehouse died aged 27 in July 2011 from accidental alcohol poisoning. The foundation was set up by her family following the singer’s death, and works to prevent young people misusing alcohol and drugs, as well as to support disadvantaged young people to help them fulfil their potential. It has set up Amy’s Place with the help of Centra Care and Support, part of not-for-profit organisation Circle Housing, one of the UK’s largest providers of affordable housing.

Michelle Davies, the London regional director of Centra Care and Support, said: “We want to empower young women to remain in control of their recovery by providing safe and secure homes, personalised services and a vibrant community that will build on their strengths, experiences and preferences.”

Jane Winehouse of the Amy Winehouse Foundation said: “This project will make such a profound difference to so many young women, enabling them to have a safe environment in which to rebuild their lives and put into practice all the learning they have acquired through their treatment journey. Fresh starts are difficult to make, full of challenges, but at Amy’s Place, we will give young women the tools and support to help make this a reality.”

Amy Winehouse charity sets up home for female recovering addicts

Exploding e-cigarette sets barmaid"s dress on fire

Element of it also hit at buyer at the Buck Inn Hotel, in Richmond, North Yorks, and left him with a red mark on his abdomen.

Miss Baty mentioned: “I was about to give someone their alter and I heard the bang. I could see the fire coming at me and I felt the heat as I ran away.

“I started crying hysterically and my arm was all black. My dress caught on fire as I ran away and I just did not know what was happening.

^{Ross Parry}

“A client came and took me in to the bathroom to calm me down. She washed down my arm which was all black and I even now didn’t know what had happened.”

Miss Baty, who has worked at the pub for nearly two years, was badly shaken by the explosion on Saturday.

She added: “I thought the fuse-box had blown up or a firework had gone off.

“Everyone was just so shocked.”

The e-cigarette belonged to fellow barman Stewart Paterson, 21, who has been trying to quit smoking since December final year.

Video courtesy Ross Parry

Exploding e-cigarette sets barmaid"s dress on fire

Simon Stevens sets out vision for radical NHS change and innovation

Practice nurse Lesley Dobson requires Simon Stevens’ blood stress at Consett Health care Centre in County Durham. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

In his 1st speech as NHS England chief executive, Simon Stevens ready the ground for radical adjust in the way health services workers think and operate.

Speaking at Shotley Bridge hospital in County Durham, exactly where he began his NHS occupation as a trainee manager 26 many years ago, Stevens encouraged employees to “consider like a patient, act like a taxpayer” as he gave the first indications of what he would – and would not – be carrying out.

He will not be getting into a trial of strength with the wellness secretary, Jeremy Hunt. He stressed the need for the nationwide leadership of the NHS to operate “in coherent and purposeful partnership”, and in highlighting that the NHS England board is operationally independent, he implicitly recognised the legitimacy of political influence on its objectives. He and Hunt are also politically astute to fall out.

He also manufactured clear that he would not be debating how many clinical commissioning groups there must be his only interest is in producing clinical commissioning work.

There have been robust themes in his speech of breaking down barriers and driving innovation from each inside and outdoors the NHS.

Having broad expertise of healthcare systems around the globe, Stevens is not going to let his vision for the NHS be constrained by traditions of structure or expert demarcation. This contains the rigid demarcations in between professional and acute solutions, primary and community these NHS silos appear a lot less wise from abroad.

He welcomes new providers who will drive change and test new designs of care, and needs NHS jobs to fit the requirements of patients within and outside hospitals, rather than the existing preference for generating patients stick to inflexible care pathways constructed all around outdated occupation structures.

That puts pay and coaching – including the new GP contract – near the top of his priorities.

He sees an urgent need to have for transformational adjust in out-of-hospital care. He can be anticipated to urge CCGs to be adventurous in testing new techniques of delivering solutions, whilst giving them a bigger position in the commissioning of major care. NHS England, which controls 35,000 principal care contracts, has proved incapable of developing powerful neighborhood main care strategies, which is a main impediment to shifting care out of hospitals.

Stevens’ technique to integrating well being and social care is each pragmatic and radical he gave robust hints that he has minor interest in grand schemes for what he described as “combining two financially leaky buckets”, whilst currently being established that the NHS and nearby government should collaborate on new models of care delivery within current structures. Once again, he highlighted the importance of making an attempt suggestions from abroad.

His determination to challenge conventional methods of functioning will be liberating for several employees, whilst presenting a dilemma for organisations such as the BMA.

While several in the well being services believe they can frighten government into escalating NHS paying, a glance by way of the Office for Spending budget Responsibility’s analysis of this month’s budget reveals that a a lot more practical query is when is the NHS going to shed its funding ringfence. Arguably the creation of the £3.8bn Greater Care Fund for integrating well being and social care currently marks the end of that protection.

So some thing has to give. Redesigning jobs and designing shell out structures that drive the correct behaviours and efficiencies has to be the way forward. Unions need to have to be open-minded or risk exacerbating an presently dire economic prognosis, with far worse consequences for NHS personnel.

The other portion of making NHS cash drive adjust is reforming the payment-by-outcomes method to shift care out of hospitals. In a culture of demanding classic demarcations, experiments in vertical integration and clinical staff routinely moving between hospitals and communities during their doing work day should be portion of that potential.

In his first speech, Stevens has presently established himself as a radical. He is starting to describe a more networked, more free of charge-flowing overall health service that is thrilled by clinically led adjust, searches for innovation and will take a lot more dangers.

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Simon Stevens sets out vision for radical NHS change and innovation

DNA pioneer James Watson sets out radical concept for selection of illnesses

James Watson, 85, says he produced his theory soon after pondering why exercising appears to benefit people with higher blood sugar. Photograph: Edmond Terakopian/PA

Not satisfied with his work that unravelled the double helix construction of DNA and landed him a share of a Nobel prize half a century ago, James Watson has come up with a radical concept for diabetes, dementia, heart ailment and cancer.

The 85-year-outdated scientist has turned to the pages of the Lancet medical journal to set forth his grand notion, which some academics say might not have observed the light of day had it come from anyone else.

Watson, who stepped down as director of the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory in New York in 2007 after the Times quoted his views on Africa and intelligence, has organized a conference at the lab this 12 months to discover his most recent hypothesis.

Writing in the Lancet, Watson claims that late onset, or variety two diabetes, is typically considered to be induced by oxidation in the physique that causes irritation and kills off pancreatic cells. But he thinks the root of that irritation is fairly different: “The basic result in, I suggest, is a lack of biological oxidants, not an excess,” he writes.

Watson, a keen singles tennis player, says he developed his theory right after pondering why workout appeared to advantage individuals with high blood sugar, an early indicator of potential diabetes. Workout developed “reactive oxygen species” that were extensively believed to be dangerous.

Other study fed into his thinking, chiefly a research by Matthias Blüher at the University of Leipzig. He showed that reactive oxygen species released in exercising combatted the insulin resistance noticed in diabetes, but that the benefits vanished if you gave men and women antioxidants prior to the exercised.

Watson believes that rather than getting wholly negative, oxidising molecules, such as hydrogen peroxide, are vital for the body’s wellness. In certain, he factors out that hydrogen peroxide goes to operate in a cellular organ called the endoplasmic reticulum, the place it guarantees proteins are secure. If levels of oxidants are too minimal, he suggests, the proteins grow to be misshapen and trigger the inflammation that damages the pancreas. And a raft of other illnesses.

Huge research have currently proven that antioxidant dietary supplements do not help folks to dwell longer. Watson’s hypothesis also suggests there is nothing to be acquired, although he makes a point of saying he is not experienced to give individuals well being guidance.

“Just about every doctor I’ve ever known tells every patient who is capable of carrying out so to exercise. I feel physical exercise assists us create healthy, functional proteins. But we genuinely want to have some higher-good quality research to demonstrate this.”

He adds: “We sorely need to consider a much a lot more critical and thorough scientific seem at the mechanisms via which exercising improves our overall health.”

Watson’s thought acquired a mixed reception from scientists on Thursday. A single professor of metabolic medicine was unimpressed and said the idea was not even novel. “It is only because of his identify that James Watson is permitted to present his woolly ideas in the Lancet,” he explained.

The director of the MRC Metabolic Illnesses Unit at the University of Cambridge, Stephen O’Rahilly, was significantly less scathing. He said: “He is exhorting more science to be completed on how physical action may possibly be beneficial. We want to realize the mechanism. Making the proper reactive oxygen species in the appropriate place at the correct time is essential for us to stay effectively, and blocking them may possibly not be a very good idea.”

DNA pioneer James Watson sets out radical concept for selection of illnesses

China sets air pollution goals

China has set new targets for its provinces to decrease air pollution by five to 25%, state media mentioned late on Tuesday, underscoring the government’s concern about a supply of public anger. 

China often troubles directives to try to tackle air pollution in main cities, but these have had constrained impact. 

Former well being minister Chen Zhu mentioned air pollution in the country triggers premature deaths of 350,000 to 500,000 folks yearly, state media reported on Tuesday. Chen wrote the write-up in a December situation of the Lancet health-related journal. 

Air quality in big parts of northern and southern China reached unhealthy amounts on Tuesday. 

Below the new laws, Beijing, its neighbouring city of Tianjin and northern Hebei province will have to lower the sum of PM two.5 particles, which are specially bad for health, by 25% annually, state news company Xinhua said, citing the ministry of environmental protection. 

China’s industrial capital, Shanghai, the eastern provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and northern Shanxi will have to impose cuts of 20%. Reductions of 15% were set for Guangdong and Chongqing and 10% for the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Xinhua explained. 

The State Council, or cabinet, is mulling a system to evaluate each and every neighborhood government’s progress and individuals who fail to reach ambitions will be “named and shamed”, explained the China Every day newspaper. 

Air top quality in cities is of escalating concern to China’s stability-obsessed leaders, anxious to douse likely unrest as a a lot more affluent urban population turns towards a development-at-all-charges economic model that has poisoned a lot of the country’s air, water and soil. 

Authorities have invested in a variety of projects to fight pollution and empowered courts to mete out the death penalty in significant instances. 

But enforcement of rules has been patchy at the nearby level, exactly where authorities typically depend on taxes paid by polluting industries.

China sets air pollution goals

Bangladesh shipbuilder sets benchmark in overall health and safety standards | Ruth Evans

Bangladesh’s Western Marine Shipyards has witnessed a 99% reduction in accidents. Photograph: WMS

In a cavernous hangar, an imam recites a short prayer as employees gather round. When he has completed, managers sporting white overalls and hardhats mount the platform, pick up wooden mallets and strike an aluminium keel.

The noise ricochets close to Western Marine Shipyards, 1 of Bangladesh’s leading shipyards, as absolutely everyone applauds. The keel is the basis and spine of any ship, and this short keel-laying ceremony marks the begin of work on the shipyard’s most recent buy. Work also recommences on the 13 other ships, fishing trawlers and ferries in different stages of construction at the yard.

Shipbuilding is a development industry for the nation, bringing in considerably-essential foreign currency. Export earnings from ship development reached $ 46m in 2010-eleven and the government hopes the sector will contribute 4%-5 % of GDP by 2015 – and possibly develop 1m jobs.

3 years in the past, problems at this Chittagong shipyard had been extremely distinct, with one,000 injuries a month in a workforce of 3,500. Now, through reasonably basic measures, there has been a 99% reduction in accidents.

This has been attained by way of a public-private partnership among Western Marine and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to promote better well being and security in the workplace. A 3-yr partnership, portion of bilateral German advancement co-operation in collaboration with the ministry of wellness and loved ones welfare, was the first of its kind in Bangladesh utilizing personal sector infrastructure for the provision of public wellness providers.

A worker inspects a factory in Dhaka soon after a fire killed eight individuals final Might. Photograph: Andrew Biraj/Reuters

The aim was to make sure a match and healthy workforce, by way of better accessibility to wellness providers, and the business agreed to build a health clinic. The wellness ministry pays for a nurse, and the shipyard pays for a element-time physician – who also attends to the nearby community – and two paramedics, who are also obtainable to the regional community, in which numerous of the workers live.

Following a welder was electrocuted and died whilst functioning without having protective equipment, Western Marine set about analysing the hazards and hazards employees faced – such as eye injuries and harm to hearing from noise. A health and security policy was drawn up to tackle the higher accident charges, training was provided for managers and workers, and protective clothes and products have been distributed.

Rigid reporting procedures had been established, so that every single incident or accident was recorded and investigated, and preventive measures implemented. The shipyard also recruited a wellness and security adviser to monitor, record and deal with any important troubles. The influence of these measures was quick and dramatic.

Well being and safety is now embedded in the company’s practices. “The initial issue is that when you do any task you guarantee the security is assured for all the employees – that is the leading priority,” says Arifur Rahman Khan, the firm’s technical director, “Which is how we begin our day.” In the past 3 years there have been no fatal accidents.

As a result, the clinic can focus on typical health checks for employees, to determine perform-related problems. The underlying philosophy is that prevention is greater than cure . “If we look right after our people, we’ll get better perform from them,” says Abu Mohammed Fazle Rashid, the deputy managing director.

Kemal Hasan, a welder, says circumstances have improved enormously. Now, he constantly wears gloves, protective overalls and a face mask, which prevent a lot of the injuries that previously occurred. There are fewer stoppages due to accidents, he says, and morale has improved. Workers want to keep with the organization simply because conditions are greater than elsewhere.

Considering that the Rana Plaza garment factory collapsed in April, with the loss of a lot more than 1,100 lives and 2,500 employees injured, and fatalities in fires in other factories, international consumers are increasingly demanding better overall health and safety checks. There is also a developing recognition that health and security are not just a matter of worker’s rights, but also an essential improvement situation. One particular worker often supports a massive extended family members, so fatalities or injuries can be catastrophic for communities. A healthy and productive workforce is important for economic improvement, and employers have a vital role to play.

Bangladesh has come underneath intense worldwide strain to overhaul labour laws and working problems. Nevertheless, Dr Paul Rueckert, GIZ’s principal adviser for overall health in Bangladesh, believes as well much consideration has been targeted on reactive processes to deal with fire and development hazards alternatively of introducing a lot more extensive occupational health and safety programs. Impetus for change must come from the owners and managers of the sector, he says, not just be imposed by government inspectors, who are number of and can’t be all over the place at when.

Rueckert believes there has in no way been a stronger crucial for powerful occupational wellness and safety measures, and hopes the Marine Shipyards undertaking will turn into a model for other industries. The challenge will be to convince other employers in Bangladesh to stick to suit, and accept that workers’ health and safety should be a priority for each financial improvement and far better enterprise.

Bangladesh shipbuilder sets benchmark in overall health and safety standards | Ruth Evans