20 Years in Health and Safety
Posted on January 27, 2016
With over 20 years in health and safety Steve Wallace can safely say he isn’t missed on the tools and still enjoys the comforts of home.
What did you do before getting into Health and Safety?
I am a joiner by trade. I served my apprenticeship in the maintenance department at Glaxo Pharmaceuticals in Liverpool. When that came to an end I could not get work in Liverpool with similar pay so I went to London. I worked in hotels carrying out maintenance. This led me on to supervising people. I was courting Ann, who has now been my wife for over twenty six years and at the time she would not move to London. So after a long distance relationship, which has some benefits, she found me work back in Liverpool. I worked in a woodworking machine shop as the shop manager. Lots of noise, dust and sharp things to cut fingers off. I did not like this so went working on site. It was about this time that I realised that I was not very good on the tools. I also had applied for and been granted a tax certificate which allowed me to be paid gross and so liable for my own tax. This meant that it was easy for me to employ people who were much more skilled and I could organise the work. I grew, unintentionally, into a reasonable sized building contractor. The worries about cash flow, getting work and the relationships with different people were a bit too much for me so I went into site management. This was easier as ultimately the money belonged to other people! I worked in most parts of the country undertaking shop fitting projects.
Why did you get in to Health and Safety?
The travelling and staying away from home is a great life style for a single man! Almost everyone I worked with was divorced. I wanted a 9 to 5 job which allowed me to get home every night. I could not go back on the tools and I felt like I had been a site manager for long enough. We could afford a reduction in income. I wanted to have a job that was challenging and worthwhile. As a site manager I had helped a few small contractors to get onto approved contractors list. A lot of the evidence to get this status related to health and safety and so it seemed a natural step.
Where does the name Courtley come from?
It is made up! I needed a company pretty sharpish. I had secured a couple of clients, both of which continue to retain our services, although they have both had significant changes in leadership over the past twenty years. I needed a bank account and as the company would be Business to Business it seemed right to be VAT registered. In 1995, there were Company Shops where you could buy a company off the shelf. This was much quicker than dealing with Companies House. This was in the days before a properly functioning internet! They presented you with a list of readymade companies. I seem to remember it was either Courtley or Azerbaijan Carpets Ltd! I bought the company, opened an account and registered for VAT in one afternoon.
What have been the biggest changes since 1995 in how Courtley get business?
When I first started it was normal to meet in pubs and do business over a pint! It is not thought professional now, so while we still very much deal with people, we must be branded and accredited appropriately. I quite liked the casual nature of the deals as it felt like we were friends. Now we are friendly.
People often critiisize ‘Elf and Safety’, what do you say to them?
It is easy to knock, especially when some people let the practical, common sense approach go. I believe Health and Safety should push boundaries and encourage workers and industry to change for the better. We might disagree what the better option is but as long as we seek to improve, I feel we are going in the right direction. Some of these challenges can be thought of as safety gone mad but more often than not it has gone mad because someone has just had a bad idea! Also, many people have an overtly adverse reaction to risk. This leads them to doing outlandish things to control insignificant hazards. I used to give delegates lottery tickets as part of training sessions. I took the risk of ‘giving away millions of pounds. In reality the risk is miniscule but still many of the learners thought they had an increased chance of winning because they had been given the ticket.
What do you hope to see in the next twenty years with Health and Safety?
I feel that we are great at safety. Very few people are killed or seriously hurt as a consequence of their work. We really need to look at health now. As an aging population we should be enjoying our dotage. If we can start to address health issues such as breathing difficulties why not look to the taboo issue of mental health. This is really the big killer of young men in our society. Lets challenge life styles and behaviours. There is a lot for us to do and we must keep people on board by implementing good changes and getting real improvement. I am looking forward to the challenge and I hope you are.