The National Access & Scaffolding Confederation (NASC) hosted a breakfast event in a bid to share what the NASC is doing to further improve working practices across the scaffolding industry.
The Future of Safe Scaffolding event was held at the UK Chamber of Shipping in London last week. Attendees to the event included Health and safety personnel, procurement representatives from major house builders and local authorities. They heard how the NASC aims to streamline their procurement process and create a safer and more effective and accountable supply chain. Furthermore, the confederation also discussed the advantages involved in only using scaffolding contractor members.
The NASC also expressed how keenly they were to actively collaborate with principal contractors and the wider construction industry much more closely in the future – with a view to further increase standards both in scaffolding and construction in general.
Expert speakers at the event included Des Moore, TRAD Group CEO and NASC President, Bob Whincap, former Chair of the Access and Scaffolding Industry Training Organisation, and Lee Roswell, GKR Scaffolding Group Director and NASC Chairman for London and South East Region.
Attendees at the breakfast event also heard from motivational safety speaker Dylan Skelhorn. Dylan suffered a serious accident a few years ago while working for a now-defunct company who took safety very lightly. He spoke from experience about how the accident affected himself, his family and work colleagues, and of his daily struggles after being forced to work unsafely.
Speaking after the event Des Moore, CEO of the TRAD Group and NASC President, said: “This event gave us the opportunity to talk directly with procurement and health and safety professionals from a wide range of principal contractors.
“It was fantastic to be able to share what the NASC is doing to further improve working practices across the scaffolding industry with delegates and also learn what challenges they face.
“It was clear from the feedback during the Q&A session there is a lot of common ground between principal contractors and the NASC and its members and a strong will to collaborate more closely in the future.
“We look forward to further discussions exploring how the value of the services provided by our members might help these contractors achieve their goals in a safe, and efficient manner.”