Using risk topic toolkits to develop safety management maturity
Although RSSB produces many tools and services for members, there is no mechanism for determining their effectiveness. There was also sometimes a gap in understanding between industry’s view of the Rail Health and Safety Strategy and what it needs in reality.
The ORR’s Risk Maturity Tool (‘RM3’) measures an organisation’s maturity in managing risk, using toolkits. RM3 can help rail companies measure their effectiveness too. Aligning tools and services delivered as part of the Rail Health and Safety Strategy with RM3 using toolkits will help rail companies. This includes expected behavioural change for each tool or service. Rail companies will also be helped if the business case for each new product states the RM3 expectation.
RSSB recognised that the RM3 toolkits work best when they are paired with a strategy that delivers change. The strategy delivers continuous improvement. The toolkits measure the improvement.
Members of the Public Safety Portfolio team helped align the RM3 PTI toolkit to the relevant part of the Rail Health and Safety Strategy.
Three train operating companies (TOCs) expressed interest in this pilot project. It helped the TOCs test the use of the toolkits. This included workshops with each, to help them to understand the toolkit and to provide advice and guidance.
Industry can now see how to use the RM3 toolkits to help them manage their capabilities when implementing the Rail Health and Safety Strategy.
RSSB showed a sample of industry stakeholders how to align a RM3 toolkit with their needs for the Rail Health and Safety Strategy. The whole industry can use this example to improve their understanding of how we can support them.
The workshops showed that there is also an appetite within industry for this approach to be applied in other areas, such as operational risks.
Further tools and services that should be used in this area can now be identified. This helps the risk groups prioritise future work.