Health and safety at Museum of London
The Museum of London’s mission is to inspire a passion for London by communicating London’s history, archaeology and contemporary cultures to a wider world. Its main site in the City has four permanent galleries, where visitors can explore the story of London from prehistoric times until the early Stuart period. It also houses a wide range of special exhibitions, guided tours, drama and storytelling sessions guaranteed to bring history to life..
The Museum Facilities Manager Nick La Hive understands the importance of a proactive health and safety programme to both the enjoyment of visitors and the productivity and morale of staff and volunteers. System Concepts, an independent health and safety consultancy, was appointed by the Museum of London (MoL) to conduct health and safety audits across its main site and two smaller sites, the Docklands Museum and the Archaeological Research Centre. Their report identified several areas in which improvements could be made, particularly in the development of management systems, risk assessments and staff training.
Given difficulties in recruiting staff of the right calibre and impressed with System Concepts’ grasp of the business, the MoL asked System Concepts to provide an interim health and safety manager to help them implement the recommendations. Luke Bonnor, a consultant with System Concepts, now spends 3 days a week on site at the MoL developing and documenting their procedures and policies and performing risk assessments, while other consultants are running training courses on site.
Luke explains “One of the most valuable things about this role is being able to stand back from day to day issues and make sure that the important strategic and policy work is carried out so that the MoL gets the maximum benefit from our work.”
The many special exhibitions, which often include old, large, heavy, awkwardly shaped or valuable items, means that manual handling training has been particularly important. System Concepts has run manual handling courses to help technicians safely move anything from a printing press to Roman marble statues. All the participants found the course extremely valuable, as one of them remarked “This training is needed for people working in all departments, everyone does manual lifting whether they think about it or not”. One of his colleagues added “Karine, our trainer, was very knowledgeable about the subject and good at answering all questions raised. She also addressed the practical side of applying practices to everyday situations.”
Nick La Hive comments “ We have been very pleased with the way Luke and the System Concepts team have picked up the project and run with it, kept us informed about progress and concentrated on the high priority areas which will have the most impact on the health, safety, productivity and morale of our staff and visitors”.