CIF Establishes Online Health & Safety Information Platform

How many times have we heard, or even stated, the following: “Let that be a lesson to you!”

We all need to learn from past mistakes to prevent a repeat event or undesirable consequence. Accidents and near misses are preventable, but only if we first understand how and why they happen and take corrective actions.

It is for this reason that the CIF has developed a portal for the sharing of both lessons learned and best practices in health and safety in construction, which may be accessed at by clicking here.

Routine inspections and incident investigations may identify unsafe working practices, which can facilitate learning from operational experience (ie, lessons learned). The importance of sharing lessons learned across the wider construction industry would be that there may be fewer accidents, enhanced morale and increased productivity.

Upon receipt, the CIF will share a safety alert, or lesson learned and interested parties may sign-up for alerts of new materials.

There are two options for sharing lessons learned or best practice case examples: Complete an online form at www.cif.ie/ submit-lessons-learned, or request a Microsoft Word template by emailing John Egan at je[email protected], and returning the completed template by email.

Lessons learned/best practices should draw on both negative experiences and positive outcomes. For example, good ideas that improved health, on-site safety and welfare, and work tasks that would be done differently, if repeated.

Material uploaded onto the CIF webpage will not be used to document a fatality or an event under investigation by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) or other regulatory bodies. The CIF Safety and Training Department will also review all submitted material to confirm that no content is uploaded that could conflict with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), cause damage to a company’s reputation, or create liability for a claim.

Building upon the philosophy of shared knowledge, the CIF has also launched a LinkedIn discussion group entitled ‘Lessons Learned in Health & Safety in Construction’. You can request membership to this group by following this link – https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8764567/

To learn more or get involved in either of these initiatives, email John Egan, Executive, Safety & Training, CIF, at [email protected]