-
ICS offers guidance on how to implement an effective ‘safety culture’
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has this week published new guidance for shipowners on how shipping companies and their crews can help to impose an effective ‘safety culture’.
Distributed to the industry free of charge, the new ICS guidelines were launched in London yesterday at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Symposium on the Future of Ship Safety.
An ICS brochure handed out to delegates at the conference highlighted three essential components in developing a safety culture; commitment from the top, measuring performance, and then modifying behaviour. The brochure also stresses the importance of accident and ‘near miss’ reporting, and the establishment of a ‘just culture’ approach whereby shipping company personnel are encouraged to provide essential safety related information whenever something might have gone wrong, but without fear of punishment.
“Our brochure is intended to provide some basic advice to companies on the successful implementation of an effective safety culture,” commented ICS secretary general, Peter Hinchliffe.
“This covers the vital need for all concerned, at sea and ashore, to understand the relationship between unsafe acts and serious incidents that may result with loss of life.”
“In particular our brochure emphasises the need to change behaviour and to avoid negative attitudes and complacency.”
The new ICS brochure is available via ICS member national shipowners’ associations, but can also be downloaded free of charge from the homepage of the ICS website or via http://www.ics-shipping.org/SafetyCulture.pdf.
