NZISM & INSHPO Announcement 8 April 2006

   

 

NZISM National Announcement

For and on behalf of the National Executive Team;

Prepared by; Paul Jarvie, National Manager & Neville Rockhouse, National Operations Manager

Press Release date; 10th April 2006

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Dear Members and interested parties,

It gives us great pleasure to announce, on behalf of your National Executive team, that as part of NZISM’s ongoing commitment toward further professional development and our professional standards framework, we have recently joined INSHPO (International Network of Safety and Health Practitioner Organisations).

Background:

This event is the combination of many months of work by your National Executive team and signifies the dawning of a new area in the Occupational Health & Safety Industry in New Zealand.

Many of you will be aware that back in August 2005 and after exhaustive consultation with branch membership across New Zealand, the National Executive team came together for a strategic planning weekend. The theme of this meeting was, “Where to from here”.

From this came the institute’s strategic plan for the next five years, aided with our vision of becoming, “The leading group for occupational health and safety practitioners in New Zealand”.

As a consequence of this meeting, a series of national objectives were formulated and action plans to underpin these developed.

These objectives included addressing the need to widen our network by exploring the possible contact with other groups internationally, with a view to identify potential synergies.

Another significant objective related to adding value to our members association with NZISM, by the further enhancement of our professional standards framework. This will begin the process of bringing New Zealand in line with other like minded international professional organisations. This global network and ongoing international interaction allows our members access to the most up-to-date global practices in the area of occupational health and safety.

It was decided also that further consideration needed to be given to maintaining and promoting competency in health and safety practice by creating a career path for those new to the industry to follow.

Moving forward, it was felt that this continued focus on competency would also enhance levels of both professionalism and ethical behaviour amongst our existing membership while setting a new standard to benchmark against, for new people moving into the industry of OH&S.

Additionally, another front that needed attention was a series of objectives around bringing the industry in New Zealand together. Currently, in this country, the OH&S industry is fragmented with each group fearlessly guarding their autonomy. This is yet another first for NZISM by being the frontrunner for the establishment of a group of elected individuals from all sectors of our industry to represent us all at a Governmental level.

For this reason, OHSIG (Occupational Health & Safety Industry Group) has been formed. All stakeholders in the Occupational Health & Safety Industry will have the opportunity to participate and to elect a representative to serve at this level. This will be the lobby group that will deal with issues such as implementing the New Zealand Governments WHSS (Workplace Health & Safety Strategy that runs out to 2015).

Mr Paul Jarvie the current National Manager of NZISM has been endorsed by the National executive team to a two year tenure on the OHSIG Board of Directors.

The second of this two prong attack toward the establishment of fair and reasonable industry standards was to closely examine what is occurring overseas so that our professional members will have their skill-sets, experience and qualifications recognised at an international level.

To this end, NZISM has joined INSHPO.

INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF SAFETY AND HEALTH PRACTITIONER ORGANISATIONS:

INSHPO was founded in 2001 and the first Board of Directors were appointed by its member organisations in April 2004. Executive Council Officers were then elected in July 2004.

For some time it had been recognised that, in the pantheon of occupational safety & health and related disciplines, international associations at global level represented a number of professional groups, such as occupational hygienists, occupational health specialists and ergonomists, however, there was no established international organisation representing the views and interests of generalist health & safety practitioners. Many countries have their own professional bodies but there has not been a means to bring their collective voice to the fore in dealing with other institutions or international authorities. Furthermore, there were only limited networks in certain geographical spheres for the sharing of standards, good practice and enhancement of the profession.

Occupational health and safety issues and concerns are not limited by national borders. World-wide distribution of products and provision of services, migration of workers and the conduct of international corporate activities, lead to the reality that almost all occupational health and safety issues that generalist health and safety professionals face, are international in scope.

In this climate, however, practising generalists often lack the facility to influence policy makers on a global scale, and establish international contacts and networks necessary to operate most effectively, and in a mutually supportive way. To address this deficit, in the global community of health and safety related disciplines, the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health in the United Kingdom (IOSH), the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering (CSSE) and the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) initiated discussions in 2001 on the concept of creating an organisation that provides an international network for generalist practitioners in occupational health and safety.

Since then, the Safety Institute of Australia (SIA), and the Mauritius based Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Management, (IOSHM) who represent another 150 organisations have also joined. The Industrial Foundation for Accident Prevention (IFAP) who lead the Western Australian OH&S community, have also joined along with the New Zealand Institute of Safety Management (NZISM) within the last month.

Mr Neville Rockhouse has been endorsed by the National Executive of NZISM to be the first New Zealand representative who will sit on the INSHPO Board of Directors. This tenure will be for an initial period of two years. It has also been decided by the National Executive team that this appointment to the INSHPO Board of Directors will a shared role between the two most senior positions in NZISM, that being the elected roles of National Manager and that of National Operations Manager. So far the above named organisations have been very supportive of NZISM, especially in the areas of sharing information on professional development through the adoption of the professional standards framework.

The writer will be presenting a draft paper back to the National Executive in due course and after that a referendum is planned to gain a current mandate from our members to continue down this pathway. A slide show of a presentation, delivered to NZISM members at a Breakfast meeting in the Canterbury region, has also been posted for your information.

Please feel free to contact either of us at any time if you have further input into the shaping of the professional standards framework. Our thanks go to the host of people who have participated thus far.

 

Warm Regards

Paul Jarvie,

NZISM National Manager

Neville Rockhouse,

NZISM National Operations Manager