1. Safe at heart: HS2 Together
Time: 3-5 mins
Purpose: To explain why we’re having these conversations across the business
Explain:
First ever health and safety conference with the supply chain taking place at Millennium Point – will become annual event.
Why now? Construction works about to begin – the right time to generate a common sense of purpose. Also, safety the first values focus as we launch our Values Handbook
Fantastic opportunity to explore some of the key health and safety challenges we face and bottom out a common understanding of what ‘Safe at heart’ really means/requires of us:
- Safety one of our core values
- We want to create a railway built to the highest health and safety standards
- This means caring about our workforce, neighbours and public so everyone goes home safe and well every day
Delegates will be looking at our priorities through the lens of three themes: HS2 Together; Getting the basics right and Health, Safety and Performance hand in hand.
Finish: And of course it all starts with Getting the basics right….. (click)
Safe at heart: HS2 Together
Safety conversation

2. Exploring the themes HS2 Together Getting the basics right
Health & Safety go hand in hand with performance
Time: 18 mins
Purpose: To start to generate discussion around each of the themes and begin to unpick some of the things your teams might do to contribute to a safe, healthy, high performing working environment.
Introduction: Our supply chain leaders will be taking an in-depth look at our health and safety priorities over the coming year or so through the lens of three themes.
HS2 Together: We are one project made up of many teams. To create a high performing team of teams we must have two elements in place; a common purpose and trust in one another.
Ask: What is our common purpose? What does this mean for health and safety? What challenges might we face? Let teams answer this and capture some of the answers
Ask: Why is trust so important? How do we build trust? Who does our team need to build trust with? Let the teams answer this and capture some of the answers
Getting the Basics Right: Every day, every time, wherever we work – this is how safety becomes second nature. It’s the small things that count. If we get those right we’ll be in a good place to focus on the bigger challenges.
Ask: Why is this important? What are the basics we, as a team, need to get right? What difference will it make on a larger scale? Let the teams answer this and capture some of the answers
Ask: How would you feel if you saw a colleague behaving unsafely? What action would you take and why? How difficult would you find it? How do you think it would help HS2? How do we support each other to get the basics right? Let the teams answer this and capture some of the answers
Health, safety and performance go hand in hand: When we care about people’s health and wellbeing we create a safer working environment, which supports good decision making and drives better performance.
Ask: How do you think poor physical or mental health might affect your performance? What actions can we take to look after our health? What action would you take if you were worried about a colleague’s health?
Ask: How can we support the mental wellbeing of ourselves and our colleagues? Why do many people find it so difficult to talk about mental health issues? Let the teams answer this and capture some of the answers
Reflection: It doesn’t matter where we work – in an office or on a construction site – if we work together, support one another, focus on getting the small things right and genuinely care about our colleagues we’ll be well on the way to creating a healthier safer environment for everyone.
Finish: Thank you for taking part in an interesting discussion. Although interesting is good, we also want this to be useful…. (click)

3. Exploring the themes Health & Safety innovation
Looking after our mental wellbeing
Learning
and improving
Time: 9 mins
Purpose: To look at the actions that will be taken as a result of the conference.
Explain: Talking about all of these things – at the conference and here in our offices – is great, but it’s only a starting point. It only means something if it translates into action
This is an opportunity for all of us to pull together, with renewed motivation, and a willingness to take on the challenges we are about to face.
Some of the actions that will be coming out of the conference are:
Taking the very best of innovative health and safety thinking and ideas forward into practice
Recognising the importance of mental wellbeing to a safe working environment and putting plans in place to support our people
Giving everyone access to resources to promote and share the most cutting edge health and safety practice
Sharing the key outcomes and highlights from the conference across HS2 and the supply chain
So let’s think about what actions we can take as individuals and as a team, to achieve our goal to get everyone home safe and well every day.
Ask: What could you do within your own job to make it healthier or safer?
Ask: What could you do to improve morale within the team?
Ask: What don’t you know enough about, that you would benefit from?
Ask: What burning health and safety question would you like to ask Emma Head?
Finish: We can build on what we have learned from the conference and from our teams today and we we’ll continue to learn, because there is nothing more important than the people involved in, or impacted by our work… (click)

4. Summary Our inaugural Safe at heart conference Common themes underpin
our success
Creating a legacy we can be
proud of
Time: 3 mins
Purpose: To celebrate the conference, teams and their discussion – and their future successes
1st Annual HS2 Together:
We’ll be sharing the key messages and highlights from the conference across HS2 and the supply chain through a toolkit of resources at the end of October.
Common themes underpin our success:
Wherever we work and whatever we do, we can only achieve our health and safety goal if we share a common purpose and work together.
If everyone makes sure the three themes we’ve talked about drive their approach to health and safety we’ll truly be working as a high performing team of teams.
What really stood out for me today was… (focus on a few highlights/interesting observations)
Creating a Legacy:
Sharing best practice, inspiring innovation and applying lessons learned will take us to an exemplar class project
Health, safety and wellbeing needs to be part of our everyday practice, so that we can all go home safe and healthy.
It’s only be getting things right in the here and now that we’ll create a legacy we can all be proud of
Finish: Different themes will resonate more or less with different people, but to create a culture of caring we must all be willing contribute! Thank you for your contribution today and let’s keep the conversation going.