I don’t often discuss my work here, but today I’ll make an exception; partly because of the absurdity that I observed. This story is not unique, much as I would like to claim that it is.
One of my roles as an auditor is to observe assessors and trainers in action. This is to ensure that they maintain the standards laid down by Network Rail and that the candidate gets value for money. The job today was an assessment of a COSS (controller of site safety). The COSS is the person responsible for setting up the safe system of work for the track-workers under his control. The COSS may or may not be taking part in the actual work – it is the setting up of the safe system that they are responsible for. That is; ensuring that trains and people remain separate. Okay, so far, so good. The requirements are that these people undergo regular assessment to ensure that they remain competent and I audit the process to make sure that everything is ticketty-boo; that is, that the assessor is working to the standards. Given that track workers are still being killed, a robust safe system of work that protects them is necessary.
Good, that’s the scene set.
These people had to access the line to set up temporary lighting for a job this weekend. The work they had to do was planned and published and on arrival at site the arrangements were discussed and my assessor set about observing his candidate in action. Unfortunately, the signaller was not able to grant a block of the line at the time requested. Quite why, was not immediately obvious as there were trains running roughly half hourly, so if the hand-signaller was in place, it would have been a few minutes to take the block and give it back when the next train was about. Well, you would think so. However, in the time it took to phone backwards and forwards, work through reams of paperwork and then decide where the hand-signaller was to be placed, several trains and the best part of two hours had passed. Given that this gang is back at work tonight, they had to be away from site by midday at the latest, so things were not going exactly to plan. We had arrived on site at 08:30. The COSS got his block at 10:40 for half an hour. This was just enough time to walk along the line for about thirty yards and drop the lights in position. There was no time to set them up before the gang had to walk back to the access point and give up the block.
From the assessor’s point of view, he saw what he needed to see; the COSS set up and withdrew a safe system of work. I saw what I needed to see; the assessor planned and completed a competent assessment on the COSS. There was just one thing missing…
…there was no actual work carried out…