Lorraine Young - **HAS LEFT**

Said the following about Bill Cooke:

“I can’t think of anyone more deserving of recognition for championing safety than Bill. For many years he has enabled many safety improvements by personally up-skilling a huge cross section of the rail industry. He has successfully changed the behaviours of workers across a wide spectrum of roles, giving them the confidence to not only challenge unsafe acts but to use their own skills in educating and leading by example to improve safety. He is widely recognised and deeply respected by the whole industry for his work in personally training over 400 safety coaches in his own inimitable style using humour and live theatre.

Those who know Bill will attest to his passion for improving safety through behavioural change. He is the Deputy Chairman of the Track Safety Alliance (TSA). He has now embarked on a further campaign which is showing huge benefits, Close Call Champions. Bill has now personally trained over 250 volunteers from the boardroom to the four foot. Champions are from virtually every key supplier including colleagues from the trade unions. In his current role, Bill masterminded a recent audit by the British Safety Council and amazingly achieved the 5 Star excellence score in every application which is widely recognised in Britain as the very highest standard in Safety Management.

Bill is probably most proud of is his recent Prep4Safety campaign which focuses on the identification and removal of all hazards and scrap before any core works commence. This is a game changer in the track renewals world. Previously our contractors were required to safely work around existing hazards such as scrap rail, vegetation, damaged access steps etc. and yet we suffered numerous and all too familiar personal injuries because of these. Through Prep4Safety, it is agreed that if the asset owner cannot rectify or remove these hazards then we get the contractors to undertake this and make safe for themselves. All prior to the core renewal or the work is actually cancelled.

He also continues to share his belief that having safety conversations with staff is the future for a safer industry and freely gives his time delivering structured sessions on how best to conduct these.

Finally, the biggest compliment I can make is that you wouldn’t really know which company Bill works for if you didn’t know him, he simply represents the entire rail industry in working to get Everyone Home Safe Everyday

Recent feedback from a supply chain colleague below testifies that he is a well-deserved recipient of industry recognition:

"Bill has been instrumental on helping us to improve our safety culture and behaviours in our business and has delivered safety champions and safety conversations training to our staff. The feedback from everybody that attended has been extremely positive and he has changed mind-sets, attitudes and behaviours as well as improving our safety performance. Bill would be much deserved winner of this accolade".“