John Reynolds, managing director of Reynolds Training Services, recently sat down with Andy Comfort of BBC Radio Humberside to thrash out all things health and safety.
Speaking from Reynolds Training Services’ headquarters at the industrial training facility CATCH, in Stallingborough, John covers an array of hot topics including regulatory changes and process safety.
Listen to the interview
Health and safety interview: full transcript
Reynolds Training Services John: CATCH offers us a lot of scope in terms of clients such as BP, The Oil and Pipelines Agency and The University of Hull. They spend a lot of time at this facility with us utilising the storage tanks and process units that are here.
BBC Andy: So you have some big clients there – the likes of BP and The University of Hull?
Reynolds Training Services John: Let’s take The University of Hull. They came here partly because of the experience we have at Reynolds Training Services but also because of the facilities we can offer at CATCH. Hull’s second year engineering students, for instance, benefit from the real hands-on experience they get within the site itself.
BBC Andy: So you deal with the high hazard sector – what is that?
Reynolds Training Services John: This is a sector which is typically regulated under what is known as COMAH regulations. It is sites that have specific major accident hazards, not only just to the people working on the sites, but also from an off-site perspective.
We deliver training to them around process safety, occupational safety, as well as bringing in our NEBOSH and IOSH courses to support their own internal training.
BBC Andy: So you have to keep up with legislation because it’s changed a lot over the years?
Reynolds Training Services John: Yes. So take the COMAH regulations, for instance. They changed two years ago following a major change in European regulations which triggered a change in the UK regulations themselves. That went through a whole host of consultation with industry and Reynolds Training Services is now delivering training around those specific regulations
BBC Andy: People driving down the A180 see the big chemical works and factories and think, I hope they are safe. But it sounds like they are all based on safety?
Reynolds Training Services John: It is all based on safety. Their core objective is the prevention of major accidents with a view that, if an error does occur, they have controls in place to mitigate the fall out effectively and efficiently. The sites that we work with demonstrate that all the time we’re pushing that training through.
BBC Andy: Do clients like BP ask for particular types of training, do you have to tailor them at all?
Reynolds Training Services John: Yes, we tailor courses to suit clients’ particular environments. So, for the likes of BP, we can deliver that onsite for them but equally we can bring their delegates here and utilise the facilities at CATCH, tailoring it to their specific needs.
So we run a course at CATCH around bulk liquid operations, we are tailoring that for a client and then we’re tailoring it for another client in a slightly different way but delivering similar objectives.
BBC Andy: What does the future hold for your company?
Reynolds Training Services John: The future holds growth for us. We’ll continue looking at the high hazard sector itself but also at the service industries that support that sector and, in doing so, utilising CATCH as our backdrop within that delivery process.
