A year of impact: British Safety Council publishes a review of past year’s achievements

‘No one should be made ill through work’ is the British Safety Council’s mission statement, and the overarching message from 2024, is that this mission, vision and purpose were put into practice having positive impact at home and around the world

Writing in the report’s foreword, Chief Executive Mike Robinson said: “In many respects, 2024 was a year of firsts for British Safety Council. We launched our first ever charitable initiative in India through the Work Fair and Free Foundation, providing free training to its trainers, who in turn support migrant and vulnerable workers with health and safety training and advice.

"Also in India, we ran two conferences in one year, one in Mumbai and one in Delhi, with good client support for both. In the UK, we launched our first ever podcast Health and Safety Uncut. The podcast was hosted by Dr. Shaun Davis of Belron (also one of our chief adjudicators for our British Safety Council awards).”

Infographic summarising key points in British Safety Council's 2024 impact report

A summary of key highlights:

• Keep Thriving, our wellbeing campaign: This campaign empowered SMEs to move from wellbeing inaction to wellbeing in action. Through face-to-face workshops held across the UK, we helped 43 SMEs to improve wellbeing in their workforce by learning how to write a wellbeing strategy.
  
  
• Wellbeing funding: Keep Thriving funding turned guidance into action, especially for organisations without dedicated HR or wellbeing leads. £50,000 in grants awarded to five small organisations to fund wellbeing initiatives as part of a wellbeing strategy. A further £20,000 was awarded to two new SMEs.
  
  
• Policy work bringing impact to life: Published a 7-point Health, Safety and Wellbeing Manifesto ahead of the UK General Election, with letters sent to all major political party leaders. Key asks focused on regulation, wellbeing, skills, tech and leadership. In response, we received a letter of support from the UK Minister responsible for occupational health and safety. In 2024, we also advocated for changes on silicosis, AI in safety, working at height and truck driver welfare.
  
  
• Research and Thought Leadership: Published White Paper: Being Well in a Changing World (with Institute of Occupational Medicine): Based on surveys and interviews, it revealed that there is no unified definition or measurement standard for wellbeing and that organisations’ main challenges are time, resources, a dispersed workforce. We also commissioned a YouGov survey of employers and employees on the impact of new technologies on workplace safety and followed this up with a roundtable discussion looking at the future of work. The British Safety Council also co-produced a white paper on mental health at work with the OSH Stakeholder Alliance.
  
  
• Global Training and Education: We put impact into action across borders – delivering free training, support, and opportunity to protect the lives of the world’s most vulnerable workers. We launched our first-ever charitable initiative in India in partnership with Work Fair and Free Foundation, funding 28 community-based trainers to deliver OSH awareness training to more than 1,200 migrant and informal sector workers in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Karnataka. Through our wider training provision, we trained over 12,000 people across 95 countries.

• Awards and Recognition: Our awards spotlight impact in action—recognising those who don’t just meet standards but set them through meaningful change. In 2024, 1,148 organisations from over 50 countries won International Safety Awards, 278 of which were awarded Distinctions. It was the biggest year for ISA awards to date.

• Media and Outreach: From podcasts to practical guides, our digital content puts expert insight into the hands of those driving real-world impact. In 2024, there were 3,718 media articles written about us and our work. At Safety Management, our flagship membership title, we continued to bring our members and readers the inside track on health, safety and wellbeing. Contributors included Life Peer and former co-leader of the Green Party UK, Baroness Bennett, and we celebrated half a century of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 by speaking to key people working in health and safety – from membership organisation heads to practitioners and trade union activists – about what it has achieved. In 2024, we launched our first ever podcast, Health and Safety Uncut.
  
  
• Mates in Mind: In 2024, we turned mental health awareness into action by funding initiatives, training leaders, and building strategies that deliver long-term impact for working people. Last year, Mates in Mind expanded mental health support in construction through a new contract with CITB to fund Supporter Lite for 100 SMEs and micro businesses.
  
  
• In agriculture, Mates in Mind joined forces with The Crown Estate to launch the AgriWellbeingAlliance and alongside Make a Difference (MAD) Mates in Mind launched the first Make A Difference Construction Mental Health Summit, as part of their work around World Mental Health Day.

Read the full report here