External Health & Safety and Risk Management Inspections July 2008

We were inspected twice in July 2008 by different external agencies, AXA our insurance company and the HSE.

AXA Insurance visited Knowsley Heights and the Joinery Manufacturing Shop in Longridge and performed a series of Risk Control Surveys. The Risk Management Surveyor confirmed that there were no requirements or recommendations arising and thanked Herbert T Forrest Ltd for keeping the risk management up to the required standards and for the hospitality shown during the visit.

The HSE visited the Knowsley Heights refurbishment scheme, without prior warning. The HSE inspector was very pleased with Health & Safety on the project and commented that the site was well managed and there were no recommendations to make.

I think it only right to publicise the findings of these inspections and praise all those involved in maintaining these high standards of Risk Management and Health & Safety.

(no brown envelopes stuffed with cash changed hands!)

Neil Carroll

Trade associations

To support our strategy of developing elemental works packages we have been pursuing accreditation to a number of trade bodies.

We are pleased to inform you that we have been accepted as full members of both the National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC) and the Painting and Decorating Association (PDA).

We have undertaken significant work volumes in each of these work streams and we felt that it was appropriate to formalise our position as professionals in these areas through full membership. Both associations have been rigorous in their assessment and the process has included site visits and references from completed projects

The Calendar Simpsons

Andrew Simpson on the front Cover

We have all heard of Bart and Homer and indeed the Calendar Girls but Longridge Cricket Club have gone one better and merged the two Hollywood films into their 2007 Calendar featuring none other than three of our Longridge born employees, the three Simpson Brothers.

Wearing nothing more than cricket gear Ian, Andrew, and John all feature on the calendar although we are sure there must have been some needling when Andrew appeared on the front cover! The calendar will raise much needed funds for their new pitch. As main sponsors we want to promote the calendar, copies are available for £10 from the brothers. By the way, congratulations to Ian for achieving his B.Sc (Hons) in Building Surveying – we know he sacrificed his sport this year to achieve his goal, well done.

Football Fever

With the start of the new season upon us we donated fifty footballs to schools within our partnership areas. All the schools thanked us for the equipment.

Minibus gift helps club stay mobile - LEP 2006

Tim Forrest handing over the keys to Colin Makinson, with Councillor Sharon Riley looking on

A Callon Kids Community Club (CKCC) in Preston is celebrating after we donated a minibus to the club. We heard about the club after reading about the achievements of local community warden Colin Makinson. Colin was named Lancashire’s Community Hero at last years Red Rose awards and has been instrumental in seeing the estate transformed from one of the worst estates in Lancashire to a place with a year long waiting list for homes.

The CKCC has more than 130 members and provides children aged over seven with activities including football, fishing, rock climbing and arts and crafts. The minibus which has been decked out with the CKCC and HT Forrest logos will be used to take youngsters to tournaments and trips out.

Colin said “Sporting events take us far and wide and we either have to dip into club funds to hire vehicles or rely on volunteers to take the children. Thanks to Forrest’s generosity we will now find life much easier, we will no doubt save a lot of money and we will be able to plan activities in advance because we will not have to rely on others, everyone is truly delighted.”

Tim Forrest said “We are pleased that we have been able to support a club which gives so much to local children, due to the nature of our work we need to work closely with local communities and this donation strengthens the bond and encourages positive initiatives that support local communities.”

Suggestion scheme

In August we introduced a ‘suggestions box scheme’. This scheme enables us to capture good and innovative ideas that we can then roll out throughout the company. To date we have received a number of suggestions that have been adopted and others are currently being written into our procedures.

The main aim of the initiative is to make us more competitive, to improve our service, end product and to give our employees an opportunity to influence how the company operates. Between us, if we can identify areas in which we are wasteful or in which we duplicate things and then we change our approach, we will not only achieve our objectives but also stay ahead of our competitors.

We pay £50 for each idea used and there is an additional prize for the best idea of the year. Keep the ideas coming in; send them to Andrew Falconer at Beech House either by email, fax or post.

Twenty five service years

that's nothing compared to his Mum and Dad

Steve strutting his stuff at the Xmas party 1987

Congratulations to Steve Laker on achieving his 25 year milestone with the company this year. Steve started as an apprentice joiner back in 1981 following in his father’s footsteps. He progressed to Site Agent and more recently has taken the role of Dilapidations Surveyor. His trade knowledge contributes immensely to producing working drawings for kitchen layouts and his input has been invaluable in assisting clients to achieve the most appropriate layouts. Steve’s dad and mum, Bert and Audrey were invaluable members of the Forrest team until the 1990’s when they retired with a combined service period of 80 years, a record that surely will never be beaten. Bert might argue that we haven’t let him retire as he still shows the pupils of local schools around the joinery workshop at Longridge every year. Well done Steve, only another 55 years to go to match your ma and pa!!

Head Office moves to Beech House

After 51 years of residing at 27 Inglewhite Rd we finally moved our head office to Beech House at the Oaks Business Park, Ribbleton, Preston. Over the past two years there had been various plans to move the offices to the new TDG yard but after much debating it was decided to rent two floors at Beech House.

The move took place on Monday 31st July and everything went according to plan. Compared to the cramped conditions at Inglewhite Rd the new air conditioned offices represent a massive leap forward and we are sure the quality of accommodation and its location just off the motorway will help us recruit staff in our aim of continued controlled expansion

SMART Project

The past five years have seen tremendous growth within our organisation. As we grew we realised that initiatives and schemes were not being closed off and that on occasion it was unclear as to who had responsibility for leading the various initiatives. Having identified this, it was decided that we would introduce a simple model that would provide a framework that all could adopt, this was rolled out in July.

This model was SMART:

S Specific
M Measurable
A Agreed upon
R Realistic
T Time-based

When you next run a project take a moment to consider whether your goals are SMART goals:

SMART Goals
Specific
Well defined.
> Clear to anyone that has a basic knowledge of the project.
Measurable
> Know if the goal is obtainable and how far away completion is.
>Know when it has been achieved.
Agreed Upon
> Agreement with all the stakeholders what the goals should be.
Realistic
> Within the availability of resources, knowledge and time.
Time Based
> Enough time to achieve the goal.
> Not too much time, which can affect project performance.

We have identified five ‘Champions’ to head up a number of SMART teams each. The specific aim of a SMART team is to resolve a business need; for example: the objective of the first SMART project which was led by Andrew Falconer, was to review the relevance of existing KPIs and advise on how to communicate the results throughout the
company. This resulted in the introduction of the ‘Partnership of the Month Award’. SMART teams consist of all different levels of people from across the company.

Go Karting

Herbert T Forrest entered a team into a go-karting event, organised by Baas Construction to help raise money for Brecon Close children's playground.

Racing down the track

The event was held at Three Sisters race circuit in Wigan. Teams of 6 had to complete a 2-hour endurance race completing 20 laps each.

Once the members of the Forrest team had “got the hang of it” and stopped spinning, they went on to win the competition and were presented with trophies by Jonathan Mayo of Baas Construction.

Team member mark Ingham said “we set off hoping to win and were glad we did, but the best reward was helping the charity.”

The team with their trophies