We are delighted to announce that we have been appointed as a Value Added Partner by CGE Risk Solutions, the leading provider of barrier-based risk management solutions.

We have been using the bowtie methodology for several years with railway, metro, tram, fire & rescue and social care clients, so this appointment marks an important stage in how we help clients apply the technique.

Being a Value Added Partner for CGE Risk Solutions allows us to provide a complete solution for the bowtie risk assessment methodology; helping you to understand and apply the methodology and also provide and implement CGE’s specialist software for producing excellent bowties.
CGE Risk Solutions has verified that we have been trained in risk and incident analysis methods as well as the application of these in their software solutions.

If you are looking for consultancy (applying the bow tie technique to your business risks), training in the methodology and/or the software or advice on how to scope or purchase software then please contact us.
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We're delighted to be working with Vintage Trains, a Community Benefit Society that is set to become the UK's newest steam locomotive charter train operating company. The vision of Vintage Trains is to preserve express steam trains, keep them operating on the main line, to teach and transfer skills. 
Our work will initially involved railway safety critical skills training and training for Vintage Trains' trainers and competence assessors.

We have been awarded a contract to provide Mindfulness training to Blaenau Gwent & Caerphilly County Borough Councils' Social Care teams.
Becoming more aware of the present moment can help us enjoy the world around us more and understand ourselves better. When we become more aware of the present moment, we begin to experience afresh things that we have been taking for granted. There is a growing body of research that indicates that techniques that allow us to be aware of the present moment can reduce stress and improve mental wellbeing.
​Our mindfulness training provides an insight into mindfulness principles, as well as practical techniques that can be applied every day.

We're delighted to announce that our Managing Partner, John Baker, has become a Fellow of the Institute of Training and Occupational Learning (ITOL).
The Institute is the UK’s elite professional body for trainers and learning and development professionals. Membership encompasses trainers, training consultants, training managers, professors & lecturers, training directors and training designers.
We will be able to provide ITOL accreditation for our range of training courses, and in the future may offer ITOL training programmes for training delivery, coaching, training management and training consultancy - please contact us if this is of interest.

As part of our work to support Locomotive Services (TOC) Limited, we recently spent a day creating video footage of emergency situations that can forseeably occur when operating on the railway network. To create these sequences safely we carried out full risk assesments and safety briefings on the day to make sure that we kept everyone (and some very expensive camera equipment!) safe.
These clips will be used to support learning programmes that we are creating for drivers, firemen, guards, stewards, shunters, service personnel and traction inspectors. The learning programmes are part of the organisation's competence management system that we have developed and support the operational rules and procedures that we are working on.
The top photograph shows what happens when the locomotive suffers a 'blowback' (as happened on a charter train service at Wood Green in 2012). Blowbacks occur when combustion products from the fire are blown back into the cab - when a train passes into a tunnel or when there is a mechanical failure of some sort (as happened at Pickering on a heritage railway in 2006).
The second photograph shows the moment that a detonator (also known as fog signals) explodes under the wheel of a locomotive. Detonators are small metal devices containing a limited quantity of explosive. Detonators are placed on the running surface of a rail by the traincrew to protect approaching trains of a hazard (derailment, track maintenance work, or something fouling the line) - the wheels of a train will cause the detonator to explode and the sound will alert the driver to to stop the train immediately. As well as creating video footage of detonators being placed, and then exploding, we wanted to test how audible they would be from the footplate of steam locomotive under a range of conditions.
We are hugely grateful to the volunteers and staff at the Churnet Valley Railway for providing access to their railway, the locomotive and train, the crew for the day and for allowing us to do some very unusual things!

Our Managing Partner, John Baker, has been working with Locomotive Services (TOC) Limited to set up the organisation and to achieve safety certification from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) so that it can run steam and diesel charter trains on the UK main line rail network. We have been working with a team of professionals to create a safety management system (SMS) and assess the risks of using 1930s on the 21st century railway network using the bow tie method. An important part of this has been analysing steam-era rules and instructions (mostly 1950s, but some dating from 1934) and turning these into suitable instructions using Plain English principles and current understanding of human factors.
On the 4th of August the ORR announced that it had granted a European Passenger Train Operating Licence to the company.
The next phase of our involvement will see us prepare for the first passenger services. This will include route risk mapping and creating training and competence management systems so that steam and diesel train drivers can be issued licences as required by the Train Driving Licences and Certificates Regulations 2010.

You can read more about the announcement on the Locomotive Services (TOC) Limited website, as well more about the locomotives it will operate.

We're delighted to have been awarded a contract to deliver a series of short training programmes for Blaenau Gwent and Caerphilly Councils' Social Care Workforce Development Team.
The training covers four areas:

• Creating a vision
• Becoming an inspiring leader
• Leadership and team dynamics
• Coaching and mentoring
• Managing people performance

Delivery takes place during February and March - we're very much looking forward to it!

Employers across the UK are urged to back a school-to-work agenda in a new report published by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and the EY Foundation. This research incorporates the views of over 1,500 16-21-year-olds across the UK and highlights the challenges that young people face preparing for the world of work.  It is a candid snapshot of the experiences they have had in the workplace and of their hopes and fears for the future, in an age of uncertainty.

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John Baker, our Managing Partner, has just done a short video introduction on our favourite subject - understanding and managing human error. The purpose of the video was to raise awareness why it's important to understand why errors occur. It's aimed at small-medium businesses in non-safety critical industries. John's talk is part of an innovative project by our friends at Bitpod, a specialist online video business based in Exeter.  
​The concept of their 'In a nutshell' programme was to invite members of the business community into their in-house studio to film a two minute advice-sharing video, giving them experience of video production. Funded by Bitpod, the only cost to the contributors is their time. Once filmed, the videos are uploaded onto a dedicated YouTube channel from which they are accessible by the contributors and shared jointly across a number of social media platforms.
You can see some of the things that lead humans into making mistakes in our gallery. We provide a wide range of consultancy and training services to help understand and manage human error.