The annual awards recognise the vital contribution of suppliers to the UK’s nuclear clean-up mission and were among the highlights of the NDA Estate Supply Chain Event, held at EventCity on 2 November.

Open to suppliers of all sizes, entries were submitted in 4 categories including:

• skills and capacity development
• technology innovation implementation
• collaboration
• exports

A Minister’s award was selected from all of the individual entries.

Ron Gorham, the NDA’s Head of Supply Chain optimisation and SME Champion, who chaired the judging panel, said:

Our suppliers play a critical role in delivering timely, cost-effective decommissioning across our sites, and we are delighted to acknowledge their vital contribution.

The standard of entries this year was again extremely high, and the judges and I were particularly pleased with the dedication, creativity and determination shown from companies large and small.

These awards celebrate the commitment of our supply chain and the value they bring on a daily basis, and highlight that the UK industry is uniquely positioned to continue to be successful, not just at home but also abroad.

Capability and Capacity Award

This skills award recognises that capability and capacity in the supply chain are important to support projects and programmes, both now and in the future. The award was aimed at suppliers who may have:

• developed employee skills
• supported the development of supply chain partners
• created opportunities to bring people into the workplace
• developed skills and enabled an environment where differences are valued

Winner: University of Cumbria – Project Academy for Sellafield Ltd

The Academy’s vision was to create a centre of excellence for the development of project skills delivery. The Academy has:

• trained over 600 students
• created 8 new supply chain jobs

and is supporting other sectors such as health, construction, third sector and education, as well as delivering a significant cost saving for courses to Sellafield Ltd.

This approach will enable Sellafield Ltd to create the capacity to deliver the projects needed for site decommissioning by providing people with education, training and professional qualifications.

Winner: Nuclear AMRC and Rolls-Royce – Delivering Civil Nuclear Sharing in Growth Programme

The 4-year programme focused on developing the UK nuclear manufacturing supply chain to win work at home and overseas.

Managed by Rolls-Royce on behalf of Nuclear AMRC, the programme was part-funded by the government’s Regional Growth Fund.

It was also the first of its kind for the UK nuclear sector. Bringing together government, industry and academia, the £multi-million support package covers:

• strategy and finance
• winning business
• business management
• supply chain management
• value improvement
• manufacturing capacity
• lean production
• leadership development
• employee development

Participating companies have won over £437 million of contracts, securing 5,232 UK jobs and achieving £37.4 million of private sector investment.

Technology Innovation Implementation with Tangible Benefits to an SLC

This award recognises both the innovation and collaboration required to take technology or innovation through to successful implementation at a Site Licence Company.

Winner: Nuvia Ltd – Separation Area Head End Stack Dismantling, Sellafield site

The aim of the project is to dismantle the 61m high separation area head end stack from the existing building at Sellafield, and remove a high-risk structure from a potentially hazardous area. Due to the nature of facilities surrounding the stack, an alternative approach to demolition was required.

Nuvia and Sellafield Ltd worked with Delta International to modify their self-climbing platform, which had been used on conventional industrial sites but never on a nuclear facility. The self-climbing platform will provide a safe working area, with fewer workers required to dismantle the stack.

Highly Commended: Underwater Construction Corporation UK Ltd – Use of divers in spent fuel ponds

Specialist divers were used in spent fuel ponds to disassemble, size reduce, and package for removal of underwater equipment and furniture, as well as the collection of sludge and debris prior to draining the pond in preparation for care and maintenance.

The technique is considered more efficient than traditional methods such as using remote tooling or remotely operated vehicles. The water acts as shielding, reducing doses accrued for the team. This approach was commissioned by Magnox at the Dungeness A site, with UCC performing a total of 265 safe dives in 2 ponds from late 2016 to 2017.

Collaboration Award

This year we again looked at collaboration in its widest form. This award was open to suppliers and organisations who have worked collaboratively within the supply chain.

Winner: Carillion, Kier, Morgan Sindall, G & AM Lawson, Amec Foster Wheeler, Balfour Beatty, Costain, M&W Group – People Plant Interface, The Segregation Hierarchy

A team of Sellafield supply chain safety managers worked to develop new standardised guidance, training, material and mentoring to be implemented across the Projects Delivery Directorate supply chain at Sellafield.

Since March 2017, over 1,000 people from 36 companies have been trained, with an accumulative pass rate of 99%.

Since its inception, the collaboration has expanded to include local SMEs who are in a position to deliver the training themselves. This project is helping to prevent incidents and keep people safe, contributing to delivery of the hazard and risk programme on schedule. It has also led to improved supplier relationships and supply chain safety performance, as well as saving time and cost on training.

Highly commended: James Fisher Nuclear Ltd, WYG, Sellafield Ltd – Reduced cost, schedule and risk building inspections

The successful deployment of UAVs at Sellafield has improved the quality and quantity of data available to assess the structural integrity of buildings, and inform decommissioning strategies. This required development of procedures to overcome stakeholder concerns whilst operating in the most sensitive areas.

The approach is rapid and reduces both the cost and programme impact, and removes working at height risks when compared to traditional techniques. The impact is maximised by the close and collaborative team working between the UAV pilots and the building integrity specialist to ensure that the images are suitable, while additional images can be requested without increasing cost or schedule.

Export Award

An award for companies who have successfully exported overseas, from concepts, products and services originally conceived or implemented in the NDA estate.

Winner: Oxford Technologies Ltd – Fuel Debris Retrieval Project, Fukushima Daiichi

Oxford Technologies is looking at aspects of the Fukushima Daiichi fuel debris removal project. This includes investigation of reactor internals, sampling of fuel debris for analysis and fuel debris removal. Oxford Technologies is developing the access robotic device and a range of tools based on the proven approach in decommissioning projects at Sellafield and Dounreay. The relationship developed through exchanges between the NDA/ NDF, Sellafield/Tepco highlighting Oxford Technologies’ work in the UK, notably at Dounreay’s shaft and silo project, and Sellafield’s FGMSP.

Minister’s Award

The Minister’s Award recognises the great value, flexibility and innovation that SMEs bring to the mission.

Winner: BICO Ltd

Extract from testimony:

The reactivity of BICO to embrace a problem or challenge was like a breath of fresh air. During dress rehearsals and on several occasions where a problem was highlighted, BICO would attend within a couple of hours to understand the issue, the tool would be taken away, a modified component would be manufactured, assembled and then returned to the operations team. Their enthusiasm and dedication to the project is to be commended.

Highly Commended: JGC Engineering & Technical Services Ltd

Extract from testimony:

The implementation programme for the works was extremely challenging as it has to be designed, installed and commissioned before the end of 2017. The collaboration of JGC and Jacobs (Jacobs acting as sub-contractor) provided the project team with the confidence that they were best placed to deliver this challenging programme. There have been several challenges during the life of the project but with the ‘can do’ approach from all parties, two of the three project milestones have been met with the last two being completed two months early.

The PIP guidance now reflects a recent legal decision on the interpretation of people’s needs for supervision in order to carry out activities safely.

Operating at speeds of up to 225mph (360kph), the new fleet will deliver unparalleled levels of reliability, speed and comfort as well as providing much-needed extra capacity between the UK’s major cities and giving a boost to high tech skills and expertise in the UK.

The shortlisted bidders are: Alstom Transport; Bombardier Transportation UK Ltd; Hitachi Rail Europe; Patentes Talgo S.L.U and Siemens PLC. They will all be invited to tender for the contracts, which will cover the design, build and maintenance of at least 54 trains coming into service from 2026.

Following on from the opening of the new National College for High Speed Rail in Birmingham and Doncaster, this is the latest milestone passed as High Speed Two (HS2) becomes a reality. In total, HS2 will create around 25,000 jobs and 2,000 apprenticeships both directly in construction and also across the UK-wide supply chain.

The first trains will begin to roll off the production line in the early 2020s. The investment is expected to create hundreds of jobs and boost Britain’s skills and expertise in the high speed rail sector.

Welcoming the shortlist, HS2 Minister Paul Maynard said:

Thousands of skilled British jobs and apprenticeships will be created by HS2, which gets a step closer as we reveal the companies shortlisted to build the high speed trains.

HS2 will see some of the world’s fastest trains connecting our great cities across the north and Midlands, creating an economy that works for everyone. But announcements like this show how the benefits of HS2 will resonate far beyond the opening of the new railway. HS2’s legacy of jobs and skills is already being created.

Chris Rayner, HS2 Ltd Managing Director – Railway Operations, said:

It’s great to see such a strong line up of experienced high-tech manufacturing and design talent. Together with the successful bidder, HS2 will deliver some of the world’s most advanced rolling stock, engineered to provide seamless, accessible, fast and reliable journeys.

Starting from 2026, our trains will be used by tens of thousands of people every day, transforming links across the Midlands and the North and providing much-needed extra capacity between Britain’s major cities.

Providing a world class passenger experience is at the heart of the requirements for the £2.75 billion contract. The new trains will also serve destinations beyond the core HS2 network, including York, Newcastle, Liverpool, the North West, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The new trains will be required to meet HS2’s design and performance needs and the highest standards internationally for passenger experience, noise reduction, and environmental sustainability, while maximising skills, employment and growth opportunities.

All 5 bidders will be invited to tender in spring 2018, with contracts awarded in 2019.

The successful bidder will also maintain the fleet from the dedicated rolling stock depot planned for Washwood Heath in Birmingham. The area will also be home to the HS2 Network Control Centre, which will together create hundreds of skilled jobs.

Today the UK Government and the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) will formally open a newly refurbished diagnostic laboratory at Connaught hospital in Freetown.

This is the third and final laboratory built with UK Aid that will be handed over to ministry leadership alongside 2 additional facilities in Makeni and Bo. A cohort of 15 Sierra-Leonean hospital staff has also been fully trained as technicians to work in the laboratories.

Funded by UK Aid and implemented by Public Health England (PHE) in partnership with MoHS, the project supports the country’s public health capacity to detect and control the spread of high consequence infectious diseases like Ebola and Yellow Fever, using the latest diagnostic techniques.

In the same week, the newly trained technicians will graduate following completion of a PHE-led molecular virology training programme. Sierra Leone has a very limited number of doctors and nurses, and Ebola had a tragic impact on that already stretched capacity. The process of training new staff is an essential part of efforts to rebuild that capacity.

Several of the graduates have also undergone additional training which will allow them to train future cohorts in molecular diagnostic techniques to ensure this knowledge and skill-set is passed on, helping to sustain this critical capability for the long-term.

The laboratories are part of a broader UK programme of support which is helping to strengthen the Government of Sierra Leone’s own capacity to better deal with serious future health outbreaks following the devastation caused by Ebola in 2014.

The premises include a fully equipped molecular facility which will allow the MoHS to test for a range of high consequence pathogens, with Ebola testing being specifically supported by the UK Aid-funded Resilient Zero programme.

A ceremony is being held at the Connaught Hospital in Freetown to mark the handing over of the completed building works from the UK Government to the ministry. The laboratories will be opened by HE Dr Abu Bakarr Fofanah, Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr Brima Kargbo, Sierra Leone’s Chief Medical Officer and HE Guy Warrington, British High Commissioner in Sierra Leone and Duncan Selbie, Chief Executive of PHE.

The refurbishment will create an environment where high-risk samples (such as those from suspected Ebola cases) can be tested safely, and will also allow the Government of Sierra Leone to further expand diagnostic capacity in other areas for both infectious and non-infectious diseases, and thereby strengthening the public health system in Sierra Leone in the long-term.

Chief Medical Officer of Sierra Leone, Dr Brima Kargbo said:

The recognition of diseases through the laboratory system is the foundation of disease control and prevention. Therefore, accurate and timely laboratory services has become the bedrock upon which current disease treatment, prevention and control programmes are based. The reliance on laboratory-derived information has, for several years, been in line with the development of modern medicine and public health. At this stage we are grateful to the UK Government for their invaluable support in this direction.

British High Commissioner, Guy Warrington, who spoke at the launch, said:

I want to congratulate the Ministry of Health and Sanitation for the progress that has been made to renovate these facilities under their leadership. I also want to recognise the newly trained molecular lab technicians for their vital work in running these labs. On behalf of the UK Government I am proud that we were able to support this important work through UK Aid funding and with the valuable expertise provided by our colleagues at Public Health England. I look forward to these labs continuing to serve the people of Sierra Leone and helping keep them safe from infectious diseases for many years to come.

Duncan Selbie, Chief Executive of Public Health England said:

The people of Sierra Leone are hugely resilient and have coped with a huge amount of destruction and disease in recent years. I am proud of the part that PHE has played in working with the Sierra Leone government to help strengthen Sierra Leone’s health system and grow the country’s ability to protect itself against potentially devastating diseases.

In Sierra Leone alone, the Ebola outbreak killed around 4,000 people, with more than 8,700 cases confirmed. The recovery costs for the country have been estimated at $844 million. Recently the country has also been tragically hit by mudslides, which killed over 500 people. The UK Public Health Rapid Support Team was deployed to tackle the prevention of potential cholera outbreaks following the mudslides.

The new public health capability, as well as the establishment of a national public health institute in Sierra Leone itself, are both positive results of the national and international learnings from the Ebola outbreak.

From January 2018 PHE begins a two-year ODA funded programme of supporting MoHS in developing public health infrastructure to meet International Health Regulations (IHR). The focus of the Sierra Leone element of the programme will be on long term sustainability of laboratories, and IHR capacity building integrated within health system strengthening.

• in Sierra Leone, the average lifespan is roughly half that of western nations and malnutrition ranks among the world’s highest – poverty remains pervasive, particularly in the Eastern and Northern regions with more than 6 out of 10 people living on less than a euro a day
• in recent years, although Sierra Leone had a population of 7 million, there were only around 100 doctors and between 200 to 300 nurses in employment to respond to illness and disease
• as part of the Resilient Zero programme, over 300 local staff have been trained in emergency planning
• since the beginning of the year, 15 Sierra Leone MoHS laboratory technicians have been trained in molecular diagnostics at Bo and Makeni – all have completed a 6-week molecular virology practical courses which was followed by supervised working at PHE operated molecular laboratories.
• introduction into concepts of virology was provided through a short course held early 2017, and tutorials on broader concepts of infections accompanied the practical training
• PHE has had a presence in Sierra Leone since 2012, initially to assist with a cholera outbreak, but also played a vital role in working with DfID, WHO and the Sierra Leone MOHS to manage the Ebola outbreak; the UK Public Health Rapid Support team has also recently been deployed to Sierra Leone to assist with disease surveillance and help prevent outbreaks of infection following the tragic mudslides
• the UK has committed a £427 million package of support to help contain, control, treat, and ultimately prevent Ebola.

To celebrate this milestone Disability Confident companies, including major employer Sainsbury’s, are highlighting the benefits that disabled employees bring to their business.

Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, Penny Mordaunt, said:

Disability Confident status sends a powerful message to potential employees that they will get the support they need to thrive in the workplace. One year on from the launch of the scheme, we’re already helping more than 5,000 companies to create a more inclusive workforce.

By demonstrating the benefits these employers have seen, simply by recognising disabled people for their skills and talents, we can help transform attitudes among businesses across the country.

Almost a fifth of the working age population is disabled, which represents a large proportion of the potential workforce.

Tim Fallowfield, Sainsbury’s Corporate Services Director, said:

We are delighted that 5,000 businesses have signed up to the scheme so far, but this is just the first step. We will continue to encourage employers to sign up and work with the government to give them the tools they need to recruit and retain disabled people.

Andrew, who has a mental health condition, works for Sainsbury’s in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. Stories like Andrew’s demonstrate the wide reaching benefits of having the right job.

Andrew said:

Sainsbury’s are the first employer I have worked for where I have felt I could say anything. In my previous jobs it would be a case of get on with it; stress was considered a daily part of the job. As a Disability Confident employer, there is a clear signposted process, making it simple to reach out and simply start a conversation.

Sainsbury’s is the largest of 170 businesses in the retail sector to become Disability Confident. The voluntary, charity and social enterprise sector is leading the way with 1,233 Disability Confident organisations.

Twenty four FTSE 100 companies have already signed up to the scheme, including Diageo, ITV and BT. On the first anniversary, the minister has written to the remaining companies, reinforcing her recent challenge to them to sign up to the scheme and to encourage more influential businesses to set the standard on Disability Confident status.

As of today, all ministerial government departments have achieved Disability Confident Leader status.

Last week an expert led review into mental health in the workplace, commissioned by the government, recommended that employers adopt 6 ‘mental health core standards’ that lay the basic foundations for an approach to workplace mental health.

Disability Confident offers employers a simple first step to creating a more supportive workplace. The government’s full response will be published this autumn as part of the next steps following the Work, health and disability green paper.

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