Get all the latest news and join the conversation on our twitter feed! @QEClassCarriers @HMSQnlz @HMSPWLS May 2017 In another important step towards creating a habitable living environment, HMS Queen Elizabeth s Medical Complex has begun to accept its first patients from amongst the Royal Navy personnel working on-board. Known as the Sick Bay, the facility is now holding routine patient consultations and clinics as it moves towards operating independently from the medical facility in MOD Caledonia, where the needs of the Ship s Companies of both HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales have been addressed while the ships are being built. Speaking about the important milestone in the generation of the medical capability onboard, Principle Medical Officer Surgeon Commander Mark Henry said: Receiving our first patients to the Sick Bay on HMS Queen Elizabeth is a huge milestone for this department. The complex has been very well designed and we are now able to ensure that all working practices are in place to allow us to treat any member of the Ship s Company who needs us. The expansive complex comprises of a number of treatment rooms, consultation rooms, an isolation ward, dental laboratory, resuscitation and theatre areas and the usual reception and medicine dispensary areas that would be expected in any land based medical practice. HMS Queen Elizabeth s Medical Complex Open For Business The medical team on-board will total 53 personnel when fully manned, ranging from the Principal Medical Officer, a Commander RN, to the 42 First Aiders who will be dispersed throughout the ship to deliver seven first aid teams during emergencies. The medical organisation is able to operate in two forms, Role 1 and Role 2, depending on the external threat to the aircraft carrier and the severity of casualty that may be received. Role 1 is the primary stance and, using the personnel embarked as part of the Ship s Company, is capable of providing primary medical care to most illnesses and injuries which can occur on-board. Role 2 would require the current medical team to be strengthened and would enable them to perform surgical procedures on-board and operate a critical care ward if required. Opening minds to Safety - Page 6 Twelve bed spaces are provided in total to support a range of possible care packages alongside a spacious bathroom which could be used to slowly raise the temperature of hypothermic casualties.
2 Aircraft Carrier Alliance News May 2017
3 Aircraft Carrier Alliance News Royal Navy Attend Glasgow Science Centre To Promote Stem Learning HMS Prince of Wales Ship s Companies Lt Chenery was at the Glasgow Science Centre in April aiding the Royal Navy s promotion of Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Lt Chenery accompanied the Royal Navy s Youth Engagement Team who across the UK encourage children to continue STEM learning throughout their education to combat a nationwide skills shortage in these areas. Whilst not officially recruiting for the Royal Navy, I m hoping my enthusiasm in explaining a Marine Engineer s role might encourage a few young minds to look into joining the Senior Service in the years to come. Working on the QE Class Carriers is every engineer s dream and will undoubtedly become one of many career highlights for me. HMS Prince of Wales Replenishment At Sea (RAS) High Points Team Recognised In a major success of learning from experience (LfE) on HMS Queen Elizabeth, the HMS Prince of Wales RAS High Points installation team have this month been recognised for Delivery by the ACA Recognition Scheme. Identifying lessons from HMS Queen Elizabeth in relation to the complexity of installing the RAS High Points was well understood. The level of additional change and importance in handing the High Points over to Commissioning early was identified at the start of the installation process. In order to learn the lessons from HMS Queen Elizabeth and successfully install these large items, a multi-disciplined team was brought together to manage and deliver this complex installation. The team came together and supported each other throughout the installation. There was good control over the various aspects of the process and they were well positioned to adapt to the changing situation as and when was required. Due to this, both High Points have now been installed and commissioning handover is not far off. Closer working relationships across those involved have been forged and the installation has been achieved with minimal rework. Harry McCluskey, Fwd End Ship Manager commented, This piece of work has involved a great team effort. Everyone has worked towards a common goal and this has resulted in the High Points being pushed to completion earlier in the programme than planned, thanks to all the LfE from HMS Queen Elizabeth.
4 Aircraft Carrier Alliance News Senior Naval Officer s End of Term Proficiency Award Leading Weapons Engineer Tom Handley received an end of term proficiency award from Captain Groom for organisation of Ship s Company sporting and team building activities, as well as, integration with Long Service and Good Conduct Medal CPO Weapons Engineer Paul Harris, who heads up the Sensors Group on HMS Prince of Wales, was awarded his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal for 15 years Service by Captain Ian Groom. Paul lives in Southampton with his wife Lynn, who is originally from Burntisland Fife, and is a dental hygienist in the Royal Navy based in Portsmouth. the ACA for sporting events. Tom s role on board HMS Prince of Wales is in the Trials and Commissioning team, specifically assisting BAE Systems with installation of the Combat Management System (CMS). His brother, Kevin Harris, is a Sqn Ldr in the RAF currently serving in North Carolina USA. Paul s hobbies include Skiing/Snowboarding and he competed in the HMS Prince of Wales ski team at the Royal Navy Ski Championship in January. Paul is also a member of the HMS Prince of Wales football team. Left to right: Robert Bob Munro, RAF Regiment (retired) Welfare Officer; Captain Ian Groom; Ransford Thomas Rogers, RN-FAA (retired) Honourable Secretary and Eric Chapple, RN (retired) Standard Bearer. Commemorative Medallion Finds A Good Home On HMS Prince of Wales A medallion commemorating the service of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse in the Second World War has been presented to HMS Prince of Wales. On 10 December 1941 HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, were attacked and sunk by Japanese aircraft near Kuanton, a city on the east coast of Malaya. Survivors were taken to Singapore and many were captured at the city state s surrender in 1942. Some of the captured were held in a Prisoner of War camp on the island of Java, along with other British servicemen; one of whom was an airman, James F Chandler. Fifty years later a commemorative medallion was struck by the Selangor Pewter Company of Singapore and Mr Chandler was presented with one. Before Mr Chandler passed away in Cardiff in 2015, he passed it on to his friend Robert Bob Munro, with instructions to find it a good home and on Armed Forces Day 2015, Ex-Airman Bob Munro presented the medallion to the Cardiff Branch of the Royal Naval Association. It was decided that the new HMS Prince of Wales would be an ideal home for such an historic item. The presentation of the medallion was duly carried out aboard the ship on Wednesday 26 April 2017 to Captain Ian Groom, Senior Naval Officer, HMS Prince of Wales by the following members of the Royal Naval Association (Cardiff); Ransford Thomas Rogers, RN-FAA (retired) Hon, Secretary, Eric Chapple, RN (retired) Standard Bearer and Robert Bob Munro, RAF Regiment (retired) Welfare Officer.
5 Aircraft Carrier Alliance News Ship s Staff On Board Improvement Initiative HMS Prince of Wales Ship s Company are now working with the Delivery and Project teams onboard HMS Prince of Wales to help drive quality in product and reduce cost and schedule timescales. Alongside the Quality team, Production have agreed areas where the Royal Navy s expertise would help drive improvement. Some of the objectives included highlighting issues early, increasing the right first time at completion inspections and identifying continuous improvement (CI) opportunities. Captain Ian Groom, these objectives were put in motion. Ship s staff have now started carrying out risk based verification surveys outside of the conventional quality control points. This is reducing defect rates and managing the corrective activity required. Communication has been key to the success of this concept so the Ship s staff and Delivery teams meet regularly to ensure there is a full understanding of the objectives. An additional benefit of the work taking place is that the Ship s staff are getting to know the ship inside and out. Key Implementation Team from left to right PO Finlay McCutcheon, PO Martin Cury Colin Reid, WO1 Jaime Howard, Ian Page, WO2 Karl Branton and Kris Campbell. improvement initiatives onboard is important. This activity is fundamental to how we as the Ship s Company are supporting the build of HMS Prince of Wales. Many of the Ship s staff are now hugely involved in the process from every department. This is undoubtedly helping us to feel part of the build process and learning the real detail of the ship and the systems on board. Amongst our Ship s Company we have a great breadth and depth of experience and through this joint venture, it is tremendously satisfying that this experience and knowledge is being used for the benefit of the whole programme. Following approval from Neil Holm, HMS Prince of Wales Programme Director and the Lieutenant Commander Paul Barker commented on why the Royal Navy s involvement in the The Ship s staff on-board Hub in action. ACA Recognition Scheme - Mark McKay Congratulations to Mark McKay who was recognised at the highest level of the ACA recognition scheme against the value of Delivery. Andy Dean, Fwd Project Manager explained his nomination. Mark shows superb leadership in driving the progress made with the cable reeve on PWLS. Mark has been a fundamental part of the success we have had pulling cables in the forward end and we are greatly in his debt! Well done Mark and keep up the good work.
6 Aircraft Carrier Alliance News Health & Safety Spotlight Willie Somerville, Belief Based Safety Coach A Wood Group belief based Safety Coach has been opening ACA colleague s minds to a new way of viewing how we can approach safety in the workplace. Willie Somerville recently talked at the ACA Leadership Conference in March and is now working with Production, sharing his approach. We managed to get some time with Willie to learn more about what he s doing and his passion for safety. We asked Willie to tell us about his current role and what is it he s doing to help improve people s approach and perspective regarding safety. I have been seconded from my day to day role within the oil & gas industry to roll out a belief based safety programme. I have developed the programme for the Industrial, Supervision and Leadership teams at Rosyth. The programme looks at why no matter how strong our systems and procedures may be, we still see poor choices being taken that lead to a point where luck plays a part in whether it becomes another near miss or an injury. No-one comes to their work to hurt themselves so when we identify room for improvement it is all about how we may influence their core values and beliefs so they want to do things differently the next time. The programme highlights the need to promote safety positively so industrial colleagues get involved in making decisions that prevent incidents instead of fearing the outcomes of those decisions. We then asked Willie to tell us about his career to date. I served my time in construction and was exposed to a negative culture from the start. I witnessed many unsafe acts that in the end I conformed to and the mental pairing I had with regards to safety was negative. I was involved in a life changing event in only my second year of apprenticeship and although I wasn t aware of the impact at that time it would eventually motivate me to go down the safety route. I found myself in a safety advisory role and quickly realised how negative safety was perceived and that I was often seen as part of the negativity due to industrial colleagues past experiences involving people in my role. I was ready to move back onto the tools as negativity is something I struggled with when I was first exposed to belief based safety. It totally blew me away with the way it explained choices and the basic psychology that led an individual to those choices. I was fortunate to be offered a leading role in implementing a similar programme in the oil and gas industry. Whilst in this role I was introduced to some very inspirational people including a fantastic belief based coach who mentored me on my personal journey. I have been involved in belief based safety for the past six years and every day has opportunities presenting themselves that increase my knowledge and experience. We asked Willie to share with us what the sessions cover. Safety is made up of two sides. On one side we have the systems and procedures like risk assessments, POWSA s and method statements. On the other we have behaviours. We have concentrated on making sure the systems are thorough and the belief can often be that this should be enough to prevent incident. Behaviours account for at least 95% of incidents in any industry and regardless of how good our systems are, we will always struggle to prevent injury if we fail to address them. Behaviours are a consequence of our beliefs and the training looks at people s beliefs regarding safety. I introduce mind-sets to those participating and how they can influence decisions. I also look at our internal voice and how, due to past experiences, it manages to convince us that we will be ok even though we know what we are doing might not be right. We also look at culture and look at how strong leadership along with competent supervision, interacting and engaging positively with the workforce, will eventually increase positivity in our environment, and through conformity we will end up with people displaying positive behaviours. This will lead to the likelihood of everybody returning to their families and friends in the same condition as they arrived increased. We then asked Willie about who he s been working with so far and has he had any feedback on his work from ACA colleagues on the program. I was initially seconded to roll out the material to my Wood Group colleagues and to carry out a cultural assessment. I was then introduced to various members of the ACA Leadership and Safety teams and we devised a program. Over 600 Wood Group employees have been exposed to the head turning sessions and it looks like we will be expanding this further across the ACA. Wood Group feedback has been really encouraging and although it may take some time to embed we are already seeing positivity come into our business and communications. The ACA programme is in its infancy and is reliant on identifying coaches who are based at the site who will be given more in depth training and will eventually be expected to come up with various themes that tackle the relevant issues that we face. The coaches will base the themes on the original training and will be rolled out as part of the daily engagement sessions with the operatives. So what is it about safety that Willie loves? I love my job and appreciate the opportunity to roll out this material to others. I believe in positivity and believe in the future of safety and if, during the sessions or during the walk rounds, I influence one or two then that should be seen as a success. I enjoy the people side of the role and meeting the many different individuals during the day ensures the role is varied.
7 Aircraft Carrier Alliance News As shared in an earlier story, PWLS Ship s Company are now working in collaboration with their industrial colleagues on-board PWLS to provide expertise and extra resource to drive improvements. We took the opportunity to follow one of that team, WO2 Karl Branton, and see what a day in his life looked like. Karl initially shared some details about his role, I joined HMS Prince of Wales in December 2016 as part of the WE Trials and Commissioning team. As a member of the newly established 2RY0 Tech Cell, I have the lead role in supporting and analysing the recently established observation database to help us deliver Support to Build. As the Ships Information Systems Manager, I will be Line Manager for the Ships Networks, Command, Control, Communications and ls infrastructure engineering teams. 0800-0900: Start the day in Lowden building and logged on for the obligatory email check, prioritise any new work, and respond as appropriate. My next job is to touch base with the WE Group & Section Heads to ensure I am up to speed with their plan for the day which is usually a diverse mix of administration, training, familiarising themselves with the Ships systems and their involvement in T&C activities. 0900-1100: On board PWLS in the 2R Tech Cell. PWLS has rounds teams drawn from all the naval trade specialisations to ensure a breadth of knowledge and experience, and I make sure they are aware of the rounds plan for the day, have the necessary kit, and answer any engineering specific queries that they have. A Day in the Life of WO2 Karl Branton Weapons Engineering (WE) Trials and Commissioning Once the rounds teams are out on the ground I look at the Observation Database and ensure that sufficient detail exists for the team to assess and action the observations. As usual this involves visiting several of the compartments to get amplifying information. 1100-1200: Back across to Lowden, do some work on the weekly Successes, Opportunities, Failures & Threats (SOFT) and Manpower, Equipment, Training & Sustainability (METS) report we produce to brief Commander WE on the progress made with building the department essential to ensure we are ready to operate PWLS safely and effectively at Sea. 1200-1300: Lunch in Lowden. 1300-1400: Attend the weekly Mission System progress meeting in Building 102. Whilst it is still relatively early in the Mission System programme for PWLS, these meetings are a really useful point of contact with all the ACA Systems teams, summarising progress to date and looking ahead. I can also catch up with Robert Livingstone to discuss WE support to T&C activities at this meeting. 1400-1415: Back brief the WE management team on the Mission Systems meeting. 1415-1500: Analysis of the Observation Database I am looking for any common areas and trends in the observations. Identifying these and feeding them back will be what helps drive future work to be right first time and reduce cost. 1500-1530: In 2R while the rounds teams bring in their returns, get a hot debrief from them and give the reports a quick look. 1530-1700: Lowden, final check of the inbox and the general administrative work of the department. In conclusions, Karl reflected on his new role on HMS Prince of Wales and his observations so far, As I joined PWLS from Brunei (S.E. Asia), where I had a hugely enjoyable two and a half years on Loan Service with the Royal Brunei Navy as an instructor, I have found the Rosyth welcome to be much warmer than the Scottish climate! Prior to Brunei I was with HMS Dragon for five years, initially in build as one of the first four members of the Ship s Company. I was with the Ship for delivery, trials, training and first operational deployment. A welcome surprise has been how many familiar faces from the Scotstoun team which built HMS Dragon are now involved on the QEC project.
Know someone who isn t receiving Carrier Waves? Email aircraftcarrieralliance@baesystems.com to register for a copy. May 2017