Leading crewing company, Pinnacle Crew, has become one of the latest organisations to offer the new safety passport course for the live events industry.

Making the announcement at the Event Production Show, Pinnacle’s managing director Heath Freeman said:

“This is an important development in the live events industry.  By introducing an industry-wide safety scheme we can raise awareness of our serious approach to health and safety.  In addition, the Health and Safety Executive is looking to reduce the incidences of accidents in our sector; and this scheme will be recognised by all the relevant authorities.”

Working with the Safety Pass Alliance (SPA) Ltd - a leading health and safety passport body - Pinnacle will now be offering the one-day course specifically designed for the general workforce in the events industry.  General crew, production workers, stage hands, lighting and sound crew, stage and set builders, backline technicians, electricians, safety stewards, drivers, riggers, laser and pyrotechnic technicians, and video and production crew, can all benefit from the increased knowledge of how on-site safety is managed, the common hazards faced and how they can be best avoided.

As well as offering the course throughout the industry, Pinnacle will be delivering it as standard to all its own crew.

Specifically, the course covers six modules comprising organising for safety; workplace safety  which cover occupational law, employer and employee responsibilities, risk assessment and a safe place of work; plants and machinery;  health  covering work equipment, electricity, noise, transport, hazardous substances, manual handling and stress; and procedures and the environment which together cover safe systems of work, emergency procedures, fire, accidents, pollution prevention and environmental responsibilities.   The entire course will be delivered by fully qualified British Safety Council trainers.

Successful trainees will be provided with a robust plastic photo card, valid for three years.  This Safety Passport scheme, which has been in place in other industries for many years, means that clients can be assured that they are appointing competent contractors and freelancers who are aware of their health and safety duties and responsibilities.  In fact, all Passport details are held on a central database that may be interrogated by client companies.

As Heath Freeman said:

“The Safety Passport concept is simple.  It helps establish a safety culture by providing a nationally recognised standard of health and safety training and assessment that is cost-effective, easily accessible, tests knowledge and caters for a specific industry sector.  It is a very easy way for people who move from one contract or company to another to prove to employers that they have received basic training, and therefore saves time and money in unnecessary induction training.”

Press enquiries; please contact:                                                          January 2010

Jonquil Simons, The Simons Partnership

Tel: 01323 469200   email: jonquilsimons@aol.com

Notes to editors

Pinnacle Crew may be seen on stand 324 at the Event Production Show.

Pinnacle Crew’s managing director, Heath Freeman (second right) and his team mates with the award for the Fastest Channel Swim of 2009, presented by the Channel Swimming Association.

The four-man relay team, known as Marlow River Buoys, swam the English Channel in September from Dover to Cap Gris Nez near Calais.  They raised £4000 for two charities - CLIC Sargent (Helping Children with Cancer) and the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution).

Explaining their winning of the Award, Freeman, who did the last leg of the swim and took the team to its goal of landing on the French coast at Cap Gris Nez, says:

 “The distance of the swim is 22-miles as the crow flies, but due to the currents and winds on the day we actually swam 29 miles, completing the crossing in 9 hours and 29 minutes.”

As well as discussing the company’s fully managed crewing service, visitors to Pinnacle Crew’s stand (no: 324) at the Event Production Show will have the opportunity to support a worthwhile cause. 

The company will be launching its long-term support for children’s hospice, Naomi House, at the show, and will be highlighting the various ways it is helping the charity.

Pinnacle has committed a monthly donation to help the tremendous work being carried out at Naomi House.  Furthermore, the company is using its professional contacts and expertise to help with fund raising events. 

The company is also nominating one working day when all crew and other staff will work at least one shift with the total income from that day going to Naomi House; and in the future a percentage of Pinnacle’s income from every event it works on will go to the hospice. 

There are also plans for Pinnacle to enter a team into a long endurance cycle challenge.  Suppliers, clients and friends of the company will be invited to sponsor the team, with all proceeds going to Naomi House.

Visitors to the Pinnacle stand at the Event Production Show will be able to make a donation to the hospice, which provides respite and terminal care and bereavement support in the Berkshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Wiltshire and parts of West Sussex and Surrey to children with life threatening conditions and their families.

Commenting on Pinnacle’s support for Naomi House, Helen Lovell, the hospice’s corporate fundraiser, says:

“It costs more than £2.5-million a year for Naomi House to  provide support to children with life limiting conditions and their families.  With just 10 per cent of our funding coming from the Government, the hospice is dependent on the generous support of people like the team at Pinnacle Crew.  In addition, Pinnacle’s support will be invaluable to helping us reach our target of £12million to build equip and run jacksplace, the new hospice for teenagers and young adults suffering from life limiting conditions.”

Picture shows one of the children at Naomi House taking part in music therapy.