Safety and Compliance in Housing with Wayne Cole

The HIP: The Housing Industry Podcast

Safety and compliance isn’t a topic that instils excitement for a lot of people… But our guest in this episode manages to keep it compelling! We sit down with Wayne Cole, Group Director of Property Safety and Compliance for Places for People.
Places for People is the UK’s leading Social Enterprise with a very diverse group of about 18 businesses. Wayne shares with us the fascinating story of his career, from his time in the Navy to the tragedies that Wayne witnessed later on in his career that led him to safety and compliance. Wayne gives his in-depth insight into safety and compliance within the housing sector. We learn about his straightforward approach to process and how consistency is achieved across the group.
We learn about how the “Don’t Walk By” initiative is used to reduce incidents, and what the real cause of mistakes is. We also talk about culture and how harbouring a culture that promotes honesty and trust is essential in improving safety.
Wayne gives his thoughts on the state of safety and compliance in the sector and the biggest challenges that the sector is facing from a safety and compliance lens.
In this episode, we cover:

• What Wayne witnessed that led him into safety and compliance.
• The biggest difference between the private and public sectors.
• How Wayne achieves consistency of approach across the group.
• The “Don’t Walk By” initiative.
• The real cause of mistakes.
• How to harbour a culture that promotes safety.
• What would Wayne change about the sector?
• How Wayne's team is thinking about using ChatGPT to save days of labour.
• The key challenges in safety and compliance