The conditions a client creates can influence how safely its contractors work. National Grid Strategic Infrastructure has made that responsibility central to Safe & Well, a framework that brings delivery partners into conversations about risk, learning and the practical realities of major infrastructure projects.

Its submission to The SHE Show Inspiring Change Awards 2026 describes an organisation delivering energy infrastructure at significant pace and scale. Across multiple projects and extended supply chains, partners bring different processes, working cultures and approaches to risk. Safe & Well aims to give them a shared basis for understanding challenges and improving the conditions in which work takes place.

The approach combines safety, health, environment and sustainability with psychological safety and Human and Organisational Performance. In practice, this means examining how planning, design, resources, communication and leadership influence decisions. Contractors’ experience is important because they encounter the gap between how a task is planned and how it can actually be delivered.

National Grid recognises that its own systems contribute to those conditions. Access constraints, changing information, competing priorities and interfaces between organisations can all affect delivery. Safe & Well encourages client and contractor teams to discuss these pressures openly and consider what needs to change, with leaders responding in ways that support learning.

Interactive workshops provide one route into that discussion. Employees and delivery partners explore realistic scenarios, the difference between planned work and everyday practice, and the responses that help people raise concerns. National Grid offers its framework as a benchmark that partners can adapt to their circumstances, supported by resources and conversations about implementation.

Training is also shared. Contract partners have an open invitation to attend Safe & Well and Human and Organisational Performance sessions provided for National Grid colleagues, with National Grid meeting the cost. Partners can build capability within their own organisations and use their feedback to help develop the training. Participation becomes a way to shape the approach as well as learn about it.

A further change is the creation of a Shared Learning Forum and the evolution of the traditional Incident Review Panel format. The forum’s terms of reference describe a space for constructive reflection, including lessons from incidents, near misses and work done well. Its purpose is to share learning across organisations, with care and discretion in how feedback is handled.

The proposed forum structure connects discussion with follow-through. Participants consider the activity involved, the conditions and barriers surrounding it, and how learning can become a lasting improvement. They then discuss whether the findings apply elsewhere and whether action is needed across Strategic Infrastructure or the wider supply chain. Capturing and distributing learning helps it travel beyond the project where it originated.

Learning teams provide another way to involve people closest to the work. These conversations explore how tasks are carried out, what enables success, where people adapt and which changes would make the greatest difference. Shared workshop materials, guidance and discussion prompts support a common language while allowing teams to apply it locally.

The supporting workshop tracker records 712 attendees, including 95 contractors and other stakeholders, approximately 13% of the total. It also shows average self-reported understanding rising from 3.07 before the workshop to 4.59 afterwards, and confidence from 3.32 to 4.59. These figures indicate participation and immediate learning feedback; they do not establish a reduction in incidents.

Qualitative evidence points to interest beyond attendance. Partner correspondence includes requests to explore further collaboration and bring workshop content into their own organisations. National Grid also reports partners comparing Safe & Well language with their existing approaches to identify common ground. The programme remains in development, with stronger relationships and more open conversations among its early reported outcomes.

For the wider SHE community, the practical lesson is to make partnership visible in how work is supported. Shared training, opportunities to discuss operational pressures and a process for acting on learning give contractors a meaningful role in improvement. National Grid’s approach asks the client to listen to that experience and consider how its own decisions can help partners succeed.

Based on National Grid Strategic Infrastructure’s submission and supporting materials for The SHE Show Inspiring Change Awards 2026. Programme progress and workshop figures are as supplied in September 2026.