(25-05-2010, 08:58 AM)jbrownhill Wrote: The York study group were set question 2.
Any feedback would be appreciated to discuss at the next session.
Part 1 carries 10 marks; it is a very broad topic so perhaps 20 one-liners are appropriate here. Alternatively 10 more substantial bullet points having a couple of sentences apiece would be what I'd be looking for.
The question asked for the whole overview re managing safety both for maintenance and renewals and indeed Signalling and Telecomms; your answer did nothing to encompass this range nor describe the context of your answer- it seems to be "project" rather than "maintenance".
Similarly I think that you should have explicitly considered "personal safety", "system safety" and indeed "environmental safety".
Looking at your bullets
1. Safety culture certainly a good point- though I would take issue that it "ensures" safety, it certainly contributes. There is enough here for 1 mark
2. You should have demonstrated better that you knew what CDM is all about; ok there was something here so at least I know that you don't think it means Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate in this context but not enough. It is all about assessing risks through the life cycle and ensuring that the risks are eliminated or at least minimised /mitigated against at the design stage and the management of any ongoing risk properly transferred at handover via things such as the Operations and Maintenance Manual etc. "Builders and maintainers need to be considered" is rather too vague as is "CDM regulations should be followed through". I think you'd get 0.5 mark but I'd feel a little mean.
3. There was some good stuff in this bullet but there are Safety Cases and Safety Cases and it wasn't completely clear of what you were thinking. For example each Train Operating Company has a Safety Case for its operations, a piece of novel equipment being introduced onto the railway has a Safety Case supporting its Trial Certificate and eventually its PADS certification and a resignalling project would have a Safety Case and I guess this is the most likely fit for what you have written.
I think I'd give a mark for the risk assessment / hazard log and another for the competence / auditing.
4&5. I'd lump these together and give 1 mark.
I make that 4.5/10- not quite a Pass. I'd look at it again to see if it seems fair. You did only write half a page; is that really 10 minutes work? Yes you named some documents almost in passing, but didn't feel I'd been given "the big picture". Might be prepared to run to 5, but it is grudging and I won't now give you benefit of the doubt later on in the question...
Suggest you study both the Orange Book and the Yellow Book to give you more ideas to add here.
Also get more of an understanding of CDM.
It might also be helpful for you to understand something of ROGS (and what NR does re the categorisation of work and the role of the Competent Independent Person).
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Section 2 was brief as well; 6 one-liners isn't going to get you 8 marks. Similar comments apply as for the other answer to this question so won't repeat here. At least you mentioned the assessment of the competencies required for the various tasks; it would have been good to have considered both the generic competence to fulfill various roles of the IRSE licencing system and any equipment specific competence for installing / testing / maintaining particular items.
Perhaps I'd give 4/8
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This part was reasonably answered, but again definitely too brief.
Again see the other answer to this question for some relevant comments; you covered more of the bases but not all.
I think your first bullet means undertaking a review post incident as to whether the task was within limits of the previously assessed competency and if it was not understanding the circumstances which led to unauthorised work being undertaken- you don't actually say that though.
Reinstatement of competency was not something directly asked for; worth including but as an extension to bullet 2.
I'd have liked to have seen a second sentence on at least most of your bullets giving a concrete example of the generic wording; as they stand they are somewhat light for awarding a mark apiece. I'd probably give 4/7.
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Overall then I'd probably rate it a borderline pass. To be honest, to get those marks from one page (although when written it'd no doubt look a bit longer) does seem unlikely; however in scope it did address the question and was economical in style so I am not uncomfortable with that assessment as there would surely be far worse papers submitted. However I am not an examiner and therefore I don't know quite how they mark and therefore have no true "calibration", so you're definitely far too close for comfort. Add a bit more in the way of detail though on what you have already written and it would be a sound pass I am sure.
PJW