CIF Director of Health & Safety and Education & Training, Sean Downey urges the industry to get back to basics and join the campaign to ensure safety on our sites
Sean Downey
This year, as part of the CIF Safety Campaign, we are asking our members and the wider industry to do something deceptively simple but critically important – get back to basics. At its heart, safety is not about new rules or complex systems. It is about leadership, culture, and people.
Over the course of the campaign, running from October 13 to 24, we are asking companies across construction to step back, examine their safety management systems, and, most importantly, talk to their teams.
Honest conversations, reflective feedback, and an openness to listen can reveal far more than any report. Safety is lived on the ground, and the people delivering our projects often see the risks most clearly.
This year, we have already been notified of six fatalities in the construction sector under NACE code F. That number already surpasses the five recorded in the whole of 2024. Most of these deaths were the result of falls from height, the single greatest risk in our industry today.
The fact of the matter is even one fatality is one too many. No one should leave for work in the morning with the prospect of not returning home. That stark truth is why we are redoubling our efforts.
The campaign’s main theme, Back to Basics, is supported by five sub themes: falls from height, working with utilities, leadership and supervision, developing talent, and critical risks management.
We want companies to use toolbox talks, step-down moments, external speakers, and other practical measures to get these messages across. The tools are there, what matters is that we use them, consistently and openly. We are also taking new steps in how we communicate.
For the first time, the CIF is launching a series of podcasts as part of the campaign. These will feature senior health and safety professionals from across housing, infrastructure, civil engineering, main contracting, and specialist engineering.
They will share their experiences, the challenges they face, and the solutions they are building, sometimes in partnership with the HSA, government, and others in the supply chain. It is an opportunity to amplify voices that are shaping safety culture from within. Ultimately, this campaign is not a two-week exercise. It is part of a longer journey.
Our goal is to keep safety at the forefront every month of the year. To achieve that, we need leadership at every level, especially from business owners and senior managers. Safety must not be delegated away.
It has to be owned, championed, and embedded from the very top. I am asking every company in the sector to join us as partners in this campaign.
The CIF website sets out how you can get involved. By working together, by listening, learning, and leading, we can strengthen our culture of safety and protect the most important asset in this industry – our people.
BACK TO BASICS CONSTRUCTION SAFETY CAMPAIGN
October 13-24, 2025
The CIF is asking the construction industry to run safety and health events in line with key sub-themes. Following on from 2024’s successful campaign on Critical Risks, the CIF Safety Committee has decided that the theme for 2025 is Back to Basics.
There are five key sub-themes, running from Monday to Friday of each week, to help companies establish their own initiatives for the two-week campaign. These are:
- LEADERSHIP IN SAFETY
- CRITICAL RISKS
- UTILITIES
- FALLS FROM HEIGHT
- DEVELOPING THE NEXT GENERATION
Construction contractors and home builders are encouraged to get involved by holding related events across site and project teams to increase national alignment, help industry build awareness of risks and get buy-in to a positive safety culture.
Don’t forget to use #CIFSafety25 when posting your company’s safety initiatives on social media.
