Association for Project Safety needs you to help shape, share & celebrate good practice.

Richard Wilks

President

Association for Project Safety

Earlier this year, at the Association for Project Safety (APS), we proudly announced the launch of our ninth National CDM and Student Designer Awards. With the deadline (31 May 2016 ) for final entries looming, I thought I'd take this opportunity to tell you a little bit more about the awards and why, if you work in the Design and Construction Health and Safety sector, you should consider entering too.

Before I get on to talking about the prestigious event, let me first tell you a little more about APS and what we do.

We're a professional membership body that offers guidance and support to 5,000 Members across the UK, in all areas of Construction Health and Safety Risk Management. In fact, APS members are amongst some of the country's leading architectural, engineering, health and safety, project management and surveying professionals. Our members are all required to maintain their skills, knowledge and experience by undertaking Continuing Professional Development programmes each year, which means APS members are some of the UK's most trusted, leading experts. We're members of the Construction Industry Council (CIC) too.

We strive to continuously improve and promote professional practice, and our ninth annual National CDM and Student Awards will showcase the exceptional work happening in our industry. They celebrate both current and future members of the Design and Construction Health and Safety sector, by rewarding examples of good practice, and providing people in the industry with a benchmark of success to work towards.

Of course, although we are responsible for organising and hosting the awards, the National CDM and Student Awards are open to both APS Members and non-members, and so I'd strongly encourage you to enter.

With nine different categories to enter, our awards are one-of-a-kind. There are so many different award ceremonies and events within our sector for people to enter, however, these awards often only recognise the importance of Design and Construction Health and Safety through perhaps one or two dedicated categories. Yet the purpose of our awards is to only recognise the important role of Design and Construction Health and Safety plays through each and every category - our National CDM and Student Designer Awards really are unique.

Entries are now open and will close on Tuesday 31 May 2016, with the short list of successful entries being announced in early September – so don't delay as there isn't long to go before the deadline.

Judging will take place over the summer months by an expert panel of industry figure-heads, including the Health and Safety Executive. With such a vigorous judging process, you can be sure that if you win, your work is of the very highest standards and is quite rightly something for you to shout about!

The award ceremony itself will take place on Thursday 27 October at the Radisson Blu Portman Hotel in London. The awards event promises to be bigger and better than ever before, with a high profile speaker, dinner, dancing and entertainment too; we look forward to welcoming our Members, as well as meeting some new faces at the event in October. It's going to be a great night.

And as if attending the awards evening wasn't celebration enough, all shortlisted entries will be invited to an exclusive reception at the House of Commons on the afternoon of the awards evening. Attending the event will be MPs representing the constituencies of the shortlisted candidates and Parliamentarians with an interest in the work and reach of APS across the UK.

If you'd like to submit an application, you can do so online via our website free of charge. If you'd like more information about the awards, visit www.aps.org.uk/how-apply or call the team on 0131 442 6600.

We really do hope you'll take this opportunity to celebrate success with us and we look forward to seeing you in London soon.