Celebrating Commitment to Electrical Safety: Malcolm Duncan Receives the ESR Derek Thompson Industry Service Award

We are thrilled to announce that our Managing Director, Malcolm Duncan, has been honoured with the prestigious ESR Derek Thompson Industry Service Award. This accolade is a testament to Malcolm’s unwavering dedication to raising awareness about safe isolation within the electrical industry.

The ESR (Electrical Safety Roundtable) celebrates organisations and individuals who have made significant contributions to enhancing electrical safety in the workplace. Malcolm’s journey towards advocating for safe isolation began several years ago after he was deeply moved by Michael’s story—a tragic tale of an electrician who lost his life while on the job.

A Personal Commitment to Change

In 2018, the awareness around safe isolation was alarmingly inadequate. The industry, as a whole, had largely ignored the crucial issue of electrical safety, leaving many professionals at risk. Motivated by Michael’s story, Malcolm and the team at Super Rod made a resolute commitment to drive change. They leveraged their extensive network across industry organisations, trade press, electrical wholesalers, and more to build a sustained campaign focused on raising awareness about safe isolation.

The Impact of Super Rod’s Campaign

The impact of this campaign has been profound. Richard Bowler, editor of Professional Electrician, remarked, “As a publication, our readers have benefited significantly from the work that Super Rod has undertaken in this area. This has allowed us to share the message through features and other storytelling mechanisms. Other suppliers and manufacturers have since followed suit with their own awareness campaigns, which can only be a good thing for the industry.”

He continued, “From a personal perspective, I have admired the way that Malcolm and the Super Rod team have never allowed the ‘flames’ of the campaign to die. When brands normally embark on campaigns, they can often lose some steam or fizzle out after a year or so, but the length of time that Super Rod has continued to push the message, refresh its supporting materials, and generally try to educate the industry is a testament to Malcolm and the brand’s investment and support in improving this particular area of electrical safety.”

Barrie McKay, Training & Development Manager at SECTT, also comments about Malcolm’s commitment: “Malcolm has sought to find an understanding of the industry and where the issues lay and then worked with ourselves to deliver this understanding to all apprentices in Scotland.  In 2020, the industry had a 57% first time pass rate in Safe Isolation, we now have 82% and I believe that this is due to the raising of awareness of the issues.

There is still work to do and we need to continue to work together to to raise awareness of this life-or-death initiative.” 

Acknowledgment and Future Commitment

We extend our heartfelt thanks to the ESR and its judges for recognising the hard work and dedication involved in this initiative. At Super Rod, we remain committed to delivering collaborative solutions to create a safer working environment for everyone in the electrical industry.

Our latest commitment has seen a number of organisations and individuals agree to come together to pool their time, effort and resources.

The likes of IET, NAPIT, NICEIC, ECA, SparkSafe LtP and Electrical Safety First, along with leading industry brands and proactive contractors and individuals like Apprentice 121 founder Mark Allison , will be providing input, resources and expertise to ensure that a consistent, single message is delivered across the industry through trade show attendance, articles and editorials, video content and social media activity. We are planning another industry survey for the summer of this year.

For those interested in learning more about the campaign, we invite you to read the latest article on pages 21 and 22 of Professional Electrician here. Additionally, you can find the latest survey detailing our efforts here.

Together, we can continue to push forward, ensuring that every electrician is aware of and practices safe isolation procedures. Let’s work together to prevent any more heartbreaking stories and make our industry a beacon of safety and awareness 🏆