Measuring the standard of safety in aviation

Advancing aviation, keeping the skies safe is what we strive to do every day. Not just in our own airspace, but across the world. This week, a team from NATS will be presenting at the Global ATM Safety Conference to share some of the work that we have been doing on a Standard of Excellence in Safety Management Systems (SoE in SMS) measurement tool.

Over the past 10 years we have been working with Eurocontrol and Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) members to create the SoE in SMS.

The tool goes beyond the requirements of current domestic and international regulations and allows air navigation service providers (ANSPs) to build a system which is both appropriate for their organisation and their operational capabilities. Furthermore, the tool provides a framework to ANSPs to help them implement and continually improve their efforts to manage safety.

It has been instrumental in establishing a global indication of the performance level of safety management systems and providing essential information for the maintenance and improvement of the participating ANSPs.

The Network Manager, in partnership with CANSO, uses the information to gather safety knowledge from ANSPs, to tailor its activities in support of safety management.

The SoE in SMS provides a pathway for ANSPs to an organisation focused on continuous safety improvement by reflecting best practice, and providing a means to measure and understand SMS maturity of each participating organisation against a common industry ATM standard.

This year NATS submitted its responses to the measurement tool and set industry best practices in Safety by Design, Safety Policy, Safety Promotion and Safety Partnership.  I’m looking forward to sharing how we achieved that at this year’s conference and hearing from other ANSPs about what they have done. It is a good opportunity for us to learn from each other and further improve their safety management system.