Safety Culture Working Group (SCWG)
Improving Safety Culture in Safety-Critical Industries
Safety culture is often cited as a major contributor to incidents and organisational performance, yet many organisations still struggle with practical questions:
- How do you measure safety culture objectively?
- How do you move beyond compliance activity?
- How do leaders influence culture?
- How do you sustain a strong culture across teams and organisations?
- How can we create environments where people speak up and concerns are acted upon?
The Safety Culture Working Group (SCWG) brings together professionals from across safety-critical sectors to share experiences, case studies, research, and practical approaches to improving safety culture.
What is Safety Culture?
“The safety culture of an organisation is the product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behaviour that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of, an organisation’s safety management system (within the overall business management system).”
Adapted from ACSNI Human Factors Study Group: Third report - Organising for safety HSE Books 1993
Our Purpose
The SCWG aims to:
- Promote discussion and knowledge sharing across industries
- Explore practical approaches for assessing and improving safety culture
- Share real-world experiences and lessons learned
- Support development of guidance and research
- Build connections between practitioners, researchers, and organisations
Current Focus Areas & Activities
Current Focus Areas
Current activities and areas of interest include:
- Measuring safety culture effectively
- Developing repeatable and objective assessment approaches
- Safety culture within engineering and product development teams
- Leadership and board-level influence on safety culture
- Safety culture across organisational boundaries and supply chains
- Psychological safety and speaking-up cultures
- Emerging challenges, including AI and changing ways of working
Current Activities
The working group currently:
- Holds regular online meetings and presentations
- Shares industry case studies and lessons learned
- Develops surveys and collaborative initiatives
- Hosts invited speakers from industry and academia
- Supports publication and dissemination of findings
Upcoming activities may include:
- Industry-wide safety culture survey
- Cross-sector benchmarking discussions
- Development of practical guidance material
Join the Working Group
Membership is open to professionals with an interest in safety culture and safety-critical industries.
We welcome participation from sectors including:
- Aerospace
- Rail
- Defence
- Energy
- Automotive
- Healthcare
- Industrial Systems
- Academia
Meetings are held remotely via Microsoft Teams.
For information or to join:
anne.seldon@soteiraconsulting.com
Previous Presentations and Resources
Webinars and Presentations
Below are a selection of webinars and presentations organised by the Safety Culture Working Group
| Date | Topic | Presenter |
| 2021 | Seminar: Safety Culture Developments | SCWG |
| 2021 | SCWG | |
| Apr 2022 | SCWG | |
| Nov 2022 | Safety Culture at Leonardo Helicopters | Richard Folkes |
| Feb 2023 | Measuring safety culture: Practices and pitfalls | Dr Kathryn Mearns |
| May 2023 | Safety Culture practices in UK rail | Paul Leach |
Recommended Viewing / Reading
A selection of interesting articles and papers created by members of the working group.
Latest Update
Summary of recent activities:
- May 2026 - Working group refresh and restart
- Upcoming May 2026 - SCSS 2027 Abstracts Discussions
- June 2026 - Human Factors & Safety Culture Discussion - Nicola Fairburn Atkins-Realis