Sellafield

Sellafield
ongoing
Cumbria
Sep 2015
Current

We supply a range of skilled trades and labour at Sellafield nuclear site.

Our contracts and the support from our in-house training team help us to be flexible to meet our client needs, while offering operatives job security.

Workers include appointed persons, engineers, apprentice engineers, joiners, steelfixers, banksmen, slingers, crane supervisors, ground workers, concrete operatives, general, section and area foremen.

George Farquhar
Labour manager George Farquhar

Our people on site are supported by labour manager George Farquhar, who has worked in Sellafield since 1983. He is based in our office in Cleator Moor. George is a local authorised signatory for p4 passes for clearance up to DV (developed vetting) level. He also assists our clients with pass transfer ASAs and security check (SC) clearances.

Our Sellafield mental first aider is Carl Walmsley.

Local people, local expertise

We have 100% local employment on Sellafield (audited by Baker Mallet).

We are committed to recruiting a workforce that is representative of the communities in which we work. We want people to have access to local and sustainable employment, and to ensure that local communities gain the maximum social and economic benefit from works that we are involved in. In addition, having a local workforce reduces the environmental impact of long-distance commuting.

We work closely with Copeland Borough Council to support local employment, and hold regular local recruitment open days. In addition, we partner with G4S Welfare to Work and Groundwork Cumbria to support people back into work.

With Morgan Sindall, Sellafield Ltd and Copeland council, we were a founder member of All Together Cumbria. The social enterprise aims to improve skills, learning and employability across Cumbria. All parties involved have pledged to reinvest a percentage of their turnover in funding community schemes, to improve the socio-economic outlook for Cumbrian communities.

We support our people with training.

CPCS cards
CPCS cards for one of our Sellafield training cohorts

In 2019 and 2020 VGC spent around £25,000 on training. At Sellafield, we have helped staff to upgrade their red Construction Plant Competence Scheme (CPCS) cards to blue NVQ level 2 competent operator cards. In February 2020, 14 people gained CPCS blue cards and level 2 NVQs in plant operations. These included

  • forward tipping dumper
  • ride on roller
  • 360 excavator
  • slinger signaller
  • telehandler.

In August 2020 Ben Moore gained his Advanced Level Apprenticeship in Wood Operations.

We have taken on apprentice joiners Max Nisbet, Keenan McCarron and Max O’Reilly, who were furloughed by their employer; we’ve established them on the SRP project to ensure they complete their qualifications.
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Michael Hagri award
Michael Hagri (L) with Ian Cruden

Commendations

In January 2020, concrete finisher Michael Hagri received a special award from the project for suggesting an alternative way to fill in gaps around a new goods lift. He won a VGC go beyond award in December 2020.

Team member Ian Sharples received a special award from the client for suggesting an improvement to the steelwork design.

Ian Cruden and Ian Sharples
Ian Cruden (L) presenting his award to Ian Sharples
“Ian’s ideas will improve the safety and increase productivity of the install. Well done, Ian”
Ian Cruden, package manager

These special awards have only ever been awarded twice – both times to VGC workers.

Damian Burns and Lee Flynn
Damian Burns, major projects safety manager (L) congratulating Lee Flynn

Chargehand groundworker Lee Flynn, working on the BEPPS (box encapsulation plant product store), spotted and removed an unsecured scaffold pole, and received an SBO (Safety Behaviour Observation) award.

“Thank you for VGC’s continued participation on the SBO scheme and congratulations again to Lee.”
Andrew Ostle, health and safety adviser

Fully compliant in high security environments

Our HR team, trained by the UK Borders Agency, screens personnel to work on projects throughout the UK.

VGC workersVGC’s rigorous clearance processes are trusted by clients to provide staff at Heathrow, high-profile projects like HS2 and Crossrail, and nuclear facilities including Urenco and Hinkley Point. All our workers are fully vetted including face-to-face interviews; at Sellafield they are all P4 pass holders with full Disclosure Scotland and drugs and alcohol screening.

We have been audited by Sellafield for CIJC Working Rule Agreement compliance and have gained industrial relations clearance. We have a good relationship with the industrial relations manager and we sit on the Sellafield Contractors group. All our operatives are on a full contract of employment and comply fully with pink book regulations, in line with CIJC union agreed terms.

Contact us to find out more about our teams at Sellafield, and how we can meet your staffing needs.

If you’d like to work for us, please fill in our registration form.

Read more about Sellafield on their website.