Baines Simmons, part of the Air Partner group, has been awarded the contract for the Safety Training for Error Prevention (STEP) programme by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), in partnership with engineering specialist Frazer-Nash Consultancy.
The contract is worth between £2m and £3m and will span the next four years, with the option of two one-year extensions. The contract will also serve as a framework agreement to support and facilitate safety-related sub-projects across the MOD.
STEP is the successor to the Defence Aviation Error Management System (DAEMS) contracts, which were technical support initiatives designed to assist cultural change and facilitate the establishment of an effective Safety Management System (SMS) across the Defence Aviation Environment (DAE).
Baines Simmons and Frazer-Nash will provide support within the STEP programme to further embed Error Management (EM) and to support the progression towards the next stage of safety maturity, as an effective SMS is developed across the DAE.
With the formation of the Defence Safety Agency (DSA), there is the potential opportunity for STEP to deliver a Training Needs Analysis (TNA) to identify emerging training requirements across the other MOD regulatory domains and develop appropriate training and technical support solutions.