She is director of health and safety at the Construction Confederation, and at a time when the industry's safety crisis is deepening, clearly has a major task on her hands. Last November and December, six construction workers, including a 16-year-old, died in accidents on sites across the country; 62 had already died between April and September, a 59% increase in fatalities on the same period the previous year.
Deputy prime minister John Prescott has called a safety summit for the end of February at which the industry must demonstrate that it is tackling the problem. And the Construction Confederation, which represents about 75% of it, will be expected to be at the forefront of moves to improve the situation.
Thursfield, now 29, joined the confederation as deputy health and safety director four years ago from Bovis, where she was a health and safety adviser. She admits that at just 25, the move was something of a leap in the dark, and confesses to not even knowing what a trade association was. "The title deputy director was made up for me as a compromise, because I didn't have enough experience. But I'm still here so I obviously got it right at some point." She was made director after a year in the job.
"I don't think I was any more confident than any other 25-year-old," she adds, "but I had an awful lot of support from colleagues. I knew I didn't always have the answers, and kept asking questions." Despite this modest approach, Thursfield clearly feels passionately about the industry and its safety record. She first got the bug during a week's work experience while at school with an estate agent who took her to a new-build homes site. "As soon as I smelled the timber and plaster, I realised this was what I wanted to do," she says.
Lovell Construction sponsored her to study building management and technology at Liverpool University and took her on as a junior site engineer when she finished her studies. The final stage was a visit to the firm's safety officers, which got her interested in health and safety.
What we as contractors need to do is to set our own standards. Zero tolerance is a team effort
Now, on top of her usual role of keeping contractors up to date with health and safety legislation and guiding them on health and E E safety management, Thursfield must oversee the implementation of a series of measures hammered out by the confederation in December. Member organisations have been given targets they must meet for reducing fatalities, accidents and site-induced ill-health.
Thursfield also represents the health and safety interests of confederation members to the other parties involved in the health and safety debate, including the Construction Industry Board (clients), the Health and Safety Executive (regulator) and unions. A huge wallplanner in her office barely has any space for more meetings to be pencilled in.
These many, often conflicting, interest groups are increasingly locking horns over the health and safety crisis. Nobody denies that something has to be done, it's just that they have different ideas of how to do it.
Thursfield stresses that teamwork is essential if construction's safety record is to be improved. "We're not saying it's your fault – we're asking what you can do to help," she says. "A client, for example, can set the whole tone of a project. What we as contractors need to do is set our own high standards. Zero tolerance is a team effort." She also believes that the statistics should be seen in perspective. "There are around 1.5 million people working in construction and they don't all get injured. I'm not sure I'd call this a dangerous industry." But it is on the subject of roving union health and safety representatives, an increasingly contentious issue between unions and contractors, that her unswerving dedication to the contractor's cause really comes to the fore. "You can't tell me that having a union inspector who doesn't know me, doesn't know my site, doesn't necessarily know my workers, come and talk to us is going to improve communication and consultation," she says. "By doing so we are creating another problem, not dealing with the current one." And that is about all she wants to say on the subject. The fact that ministers are advocating union inspectors is one that Thursfield does not seem prepared to address. The scheme is set to be trialled over an 18-month period from the spring, but she will not discuss its future. Yet Thursfield insists that her inability to see eye-to-eye with unions and politicians on this issue simply represents a difference of opinion, rather than a fundamental clash of philosophies. "We all know each others' arguments. I go out to lunch with these people to discuss it." Being positive and supportive is something of a Thursfield mantra. She is clearly dedicated to her cause, reeling off statistics of workers affected by musculo-skeletal illness and asbestosis, and says she is resigned to even more workers coming forward with construction-related illnesses, as greater publicity means more people begin to realise what is wrong with them. Yet she is confident of longer-term success, and of the industry's ability to tackle its failures.
