Health & Safety Consultancy

Let Us Guide You Through Your Compliance Obligations

We specialise in providing consultancy solutions developed for Operational and/or Property Health & Safety Management.

Health & Safety Consultancy

We specialise in providing consultancy solutions developed for Operational and/or Property Health & Safety Management. All our services commence with a review of your business’s specific activities and needs, this enables us to propose a suitable service level and scope to meet your needs.

Upon retention, a dedicated consultant will be appointed to partner with the management team, who will provide reliable advice, guidance and support developed to meet the objectives and desires of your business. Where practical, we aim to appoint a multi-disciplined consultant to enable a single point of contact, providing a consistent and efficient service.

All our consultancy services are based on the development of a Health & Safety Management System in accordance with HSG 65, and the principles of ISO45001:2015 (Plan, Do, Check, Act), as accredited management systems.

Consultants can be provided on an ad hoc or retained agreement depending on your business needs and preference.

Policies & Arrangements

A service designed to assist with the development of a Health & Safety Policy, in order to set out the objectives and intention of the business, a commitment to legal compliance, signed my the most senior executive or officer, and displayed as a statement for all.

Once the policy and objectives are confirmed, health and safety arrangements (procedures) must be developed, as information on how compliance is achieved, the responsibilities to manage, and will act as information for managers, employees, and all.

Appropriate Health and Safety arrangements are an absolute compliance in accordance with, regulation 7 of The Management Of health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999

Risk Assessment

This service will assist with the development of a risk assessment process designed as a solution to suit your business, the outcome of which can be ‘Suitable & Sufficient’ risk assessments as information for management, employees, and all others. Risk assessments are developed in accordance with the relevant management arrangements or procedures.

Commonly, the requirements swill include:

- Task Specific Risk Assessments: risk assessments developed for the task and activities of the business in consultation with operatives and management.
- Special Risks Assessment: risk assessments in consideration of the time, frequency and exposure of employees to specific hazards e.g. Display Screen Equipment (DSE), (COSHH), Manual Handling

Risk Assessment will also identify all hazard based training needs, allowing a risk-based training programme to be developed.

Suitable and sufficient risk assessments are an absolute compliance obligation in accordance with regulation 3 of The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

Compliance Obligation (Gap Analysis)

A process that commences with the identification of legal and other compliance obligations, once established the compliance objectives are detailed on a ‘Legal Register’.

The legal register and regulatory review is then used to complete a Gap Analysis, which is a review of compliance objectives and management standards in order to identify any shortfalls, and detail the requirements to meet compliance.

The outcome of the process will be a detailed report that will assist in setting objectives to meet obligations, reduce exposure, and safeguard the business and employees.

Throughout this process the consultant will liaise with the business leadership team to establish the management approach and develop a plan to detail how obligations can be met.

Emergency Planning

A service which will advise and assist in establishing and developing emergency preparation, one of the basic principles of any health and safety management system, which will include:

- Fire Safety: means of detection and raising alarm, evacuation strategy, training, fire risk assessment
- First Aid: assessing first aid needs, adequate arrangements, ensuring first aider personnel and equipment is available and adequate to meet the business needs.
- Incident Reporting: developing arrangements to for the reporting of incidents, review by a competent person and maintained as records for investigation and relevant stakeholders.

Compliance Monitoring

A Service to assist with establishing methods of monitoring, measuring, and reviewing performance, an essential part of any H&S Management System to maintain and improve management standards and compliance, including:

- Internal Inspections: periodic inspections to review compliance of a specific operation, process, or tasks, detailed on an inspection log, maintained, and monitored as a record of compliance monitoring.
- Audits & Assessments: periodic formal inspection and assessments to establish compliance by reviewing management performance, obtaining objective evidence, detailed on a formal audit report. Required to achieve any external independent accreditations where desired (ISO 45001, Safe Contractor etc.)
- Measuring Performance: setting objective and KPI’s on measurable proactive and reactive data from performance monitoring
- Performance Review: analysing and reviewing the results of monitoring, reporting, and sharing with, The Leadership Team, H&S Forums & Groups, Competent Persons, along with all other Stakeholders.
- Learning Lessons: analysing monitoring information, establishing causal factors, considering corrective and preventative actions and measures, communicating to ensure lessons are learnt, assign responsibility to implement the measures required, monitor implementation and effectiveness of new measures.
- H&S Forums: the development of H&S forums and groups from all areas of the business, utilisation of the forum as a consultative process to review and improve H&S Management throughout the organisation.

Incident Investigation

A service developed to assist with developing a formal incident investigation process. The principle being to establish cause, implement corrective and preventative measures to avoid recurrence.

Investigation is an essential part of legal compliance and assist to:

- Establish casual factors,
- Learn lessons and prevent recurrence,
- Establish the cost of incidents,
- Provide information to:

• Insurers
• Enforcement agencies
• H&S representatives and forums
• Customers and clients
• All other stakeholders

The degree of investigation, and the investigation team, is dependent on the significance and severity of an incident, most near misses and minor incidents can be undertaken by managers and internal employees, for more serious incidents specialists or professionally competent persons may be required to assist internal management and employees. We are able to offer a variety of services to assist with all types of incidents, and incident investigation.

Word law with judges gavel and legal books on wooden background

Health & Safety Consultancy – the Legal bit….What Is Required

The principal legal duty of care is to ensure ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’ the health, safety and welfare of employees at work, along with all others that may be affected by their undertakings.

All businesses must have adequate H&S compliance arrangements in accordance with the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA), and associated Regulations, Guidance and Approved Codes of Practice.

Managing health and safety is an essential part of all businesses. Risk Assessment are required to find out about the risks you need to manage and detail the practicable measures that can be implemented to control them. Risk assessments are critical in the evaluation and validation of management, along with applying a risk-based approach to all required improvements and actions.

Ensuring health and safety is managed systematically and in accordance with regulatory requirements is a priority for all businesses. Utilising a ‘Competent Person’, who can be either employed or retained via a consultancy arrangement is a mandatory requirement. (Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 7).

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 are the main regulations on managing health and safety, containing all the principal regulations for management system compliance.