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The FACT Health & Safety Consultancy

What is health and safety management?

Managing health and safety is about looking after your business, your staff and your reputation.  Practising good health & safety will protect your team from accidents and injury and protect company officers from fines and imprisonment.  So, do you think you need a health and safety consultant?  Managing health and safety doesn’t have to be complicated, costly or time-consuming. Making sure you’re up to date with the latest Health & Safety procedures is now easier than ever.

Small businesses can often be too busy to realise they may have health & safety issues.  Employees can be reluctant to report problems, preferring to get on with the job or not make a fuss. There may also be an ignorance of the laws governing health & safety at work, a complacency with use of machinery, tools or materials, over-familiarity with the job or simply a lack of safety culture within a business.  An accident in a small business can mean the end of the business, especially if the employer is prosecuted or sued by his employee.

Due to the required knowledge and industry expertise required, Health & Safety Managers or Advisors can be an expensive member of the team and, for a small business, this is not a viable option for many.

First Advanced Construction Training employs two full time instructors, both with extensive industry knowledge and experience.  Both our instructors hold NEBOSH qualifications and are experienced in site audits and health & safety advice and guidance.  We offer a full site or workplace survey with written report and recommendations, if any, for improvements in good practice and identification of any training required to comply with current laws, legislation or guidelines.  You may find that a Health & Safety Consultancy offering advice and guidance with ongoing, regular support would be an affordable option for you.

Similarly, if you or your team members work as contractors on customer sites – would you know who is responsible for their health & safety?  Would you know is responsible for the risk assessment or method statement required before anyone starts work?  Ideally, you and your client would conduct a workplace assessment together, plan a risk assessment and devise a safe system of work.  This is because your client would know the environment for the job, but you would know what materials and tools are required.  If your client does not employ a suitably qualified Safety Officer, you could insist that a safety consultant is employed for this purpose and you could ask us to do this for you.  Alternatively, FACT Ltd can train your lead team members to carry out full risk assessments and prepare task briefs or method statements for each location you attend or job you are required to carry out.

Many larger businesses implement successful health and safety and environmental practices and can afford their own Safety Officer.  For many smaller businesses, the responsibility of safety awareness and the management of health & safety within the business can become all-consuming, leaving limited time for other responsibilities.  If your small business is struggling to manage the health & safety matters, you may benefit from hiring a health & safety consultancy.  Our team at FACT will take time to work with all your staff, which helps improve morale and encourages a behavioural safety culture within your business.

What can FACT offer?

1. Our H&S consultants can carry out health and safety risk assessments either on your own premises or at places of work, if required
2. We can provide a full report after any site visit with recommendations or actions clearly identified and support in place to successfully implement these in a timely manner
3. Review the risk assessment, method statement or task brief if circumstances change
4. Offer advice on safe systems of work, PPE, machine guards and equipment
5. Carry out a full assessment of your health & safety training requirements and implement any training required, both to ensure full compliance with the law and also to ensure your staff are trained and competent in the tasks they are required to carry out
6. FACT can help you write and implement your health & safety policies and procedures and monitor these to ensure they are being followed
7. Provide reports and company statistics on the health & safety performance of your business
8. Offer advice on changes to legislation affecting health & safety and training
9. Monitor and manage the training matrix for your business – offering discounts and incentives to improve and increase the number of competent team members, rather than just ‘ticking-boxes’

The nature and scope of our work would be clearly defined to avoid future misunderstandings. We would clearly set out and agree what is the desired outcome of our work or project with you.  We would also clearly set out and agree the responsibilities of both parties.

Clients who ask us to look after their health & safety needs, training matrixes and manage their staff competences benefit from discounted training and automatic notification of expiries.  We can also offer an hourly-rate* service for certain visits around the health & safety consultancy and will ensure the client is fully aware of changes to current legislation – where it is relevant or may affect their business.

The Health & Safety Consultancy Pack comprises of:

1. A full health & safety compliance audit and report
2. A personalised health & safety policy with mission statement
3. A bound, personalised health & safety policy manual
4. Health & safety risk assessments, method statement and task briefs or all jobs, activities and operations where there is significant risk
5. Appropriate and relevant accredited training for all members of your team
6. Ongoing support [*in certain circumstances, additional visits and reports are chargeable at an agreed hourly rate]

What would a Health & Safety Package for an SME cost?

Our full Health & Safety package for businesses with between 1 and 10 employees in a single location is £750 + VAT per annum [or £75 + VAT per month] plus any additional support required at an agreed hourly rate

Our full Health & Safety package for businesses with between 11 and 25 employees in a single location is £1250 + VAT per annum [or £125 + VAT per month] plus any additional support required at an agreed hourly rate

Our full Health & Safety package for businesses with more than 25 employees is negotiable after initial consultation

IOSH Managing Safely – The Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has developed the Managing Safely Training course for managers and supervisors at any level in any sector.

First Advanced Construction Training Ltd offer the IOSH Managing Safely course at a significant discount to our account-holding clients and for smaller businesses where we are delivering a health & safety consultancy

This 3-day course can be delivered at our newly refurbished training centre in Folkestone, or at client premises to suit.  At just £395 + VAT per person, the IOSH Managing Safely training course is for those required to manage safely and effectively in compliance with both their organisation’s policy and best practice in Health and Safety. It comprises of seven core modules requiring a total direct input of at least 22 hours plus assessment time. The programme is taught using a mixture of lectures, practical exercises to maintain interest and to allow delegates to practice the skills they have learned, so that they can be applied in the workplace.  Attending the IOSH Managing Safely course will not turn you into a health and safety expert, but will teach you exactly what you need to know and what your responsibilities as a manager are.