Raising the reputation of health & safety

With experience of adminstering a similar scheme for electrical contractors, Emma
Mcarthy welcomes the introduction of the Occupational Safety Consultants Register
(OSCR) and discusses the implications for health and safety professionals and the
sector as a whole

“For too long, health and safety has been
allowed to become a joke in the media
and among the public. It’s about time it
was taken seriously.” So said Lord Young when he
presented the Health and Safety review, Common
Sense, Common Safety in October 2010. Whether
or not you agree with the diagnosis, Lord Young’s
recommendations are here and mark a sea change
in Health and Safety practice.

Much of what was contained within Lord Young’s
Health and Safety review presented a common sense
view. The report reflected the political attitude of the
coalition; that government has been meddling into
people’s affairs for too long, increasing the red tape
on business and promoting a damaging
compensation culture within society.

An interesting recommendation from Lord Young
was the need for a register of health and safety
consultants. In his view, this would professionalise
the industry, with a qualification requirement that all consultants
are recognised by professional bodies.

I am a great believer in verification. It is a cost effective way of
ensuring a supply chain is up to scratch. My own organisation
has a rich history of verifying individuals and companies; our
NICEIC brand is the largest verifier of electrical contractors in
the UK. Another of our companies, NQA, assesses and certifies
many businesses including Pepsico and Jaguar/Land Rover
against the rigours of OHSAS 18001- the internationally
recognised standard for health and safety management systems.

The constant tinkering of Health and Safety legislation, can
often lead businesses to fear the
ever increasing compensation
culture and, in recent years, has
become the butt of media jokes
highlighting ridiculous health
and safety procedures.

The reality though is often
very different and IOSH – the
chartered body for health and
safety professionals -publicises its
myth buster to set the record
straight about people’s fears over
health and safety law.

However, this fear factor often
lingers and demonstrates the
need to professionalise the sector
to raise its reputation within the
wider business community.

NQA’s mission is to enable
organisations to improve
performance, achieve best practice and manage risk.

Organisations are increasingly implementing health and safety
management systems to ensure they manage risk accordingly and
behave responsibly. Consultants work with organisations to
achieve change and implement the systems. Certification bodies,
such as NQA, then independently assess the system against the
national or international standard such as OHSAS 18001.

With many organisations choosing to use consultants when
implementing these management systems it makes perfect sense to
suggest that a formal, national directory is kept of qualified,
specialist, independent health and safety consultants. Similar to the
NICEIC register we maintain of approved electrical contractors –
their competencies are assessed and only qualified, approved
contractors are registered and listed on the NICEIC directory. An
industry recognised UK register also offers the capability to ensure
those registered are reputable and fully competent by being reassessed
on a regular basis and would allow businesses to search
for reputable health and safety consultants.

A register of health and safety professionals would ensure
health and safety consultations are carried out by someone
competent and qualified. Better stakeholder relationships would
be formed and customer satisfaction improved. This gives peace
of mind to an organisation that may otherwise fall foul of health
and safety legislation through bad advice from unqualified
consultants. By having a formal and professionally run register of
health and safety, best practice
would be achieved.