Health and safety assistance
The facts
o Relevant knowledge,
skills and experience
o Ability to apply
these, but recognise the limits of your competence
o Necessary training
to acquire and maintain your competence
- You can get help in-house, from a professional outside
your organisation, or a combination of both – what's important is
competence to do the work.
- Poor advice could be damaging to people, whose lives and long
term health can be put at risk, to businesses, wasting time and
money and to the public, whose perceptions are tainted by negative
media stories about decisions made in the name of health and
safety.
- A research study
found that decision-makers believed the top two solutions to
preventing over-cautious decisions were definitive guidance and
access to professional advice.
Our position
- IOSH believes that competence is essential for providing
adequate health and safety assistance. There is currently lack of
clarity on this and consultants can operate without any
qualification or experience at all. We've therefore called for
government to clearly define competence, promote national
occupational standards on health and safety, and for the
accreditation of consultants.
- For some time we advocated a national competence-based on-line
register of health and safety consultants, recognised by the
government, will help assure quality and value of service and help
protect workers, employers and the public.
- In March 2011, the Occupational Safety and Health Consultants’
Register (OSHCR) was launched. This voluntary
register is supported the main occupational safety and
health professional bodies, the Health and Safety Executive and
the Government.
- IOSH maintains a competence-based membership structure,
requiring Initial and Continual Professional Development and offers
professional development courses. We
have a Code of Conduct that commits
all members to good standards of professional behaviour and
guidance on consultancy
good practice.
Relevant IOSH consultation responses