Health & Safety

Hosking Associates can help make your business or school a safe place to work and visit

We can work alongside you as your partner to create and implement practical and strong safety management arrangements.

We help organisations achieve compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, and associated regulations – in particular the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations which requires a competent person be engaged to provide advice.

Our core business is the provision of competent person support, working at a high level within organisations as your Health & Safety Manager. We work with companies, schools and trusts either too small to employ someone internally or who prefer to outsource this role. We are also available to supplement the work of internal health & safety teams to provide training, to audit or to undertake specific projects. Our aim is to encourage personal responsibility at all levels and to incorporate safety arrangements seamlessly into your everyday business activities.

For specific information on areas we will consider, see TOPICS.

Employer responsibilities:

HSG65 is the HSE’s guidance for business leaders on how to build a successful framework for managing risk and we are experienced in applying the Plan, Do, Check, Act Model.

We can guide you through ensuring risk assessments are completed, training needs met, documentation organised, checks completed and communication channels at every level remain open and honest.

We partner with our clients to help break down the health and safety minefield into bite size chunks providing the right amount of support for you. We will take you on a journey, building strong foundations and embedding practical ways of working to continually improve your standards.

We do not complete risk assessments and leave you to work out the next steps – we will guide you through the process, until compliance is achieved. We believe health & safety is about working alongside people so they can take on every part of the process. Over time arrangements become fully embedded and our support will reduce.

New clients undergo an initial review. This is a detailed examination of the current standards against legal requirements.

This shows us where you are now, we examine where you would like to be and we create a plan of how you might get there with various options. The report does not just focus on what is wrong but we also record your successes and strengths too.

If you choose to we can support implementation as your competent person. Typically this could involve:

  • Reviewing and updating your Health & Safety Policy so it reflects what you actually do
  • Creation of a health and safety steering group to involve staff (and pupils) in decision making & ideas.
  • Guiding you through the risk assessment process
  • Liaison with specialists such as fire, asbestos and water consultants to ensure that they meet the standards expected under your policy
  • Creating systems which enable you to track accident rates or trends and reports on near misses
  • Assisting with the organisation of documentation in both hard and soft copy
  • Liaison with enforcement officers
  • Implementing contractor management controls if you outsource work including meeting all CDM15 standards
  • If you are a contractor we can help with PQQs and any SSiP schemes you belong to
  • Assisting clients, designers and contractors with their duties under Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2015
  • Delivering training and helping you to manage this in house where possible
  • Keeping you on track! making sure your plan is being implemented
  • For larger organisations we can supplement the work of internal teams
  • Develop checks and KPIs to test and measure whether the arrangements you think are in place really are
  • Producing reports for boards or governors which meet standards from HSG65. In particular undertaking an annual audit to assess levels of compliance

Safety Ribbon Award

The Hosking Associates’ Safety Ribbon Award is a health & safety benchmark that all businesses should aspire to.

The awards are given to companies that score highly on compliance in their annual audit.

Companies that fall short of these high standards are given guidance on how to improve their performance.

Arrangements we will work alongside you to manage include:

  • Abrasive Wheels
  • Accident and Incident Management (including near miss reporting) Reactive Monitoring
  • Asbestos
  • Audits and checking systems
  • Behavioural Safety
  • Building Maintenance including managing risks of falling objects
  • Risks to people involved in cash handling
  • Checking Systems (Proactive Monitoring)
  • Contractor Management
  • Compliance with Construction (Design & Management) Regulations (CDM)
  • Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH)
  • Consultation involving and empowering staff
  • Director & Senior Executives Safety Responsibilities
  • Doors & Gates
  • Driving for Work
  • Display Screen Equipment
  • Electrical Safety
  • Emergency Planning
  • Enforcement officer action
  • Events and Shows
  • Expert Witness
  • Fire
  • First Aid
  • Gas
  • Glazing
  • Head Bump Hazards
  • Height
  • Home Working
  • Infection Control
  • Inspections
  • Kitchen Safety
  • Knives & Scissors
  • Ladders
  • Lifts and Lifting Equipment
  • Log Books and Documentation Control – current, organised, relevant
  • Lone Working
  • Manual Handling
  • Management of Medicines in schools
  • Mobile Elevating Work Equipment (MEWP’s)
  • New & Expectant mothers
  • Noise
  • Office Safety
  • Outdoor Education
  • Personal Responsibility – clear, understood
  • Personal Safety
  • Policy Documentation
  • Person Protective Equipment (PPE)
  • Restricting Access
  • Resourcing – time, money, support
  • Risk Assessment (Risk Profiling)
  • Safeguarding
  • Signage
  • Slips, Trips, Falls
  • Smoking
  • Statutory Examinations
  • Storage
  • Stress
  • Supervision
  • Surveying Safely
  • Swimming Pools
  • Telecommunication Masts
  • Thermal Comfort
  • Tower Cranes
  • Tower Scaffolds
  • Traffic Movement – Separating people and traffic
  • Training
  • Vibration
  • Visitor Safety
  • Water Safety and Legionella Control
  • Well Being & Health
  • Work Equipment – Identifying assets and managing planned maintenance
  • Young People at Work