My week (in Health and Safety)

I do not have a "typical week". For me, most weeks are different from the ones either side of them, although there are some common themes.

This week looks like being something like this:

Monday
Start the day in the office and ensure that people are about their tasks without any serious delays. Hagrid is working up in Lancaster (and has been for the last few weeks) on a Wind Farm project. The only on-going issue he has at the moment is internet access! Richard is enjoying the week off as it's half-term round here. Jamie is updating the web pages and sorting the Newsletter and health and safety new items. John and Brian are out and about doing Fire Safety visits. Before going out, I needed to spend a bit of time promoting next week's Free Seminar (BTW, it would be great if you could join me).

I have also carried out a visit to a Restaurant in Nottingham who have fallen foul of the EHO and are facing enforcement action. Having visited, the restaurant has a lot to do needs to show significant progress before tomorrow's EHO revisit. I will attempt to be present for the EHO revisit, but I have some other (previous) commitments to deal with.

A call from a client to deal with a potential vibration issue has taken over some of the afternoon. Got the client chasing the manufacturers details for the equipment that they have hirered in. Provide the client with some useful HAVS information and a "Trigger Time" record for use on site. I am still chasing for the equipment specification and information so that I can assist them further.

I finished off the afternoon by completing another couple of blog posts: one on Warehouse Safety and one on Health Surveillance.

Tuesday
The morning makes me think that Ragnarok has arrived: the sun is hiding and the world is covered with a wet mist! Starting the day visiting a New Client (out in the middle of nowhere)to gather information for the first draft of their Health and Safety Policy. Following that visit, I'm heading back at the Restaurant in Nottingham to assist with the EHO revisit. Then I'll write up the site visit notes and recommendations for the Restaurant. The EHO visit turned out to be more of a County Council QC process than an enforcement meeting. I have still left the client with a bit of an Improvements List.

Hagrid is remaining up in Lancaster for the rest of the week. He is back on Saturday to run a training course for a client and then heads off to Peterhead for three weeks for another Wind Farm project. After that, he is having a bit of down time (well earned). Jamie will need to get the training materials ready for Hagrid and I'll drop them over with him.  Jamie should also be posting the new, forthcoming training course information on the website. I will also have to pick up with a client who is struggling to put together training information for a third party accreditation scheme. I will also need to check that the Confined Spaces Training course is ready for delivery (by me) on Monday next week.

Bit of a blow from a large client who is putting some of our work on hold due to economic pressures. This is okay, provided that it does not go on for too long (yes, I want the work but also the client needs the compliance ausits doing to stay on track).

Another client need assistance with a Risk Assessment and Method Statement for "making-safe" a damaged high level window unit and associated glazing. This will include cordoning off access to a city centre street for a couple of hours.

Wednesday
Visited two client sites (one in the Coventry area and the other in Stratford) to update their Fire Risk Assessment and complete an Accessibility Assessment for them. Found one site to be acceptable, but the other was exceptional. Talking through the fire safety issues with the duty manager it was refreshing to find out that they had things under control and were fully up to speed with their own procedures and arrangements.

Received a call from a Care Home in the Leeds area that was referred to me by another consultant. I'll be sending them a proposal later today and I hope to be starting work with them next week on Health and Safety as well as Food Safety. It looks as though they are interested in a retained service.

Sending an email to arrange a phone call for Thursday with a new prospective large client.

Got back into the office in the afternoon to meet with a client who is struggling with their CHAS application. I think that the light has dawned and they are now pulling together the evidence of their good practise - the proof that they are managing safety!

Janice will be in the office in the afternoon, doing a little emergency replanning following a call from a client needing us to bring some of their forwards. This will have an effect on my work early next week and on John's work.

I am running a Free Seminar next week and need to ensure that this is being promoted well (by Jamie and others) and ensure that my presentation is completed. I also need to chase up the Fire Safety Leaflets that I have commissioned to ensure that they will be delivered to me before then. I will also arrange for this leaflet to be made available through my website.

Thursday
I had an interesting site meeting with a long established client in Nottingham to review their Health and Safety Policy and to plan the site visits to their sites (Nottingham and Scotland) for the next 12 months. There was also a lot of discussion of training and on staff development.

After that, I had to pick up the new flyers (on Fire Safety) and headed back to the office to do my bit of covering the phones (you never know, a large order may come in that means that I can plan for my retirement). There were a couple of enquiries to follow up on.

I intended to use the time in the office time to catch up on some office administration and to send out a couple of letters, quotes and even some invoices. I had a couple of client questions to deal with that ate into this time.

John is visiting a few clustered sites to carry out some fire safety reviews. Hagrid has returned a day early from Lancaster, allowing him to prepared for the next Wind Farm project in Peterhead. I have just set up a meeting with the client for this work to discuss what extra assistance we can provide as we move into next year.

Friday
Carried out a series of site visits to a multi-site client in the Stevenage, Northampton and Rugby areas to review their existing Fire Risk Assessments. Early start, late finish and a fair few miles. I managed to fit in a few phone calls (over coffee) and secured a couple of site visits for next week as well as a new (small) dental practice for a client for our access audit assessment. I also dealt woith a couple of calls to ensure that everything was in place for Hagrid to carry out the Health and Safety Training on Saturday for a local roofing company (before he sets off for Peterhead).

I managed to get back home in time to make my parents feel welcome (as they are staying over for the weekend).