My Heath and Safety week ahead

Monday - Wednesday
I am delivering a 3-day training course up in Sheffield on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I'll need to use the breaks to make several phone calls to keep the wheels of my Company oiled (fortunately, they turn without too much input from me - Janice and Jamie have really risen to the task this year). I do really enjoy delivering training, but it does take all the time in the day to deliver. I have a consultant (Hagrid) who delivers most of our training courses, but this one needs my touch (or so I believe in a fit of vanity).


Monday (after the event)
So, Monday's training went well: there was a reasonable amount of discussion and plenty of sensible questions. We even derived most of the principles of Sections 2 and 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. Tomorrow will be a focus on Risk Assessment (practice and principles). I make a few calls at lunchtime and managed to sort out some pieces of work for later in the week - one of these will involve meeting a client on their site very early (about 06:30 hrs) on Thursday as this is the only time we can both meet to carry out his Fire Risk Assessment.


Tuesday (after the event)
Tuesday was an interesting romp through the processes of Risk Assessment - aiming to draw out people's views on how they can do this and how they can help each other. We discussed various tools for making the process easier simplifying some aspects. Reducing the paperwork is very popular! I managed to make a few calls while the group exercises were in progress, but there was little time that was not face-to-face today. When I got home, there was still time to work for an hour or so on the allotment before rain stopped play.


Wednesday (after the event)
Today was the last day of the three day training course. I'm pleased with the way that it went, but I do have some ideas to be introduced during the next similar course (to be run soon). During the course of the day I received a few interesting phone calls. One (which I called back at lunchtime) was an enquiry for some site assistance with a safety project (from a local business). Of special interest from this enquiry was the opportunity to tender for a significant training contract. This came from discussions of further assistance that we could offer by way of supporting this contract. Lucky timing? Fair enough, but you have to capitalise on the chances that come your way and follow up on chance remarks and comments. The other enquiry was simpler: this related to an existing client who is now involved in a second business and has recognised that they are in need of my services. This was an easy sell, but is based on the performance with the first company. Again, an example of making your own luck. Once again, I made it onto the allotment (for about an hour) before heading home to matters and chores of a domestic nature.


Thursday looks set to start with an early morning visit to a local company to carry out a Fire Risk Assessment, following a recent enforcement visit from the local Fire and Rescue service. I then have a short meeting planned with the accountant to review the finished accounts for the previous year. After that, I should be driving over to Nottingham to carry out the first part of a site audit visit. Further details should be coming in on that job on Monday and Tuesday.

Thursday (after the event)

It was indeed an early start with my new local client. The site was generally in very good order and their fire safety arrangements were pretty good. My role, in this case, is mainly to formalise their existing arrangements rather than to make recommendations for improvements. The job in Nottingham was delayed until next Friday. Instead, I spent the afternoon working on making some appointments for a series of jobs that have flooded in. These are a mixture of Safety Audits and Fire Risk Assessments around the country. I also had to work on a significant proposal to provide Training Services into a large local organisation (Loughborough based).

Friday involves a meeting with one of my consultants to work on a new aspect of product delivery (more on that in future blog articles). This may well be followed by another trip over to Nottingham to finish off the site audit work.

Friday (after the event)

The meeting with the consultant went well and we have worked out how to deliver a new service to our clients. The afternoon was spent sorting out some safety issues for other clients (developing risk assessment and method statements, sending a few suitable phrases to assist with tender submissions, etc.).

The above few lines do not look too long, but they do not allow for much time for the other aspects of running my Company. I need to sort out who within my organisation is going to do a 4-6 week placement in a Company in Docklands as Interim Health and Safety Officer. I need to schedule some works for southern Scotland in early June and I need to write two new Safety Training courses.


Meanwhile: Richard continues to work away in London on the Facilities Management projects that are going on down there; John and Brian continue to keep conducting Fire Risk Assessments; and Hagrid has training commitments and Food Safety consultancy to deliver. Ian is working in Glasgow/Edinburgh and Earl has more of the Facilities Management work to do in the West Midlands.


A busy week! 

Health and Safety - the week ahead

Ever wondered how those involved in health and safety fill their time? The week ahead is very busy for my consultancy. This is how we think it's going to pan out.

Hagrid, one of my consultants, is travelling up to Leeds on Sunday to spend three days assisting a company that makes training videos with "a shoot". This follows several days work over the last few weeks reviewing and revising the script. All is ready for the final phase of this piece of work.

When Hagrid returns from Leeds, he is off to Bristol and then onto Hungerford to delivery Legionella and Asbestos awareness training. This continues a large training commitment that will take up most of the rest of this month.

John is off to Dorking to carry out some Fire Risk Assessment work and then is back to Leicester to do the same for a series of small blocks of flats with common areas. He then needs to create the reports.

Richard is off down to London, where he has picked up a lot of my Facilities Management Safety work. At least the student protests of last week did not get in the way too much.

For my part, I'm carrying out a project management task for a client on Monday as well as finishing off a paper for the Board of another client (reviewing their health and safety compliance across their sites). I will also be checking in on the progress with an update on my previous review of Health and Safety at the British Library. On Tuesday I will be delivering a day of Legionella awareness training. Wednesday involves a series of client meetings and a dental appointment. On Wednesday evening, I will be presenting my Consultancy Business to several clients of my Bank. I'll be talking about the key factors in running your own business as well as discussing how to manage health and safety.

Thursday starts off nice and early with a breakfast Networking meeting - again, promoting my business. The day continues with two schedules telephone conferences to chase progress with clients. Friday will again have an early start with more Networking.

Within the week, I also need to progress quotations for work with both new and existing clients; I need to check various reports before that are sent out; I need to review news & blog pages and sort out new content; I need to work on new PodCast materials and develop some ideas for further YouTube video; etc. I also need to address any issues as and when they arise.

Monday's Update
Hagrid reports that day one of the shoot went well, but was sapping as it involved a lot of standing around. Day two will involve film kitchen activity - the key is not to be in the way.

The telephone conference calls went well, as did the project manager review. All of the issues seem to be being progressed. The Board paper is nearly complete, it just needs two small pieces of information from the client (promised for tomorrow). Richard's sojourn in London went well, he not has the reports to put together tomorrow. Need to follow up to ensure that John got on okay in Dorking.

Tuesday's Update
Today's Legionella training course was well received by the delegates. There was lots of discussion on the risk assessments and also on record keeping. It never ceases to amaze me how tiring training is. Some time was devoted during the evening to preparing the business to business presentation (B2B) for tomorrow evening with the Bank and some of its clients. I'm hoping that this leads to contact with some interested new (potential) clients.

Feedback from Hagrid on today's filming for the training video was, again, encouraging. I'm a little envious of him for the experience, but I could spare the three consecutive days out of the business. I've been carrying out a little background research to assist him tomorrow - the power of the Internet can be useful sometimes.

Richard attended "Get Bizzing" on my behalf and reported that it was both interesting and (potentially) beneficial. In other news - report writing continues unabated and Richard has been dealing with various phone calls, and general client issues.

Wednesday's Update
Today started for me with a quick trip into the office to touch base with Richard and "delegate" a few tasks to him. I then met with a local client at 08:15 hrs to attend the start of their Board Meeting (where Health and Safety is discussed). My return to the office saw me finishing off the presentation for tonight (more later) and checking through several reports before sending them on to various clients. I dealt with a couple of enquiries and sent off one proposal for client support.

Before leaving the office to attend a dental appointment, I sorted out some invoices for some of the project clients - this is a routine task that I keep rather than delegate. Following the dental appointment, I made a few phone calls and drove over to Blaby (Leicester) where I was giving a Business to Business at a branch of HSBC to about 35 local organisations. This finished at about 20:30 hrs making today a long one. I found the experience rewarding and I'm looking forward to talking to some of the people that I met.

John enjoyed a day off and Richard was working in the office - and picking up delegated tasks! In the afternoon he set off to see a client only to have them phone and cancel while he was in transit. It doesn't happen too often, but it is frustrating. Fortunately, it was a local client.

Hagrid enjoyed the last day of the filming project, after which he called by to collect the training materials for the next two days (in Bristol and in Hungerford). Busy day for all, except John.

Thursday's Update
Well, with the working 4/5 the way through, it's good to say that most things have been achieved.
I made it to the Early Morning Breakfast meeting and renewed several good contacts. This is not a meeting that I attend regularly (it is one where I substitute into a few times a year).

I managed to chase up a lot of information for one particular client and update them in many areas. This involved an extremely long telephone discussion with one of their suppliers. The information was distilled down into a suitable spreadsheet and then emailed over.

Richard and I planned out service delivery to several clients (with a view to keeping him busy until Christmas). We discuoveed a couple of things that had been missed previously and have put things in place to keep the clients happy.

Hagrid delivered a day of Legionella Awareness training in Bristol and is travelling over to Hungerford to spend another training another group in the same subject. Five more of these sessions to be delived this month! We are alos hoping for some follow on training work.

I have put together a proposal for Food Safety Training fo nearly 250 people for next year -fingers crossed on that one!

I will have to miss the early morning Networking tomorrow as I will be taking the car into the garage for servicing. Real life intrudes on health and safety (whatever next).

Friday's Update
I was in the office early after dropping the car off for a service. So far, so good. While contemplating the day ahead, I have noticed that my writing needs to be smaller to get the ideas and actions up on the whiteboard.

Well, Hagrid completed a tough week of filming and training. He carried out the Legionella training in Hungerford and is making his week home for a well earned rest at the weekend.

Richard and John worked through various reports, submitting them in to the office for the formatting to be checked by Janice before being sent on to the client. One of these Fire Safety Risk Assessments was needed by a care home to show to the Fire Officer.

For my part, I finalised a few reports and spreadsheets for several clients and did my stint of chasing up to ensure that clients are receiving their reports on time.

I also had an interesting conversation with an Enforcement Officer with respect to an issue involving a sub-contractor to one of my clients.