Health & Safety Consultancy
At SAMS Ltd, we take great care when recruiting our health and safety consultants.
Professional qualifications and technical knowledge are essential, but we also believe that an effective health and safety consultant needs practical experience, strong communication skills and the ability to provide sensible, proportionate advice that works in the real world.
Our approach to Health & Safety Consultancy is therefore practical and pragmatic. Rather than simply telling businesses what they cannot do, our consultants work alongside clients to understand how their organisation operates, identify the risks involved and establish effective ways to manage those risks while allowing the business to continue operating efficiently.
Our staff are fully qualified and are members of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). Our team includes Chartered Members and professionals working towards Chartered Membership of IOSH, while both SAMS Ltd Directors are listed on the voluntary Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register (OSHCR). This provides our clients with confidence that they are receiving professional advice from suitably experienced and qualified health and safety specialists. (Sams Ltd)
Our consultants apply their knowledge and skills to the individual requirements of each organisation. No two businesses operate in exactly the same way, which is why we don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach to health and safety at work. We take the time to understand your activities, workforce, premises, existing procedures and specific risks before recommending practical improvements.
Just as importantly, we explain our recommendations in a friendly and straightforward way. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, associated health and safety regulations and other legal requirements can sometimes appear complicated. Our role is to help you understand what applies to your organisation, what actions are required and how those actions can be incorporated into everyday working practices.
Our health and safety consultants have worked across a wide variety of industries and professional environments, including the public sector, events management, transport, manufacturing, construction, healthcare, offices, retail and administration. SAMS’ wider consultancy experience also covers industries including agriculture, education and service-sector businesses.
This broad experience means we can draw upon practical knowledge from many different working environments when developing your health and safety management system. Whether you operate a small office, construction company, manufacturing facility or larger multi-site organisation, our aim is to provide relevant advice that reflects the actual risks faced by your business.
At SAMS Ltd, we also offer a single point of service for your wider health and safety consultancy requirements. Alongside general workplace safety advice, our specialist services include professional Fire Risk Assessments, Asbestos Management and other specialist safety support.
We can combine this consultancy expertise with an extensive range of Health & Safety Training, including IOSH Managing Safely, CITB Site Supervisor Safety Training (SSSTS) and UKATA Asbestos Awareness, alongside Qualsafe and other specialist training. SAMS currently offers classroom, live remote and e-Learning options across its wider training portfolio.
Bringing consultancy and training together creates a much more joined-up approach to health and safety at work. If, for example, an inspection identifies that employees require additional knowledge or a health and safety risk assessment highlights a particular training need, SAMS can help you address the issue rather than simply identifying it and leaving you to source another provider.
This gives clients access to an all-round health and safety service without unnecessarily referring different requirements to multiple consultants or training centres. It also helps businesses maintain consistency between their policies, risk assessments, safe systems of work, employee training and everyday workplace practices.
What will SAMS Ltd do for me?
Our health and safety consultancy services begin by understanding where your organisation is now and what needs to be done to improve or maintain compliance.
Initially, one of our experienced consultants can visit your premises to carry out an evaluation of your existing health and safety management system, policies, procedures and working practices. The purpose is to establish what arrangements are already in place, identify areas that are working effectively and highlight any weaknesses that may require attention.
Depending on the nature of your organisation, this initial evaluation may consider your health and safety policy, existing health and safety risk assessments, safe systems of work, employee responsibilities, training arrangements, workplace inspections, accident reporting, emergency procedures, contractor management and other relevant areas of compliance.
If weaknesses or gaps are identified, our approach isn’t simply to produce a long list of problems.
Your health and safety advisor will explain what has been identified, why it matters and what practical actions can be taken to address it. We can then develop a structured action plan that prioritises improvements and helps your organisation move towards stronger and more effective safety management.
Where necessary, SAMS can provide practical support developing the required policies, assessments and safe systems of work. Our objective is to create documentation that reflects how your organisation actually operates rather than producing generic paperwork that sits unused in a folder.
Following the initial assessment, subsequent visits can be used to help you develop and embed the agreed actions. Continuing support can include briefings, workplace audits, inspections, employee consultation and appropriate Health & Safety Training. SAMS also offers ongoing Health & Safety Consultancy Packages for organisations requiring regular professional support. These packages can include assistance with policies, risk assessments, safe systems of work, accident investigation and contractor accreditation processes.
This ongoing relationship can be particularly valuable because effective health and safety management isn’t something that should be completed once and then forgotten. Businesses evolve, staff change, new equipment is introduced, working practices develop and new risks can emerge. Your safety arrangements therefore need to develop alongside your organisation.
If an accident, near miss or other workplace incident occurs, SAMS Ltd can also assist with the investigation process. An effective investigation should go beyond simply identifying what happened. It should seek to understand why it happened, identify underlying causes and determine what changes could prevent a similar incident occurring again.
Where necessary, we can help businesses review existing procedures, update health and safety risk assessments, identify additional training requirements and introduce corrective actions.
SAMS Ltd can also support organisations working towards recognised management standards and contractor accreditation schemes, including assistance with CHAS and SafeContractor applications and renewals.
For many organisations, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, outsourcing this expertise can provide an efficient way to access professional knowledge without employing a full-time internal safety specialist.
By working with SAMS, you gain access to experienced health and safety consultants when you need them, supported by our wider range of consultancy, inspection and training services.
Site Inspection Service
Workplace and site inspections are an important part of an effective health and safety management system.
Having a detailed policy, suitable risk assessments and appropriate safe systems of work is essential, but businesses also need to establish whether those arrangements are actually being followed.
A procedure may look excellent on paper, but if employees don’t understand it, supervisors aren’t enforcing it or workplace conditions have changed, it may no longer provide the intended level of protection.
At SAMS Ltd, we provide single and multiple site inspections and audits to help organisations identify hazards, monitor compliance and continually improve their safety arrangements. Site safety inspections form part of SAMS’ wider consultancy provision alongside fire risk assessments, DSE assessments and asbestos management.
During an inspection, our health and safety consultants can examine the workplace, working practices and existing control measures to identify potential hazards, unsafe conditions or behaviours, weaknesses in current arrangements and opportunities for improvement.
Depending on your industry and workplace, an inspection could consider matters such as access and housekeeping, work equipment, working at height, personal protective equipment, welfare facilities, manual handling, fire safety, hazardous substances, contractor activities, documentation, health and safety risk assessments and compliance with established safe systems of work.
Importantly, our approach is constructive rather than simply critical.
Where an issue is identified, we can explain the potential risk and advise the site manager or responsible person about suitable remedial action. This helps businesses understand not only what needs changing but why that change is important.
All inspections undertaken by SAMS Ltd result in a written report detailing the issues identified and the recommended remedial actions. The relevant site manager or responsible person can also be briefed on the findings, helping ensure recommendations are understood and acted upon.
Regular inspections can provide an additional benefit by highlighting recurring issues and wider trends.
For example, if the same unsafe behaviour is identified repeatedly, the problem may not simply be an individual employee. It could indicate that further health and safety training is required, that existing procedures aren’t sufficiently clear or that supervision needs to be strengthened.
Likewise, recurring problems across several sites may indicate a wider weakness within the organisation’s health and safety management system.
This is why inspections should be viewed as more than a compliance exercise. Used properly, they can become a valuable management tool for identifying problems before they contribute to accidents, checking whether existing controls are effective and continually improving workplace safety.
Whether you require a one-off health and safety risk assessment, regular workplace inspections, assistance developing policies and procedures or an ongoing health and safety consultancy relationship, SAMS Ltd can provide support tailored to your organisation.
Our Health & Safety Consultancy service is designed to provide clear, professional and proportionate guidance, helping you understand your responsibilities, protect your workforce and develop a practical approach to health and safety at work that works for your business.
To book a site inspection please contact SAMS Ltd via our contact page.
Please also see:
The Level 2 Fire Safety Course.
The Manual Handling Online Course.
The Asbestos Awareness Online Course.
The Control of Hazardous Substances Course.
Please contact us for further information on our health & safety consultancy packages, or for any other information.