Competent Advice

---

What is meant by 'Competent Person'?

Our consultants can act as your “Competent” Health & Safety person, fulfilling the legal requirements.

Good practice in workplace health & safety requires a mixture of technical and legal proficiency, ranging from skills which can be learnt by virtually anyone, through to the set of very high-order knowledge, experience, judgement and skills which make an ‘acknowledged expert’.

A Competent Person is someone who has sufficient training, experience or knowledge of health and safety compliance. The level of competence required will depend on the size and complexity of the situation, as well as the particular help needed.

It is vital to identify the appropriate level of health and safety competency that is required for each set of circumstances. This is where our Health and Safety consultants can help.
If current in-house expertise and organisational capacity is insufficient for the purpose then advice and guidance should be sought from an external consultancy, such as Sequs Consulting.

---

Legal Requirements

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 under Reg (7) requires each employer to appoint one or more competent persons to assist in health and safety management.

The expertise of a Sequs Health & Safety consultant enables them to act as your Health and Safety “Competent Person” to ensure that you fully meet the legal requirements. We are a resource to be called upon, as and when required, and you are entitled to designate us as your “Competent Person”.

To put it simply, we provide ongoing support to SMEs who do not employ a health & safety person in addition to providing specialist back up to those who already have in-house expertise.

Our retained advisor service can deliver the following solutions:

• Preparing or revising your health and safety policy – a legal requirement for any organisation with 5 or more staff. Our health and safety consultants work alongside yourselves, learn your business and can develop and help you to implement a tailored policy
• Producing risk assessments – the cornerstone of managing health and safety in the UK. Our health and safety consultants can undertake assessments of the significant risks under the main health and safety legislation, e.g. COSHH, Manual Handling, Display Screen Equipment (DSE) or Fire Safety
• Chairing or advising the Health and Safety Committee – keeping you and your employees up to date on the main legislative issues and finding practicable solutions for the issues identified from consultation with employees
• Undertaking audits and inspections – giving you reassurance that your health and safety management system is working effectively
• Producing confidential management reports
• Investigating accidents, and helping to prevent their re-occurrence – There is no greater need in safety management than eliminating or controlling risks, which have previously led to injury or ill health
• Training – having undertaken assessments and designed controls, it is a legal requirement to communicate this to your employees. Our health and safety consultants can offer bespoke health and safety training to meet your needs, or arrange for employees to attend one our open health and safety training courses across the UK
• Assisting in the preparation of support documentation for insurance claims, and assisting you to demonstrate to your insurers that you are actively managing safety and preventing loss
• Assist with compliance on health and safety laws.

If you don't have a full-time health and safety advisor but want access to sensible and practical health and safety advice throughout the year our retained packages could be just what you are looking for. Sequs Consulting Retained Health & Safety services are proactive and tailored to suit your business' needs.

---