Author: Sokada

Rewarding leadership and strategic vision of CEOs who have made a vital contribution to health and safety of their business and to the wider society during 2021. This award recognises how an individual CEO takes an active role in aligning and championing their organisation’s health, safety and wellbeing interests with their internal and external stakeholders.

James Cumming, as well as managing his own company, supports over 150 clients in different sectors, mainly construction as this is his specialist area and background for over 25 years.

As we know, 2021 was challenging for many businesses and James had to step up to provide many of his clients with emotional support as well as technical and safety advice. As the pandemic took hold and affected so many people, more clients were consulting with James to get advice and help (existing and new clients).  Managing Directors were dealing with high levels of unprecedented stress, and often unable to talk about this to any of their staff so James made it a priority to check in with as many clients as possible and particularly his retained clients to check their mental health. Some clients were having to seriously consider closing their businesses due to the impact of COVID-19, yet with regular support and encouragement from James, the majority of them made it through to 2022.  These were well-established, successful businesses, being severely impacted by the pandemic and the Government restrictions.  James made it his business to fulfil his own objective of providing ‘simple safety advice’ and always striving to find solutions to the ever growing problems that clients were faced with, e.g. staff illness, restrictions on travel and work, adapting workplace environments, implementing additional safety procedures (masks) and revising risk assessments and method statements to protect workers and visitors to sites/offices.

James quickly identified that he was needed for much more than just safety support and he was able to rise to the challenge that his clients were presenting him with.  James took the following action:

1. He sourced and purchased 50,000 COVID test kits to ensure all his clients had access to reliable tests to enable them to keep working, as required for their businesses
2. He kept up to date with the latest COVID-19 Government Guidance and shared this regularly with clients to support their day to day operations, also providing information on scenarios and how companies were dealing with them to try and establish good practice
3. He made regular phone calls to clients to check in on them and offer support or just a friendly ear for them to share their issues.  He called companies of all sizes and at all hours; am or pm
4. He shared information on how companies were adapting their workplaces to support staff, i.e. working from home, zoom calls and one client established a ‘common room’ where children could safely stay whilst their parents worked on a rota (cleaning rooms in between use).
5. He read up on mental health and shared information on other organisations that could offer further support
6. He provided COVID-19 risk assessments and reviewed client documentation (often for free) to ensure they worked safely and remained compliant with legislations
7. He provided a COVID-19 safety pack to business to remind them of their duties, i.e. posters to log into the NHS track and trace system, providing hand sanitizers, use of masks, adapting workplace environments, appointing a COVID-19 officer, dealing with client requests to adapt working procedures and checking team next of kin details
8. He created a partnership with an HR company to provide specialist advice with particularly sensitive staff issues, including health assessments
9. He completed site audits remotely, using zoom, to support site managers and check that additional safety procedures were being adhered to.  Some clients requested more frequent audits to ensure new safety measures were being consistently implemented
10. James provided additional support to operatives and site managers as well as Directors as more conflict was appearing on site as workers argued over issues such as wearing masks and completing regular tests.  James was able to intervene and provide further information on why these requirements were so important
11. James was able to facilitate meetings with clients and key stakeholders on ‘appropriate measures’ that could or could not be implemented to protect all parties, i.e. building sites that did not want to close as they were behind schedule, but had an outbreak of positive cases
12. James secured reduced rates from a safety supplier for PPE and face fit training and testing.

In line with our company mission, everyday we strive to provide pragmatic health and safety advice to our clients and be a source of inspiration and a thought leader in the field of health and safety management.  We create value for our clients through all of our activities and constantly look for new and innovative ways that help our clients manage their health and safety agenda.

We are seeking Health & Safety Advisors to join our team as part of our continued and exciting growth.  We are a team of independent consultants that use a ‘hands on’ approach to support clients with clear, reliable advice and support.  We work mainly across London and the South-East with small to multi-million turnover, blue chip companies.

The role will be responsible for managing client relationships and provide the role of a trusted Advisor to support staff at all levels.  A heavily client facing role with high levels of autonomy and leadership following the Simple Safety Advice ethos to always provide bespoke a service.

Your post will predominantly be to: deliver on key client requirements including  implementing a robust safety management system, producing workable documents and forms, completing audits and inspections, gathering/creating evidence to demonstrate compliance (for internal and external standards), delivering training and managing a bespoke ongoing action plan.

To be a successful Health and Safety Advisor, you will:

• have at least 3-5 years’ experience in a client facing role that included advising the clients on their objectives
• be recognised at GradIOSH level or an equivalent
• be able to produce high quality health and safety documents and advisory papers using all Microsoft Office programmes
• be able to stand your ground and advise on matters whilst giving the client confidence, by using active listening skills to recognise the problem to be solved
• be responsive and able to deliver customer deadlines, sometimes at short notice.

If you are interested in joining our team, send you CV to jcumming@simplesafetyadvice.co.uk or call James Cumming (Director) on 07903 357686 for immediate consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!

One of the biggest issues in the construction industry is dust.  The HSE are expecting specific controls to be in place to manage dust, including suitable extraction methods and relevant risk assessments that will mitigate the creation of dust.

The HSE who have produced safe guidance on dust issues like silica and wood.  There are many more substances that generate dust which are hazardous to health. Collecting dust at extraction is the most effective method, but there are many other affordable alternatives

Some clients are introducing dust policies to explain how this will be managed and to demonstrate a commitment to this issue.

If you’re interested in creating bespoke solutions and provide safety advice then get in touch with us.

Last year many of our clients were asking for bespoke training for Foreman and Site Supervisors.  This training has been provided to a range of main and sub-contractors that includes toolbox talks, approving method statements and risk assessments, statutory requirements for law compliance. 

Speak to our team about how we can create training that is specific to your company and relevant to your industry.

With a huge increase in no win, no fee claims, particularly regarding manual handling, we have listened to our clients’ needs and are delivering bespoke manual handling training for a range of industries and trades.

This is a train the trainer course that allows you to teach your staff manual handling requirements in line with current legalisation and then ensure that they can also complete task-specific manual handling assessments.

If you’d like to enquire about bespoke manual handling training for your business then contact Simple Safety Advice.

It is a legal requirement for risk assessments to be in place for the workplace. Often these are used incorrectly or are not specific to your industry, so we have created a bespoke training course that covers the key content and how to make sure your documents are specific to how you operate. 

In 2019, we delivered this training for a College group regarding farm safety, a cladding company and a carpentry company.

If you’d like to enquire about risk assessments to be in place for your business workplace, then get in touch with us.