Health and safety advisers

The role of the health and safety adviser is to provide specialist information to managers in the organization and to monitor the effectiveness of health and safety procedures. The adviser is not responsible for health and safety or its implementation, that is the role of the line managers. 

To do this property, health and safety advisers need to... 

For health and safety advisers to operate effectively within the organization they must support the provision of authoritative and independent advice. They should report directly to directors on matters of policy and have the authority to stop work if it contravenes agreed standards and puts people at risk of injury. 

The health and safety adviser is responsible for professional standards and systems. They may also have line management responsibility for other health and safety professionals, in a large group of companies or on a large and/or high-hazard site. 

Health and safety advisers also have a function outside their own organization. They provide the point of liaison with a number of other agencies including the following ... 

Motivations can also vary across the organization which may cause health and safety to be compromised. The production controller will require that components of a product are produced as near simultaneously as possible so that final assembly of them is performed as quickly as possible. However, the health and safety adviser will not want to see safe systems of work compromised. 

The regulations do not define competence but do offer advice to employers when appointing health and safety advisers who should have ... 

A number of permits require the advice/skills of specialists in order to operate effectively. Such specialists may include chemists, electrical engineers, health and safety advisers and fire officers. Their role may involve ... 

A medium level investigation will involve a more detailed investigation by the relevant supervisor or line manager, the health and safety adviser and employee representatives and will look for the immediate, underlying and root causes... 

A high level investigation will involve a team-based investigation, involving supervisors or line managers, health and safety advisers and employee representatives. It will be carried out under the... 

Dr Edward Ferrett is an experienced health and safety consultant who has practised for over twenty years. He spent thirty years in Higher and Further Education retiring as the Head of the Faculty of Technology of Cornwall College in 1993. Since then he has been an independent consultant to several public and private sector organizations, the Regional Health and Safety Adviser for the Government Office (West Midlands) and Vice Chair of NEBOSH. Ed was the Chair of West of Cornwall Primary Care NHS Trust for six years until 2006. 

The role and function of health and safety specialists, e.g. health and safety advisers, nursing advisers, occupational hygienists, occupational health nurses, unit safety officers, occupational physicians, company doctors and trade union-appointed safety representatives. 

THE HSE publication Successful Health and Safety Management makes the following points with regard to the role and functions of health and safety advisers, (be they internally-appointed persons or external consultants) Organisations that successfully manage health and safety give health and safety advisers the status and ensure they have the competence to advise management and workers with authority and independence. Subjects on which they advise include ... 

The staff making the observations should be trained in the technique and should have a broad knowledge of the procedures and processes being carried out. The results of the sample inspections are collated by a specific manager or health and safety adviser and presented in graphic form. This system, in effect, monitors the overall effectiveness of safety management in various areas of a workplace. An example of a safety sampling exercise form is shovm at Fig. 4.1 (see p. 100). 

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