Safe & Sound

Safe & Sound is the trading name of Chris Fantom, a Chartered Health and Safety Consultant based in the West Midlands. I am a qualified engineer with over 40 years experience with a further 25 years experience within health and safety itself and 15 of these as a consultant. I hold a NEBOSH Diploma and am a Chartered Member of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, with instant access to advice from this organisation if it is needed. I created Safe & Sound to be a flexible and cost effective approach to health and safety procedures as clients can choose to purchase anything from a single risk assessment or if necessary, complete packages. It should be noted that I offer a free initial audit to local companies within the West Midlands, to ascertain what health and safety work is needed for you and how much this would cost. 

Specific Risk Assessments

There are several Health & Safety Laws that require specific risk assessments against certain criteria that may be in the body of the law or in the Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) and/or guidance notes. If you need to check whether this applies to you, all of these source materials can be downloaded free of charge from the HSE website. Specific risk assessments can include Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH), Manual Handling, Fire, Noise, VDU/DSE and Vibration. Safe & Sound can help you in understanding and conducting a specific risk assessment.

General Risk Assessments

According to the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, all potential hazards must be risk assessed by both employers and those who are self employed. These assessments need to be sufficient enough to cover any risk posed to employees or anybody else who may be affected. Examples of general risk assessments include Machinery, Tools, Other Equipment, Transport, Lifting Operations, Storage, Stress and Lone Working. It should also be noted that these regulations cover young people and new and expectant mothers.

Formulation of Health and Safety Policies

According to the Health and Safety at Work act of 1974, any employer of five or more staff has to create a health and safety policy. This should contain a statement of general policy on health and safety in the workplace and any arrangements involved for putting this into practice. Writing this up can sometimes involve many different considerations, from your resident first aider all the way to emergency procedures. Safe & Sound can provide expert help in the creation of a health and safety policies as well as reviewing any current policies, which should be done often.

Health and Safety Audits

However large or small you organisation may be, you still need to ascertain how well it is following its health and safety procedures, this is done through auditing. Auditing involves conducting a comprehensive review of all of your policies and procedures and recommending, through a formal review how these can be improved. There are various, sector specific codes and guides available to help organisations to report performance and management of health and safety. These audits are very important as they help to make environments safer and more productive.

Management Briefings

Whatever sector your business may be in, it is important that new management should be briefed of all relevant health and safety policy and procedures. These briefings should be comprehensive and may involve further training before the employee is completely up to date. Outsourcing this process can save a company valuable time and therefore can be very cost effective. Safe & Sound can handle any management briefings you have, as well as follow up meetings, leaving your company to continue with its day to day business.

Safety Awareness Training

Safety awareness training is an invaluable tool in bringing all of your staff up to date with current health and safety compliance. Apart from regulations, safety awareness training is important because it does make a difference in the way people conduct themselves within an environment. Some people brush it off as a formality, but many serious accidents do happen in the workplace and anything that can help to stop this is obviously incredibly beneficial. If you are interested in booking safety awareness training, you can contact me via phone or email and we can discuss your options.

Safe Systems of Work Method Statements

Work method statements are created in situations when safety is paramount and in some cases are a legal requirement. They involve the laying out of a detailed and precise method of activty, that is to be followed closely. There are some high risk examples where the structure and format of the statement will be clearly defined for you. It may be that a risk assessment is enough to cover your work place activities but if not, Safe & Sound are happy to help you write up your safe systems of work method statements, assuring that they are professional and bespoke.

Health and Safety Rules

It can be difficult to keep up with all of current health and safety legislation, as well as changes within the rules. Much of the legislation is industry specific so it may not be possible just to follow the basic rules that are layed out. As well as this, many companies may not be following the correct procedures because they don't see their environment as high risk. Safe & Sound can help you to make sense of the many different rules and regulations and pinpoint the legislation that applies to your workplace. We can also keep you up to date with any changes in the regulations and any actions you would need to take to accommodate this.