About Health & Safety Auditing & Inspection
The old adage that if you can’t measure it you can’t manage it applies to health and safety the same as any other management activity. Measurement is essential if you are to improve health and safety performance. This requires the use of both reactive monitoring of accidents, ill health and incidents and the use of proactive systems that monitor ongoing performance.
The use of inspections and audits both have a role to play in proactive management of health and safety.
Inspections provide organisations with information on how effectively they are controlling risks, and how well they are developing a positive Health and Safety culture. They can identify problems before an accident occurs and provide an opportunity to make the necessary improvements before things go wrong.
Inspections should be done by people who are competent to identify relevant hazards and risks and who can assess the conditions found. The key steps to a well thought out inspection will include:
- Well designed inspection forms
- A system of issuing and tracking improvement actions
- Periodic analysis of findings to identify common issues or trends which might reveal weaknesses in Health and Safety systems.
Audits are one of the final steps in health and safety management and provide organisations with a feedback loop on the effectiveness of Health and Safety systems in place. Organisations are often subject to audit, e.g. finance, quality etc. and this discipline can be applied to health and safety to good effect.
Effective auditing systems are usually those that:
- Are carried out by a competent person or team who have received specific training
- Have auditors who are independent of the area being audited
- Focus on key elements of the Health and Safety systems in place.
Results you should expect
Do you check to see if your health and safety controls are being followed properly or do you ever check to see how well your health and safety systems are working? If the answer to both or either of these is no then you are missing valuable opportunities to improve health and safety in your organisation.
Working with MESH you can be fully assured that the inspections and audits that we carry out on your behalf will identify any improvements that may be necessary to prevent harm to staff and others while ensuring full compliance with the vast array of health and safety legislation that applies to your business.
MESH Consultants have used our extensive experience in health and safety inspections and audits to ensure peace of mind for clients in a wide range of industries throughout the UK.
Featured Case Study
Client: Discovery Channel
Sector: Media
MESH took the time to understand our business and have provided excellent support
Since 2007, MESH has been working with the UK based operations of the Discovery Channel. From an initial brief to develop emergency response systems, the MESH involvement has evolved to ensure Discovery are consistently achieving compliance and best practice throughout Europe, The Middle East, and Africa.
As part of this work, MESH has undertaken a detailed Health and Safety audit of the Discovery operations based out of the London office. The findings were presented in a comprehensive report to senior management along with a number of recommendations.
As part of the report the recommendations were developed into a two-year action plan aimed at bringing Discovery operations to a consistent level of Health and Safety best practice.
As requested by senior management, we have also undertaken a series of audits across eight of the operations throughout Europe. These audits have focused on both the health & safety and building operations for the sites. Full reports were completed for each site and an executive overview presented to the senior management team.
Your Options
MESH can offer a range of health and safety inspection and audit options to organisations throughout the UK:
1. We can undertake a full audit of your health and safety systems of your operations at a single or multiple sites throughout the UK and Europe.
2. We can undertake a programme of inspections to cover either all operations or just specific operations within your organisation.
3. We can undertake assist your organisation to carry out a programme of inspections by training your staff and by providing the necessary inspection forms etc.
What we provide is a benchmark of legislative compliance to organisations, which if taken into accountas part of an improvement plan will not only keep the regulators from your doorbut will assist you to achieve health and safety best practice.
Costs
Costs of health and safety inspections and audits vary depending on the type and size of organisations, the number of processes and the variations in tasks that need to be monitored.
As a guideline, fees for work recently undertaken have ranged from as little as £475 to £20,000 (across multi-site operations) to undertake a review of compliance for individual organisations needs.
We believe our pricing is very competitive but we don't compromise on quality and you can be assured that our inspections and audits will prove to be a benefit to your business. We would expect you to shop around for quotations but would encourage you to check what level of service is being provided. Ask yourself whether you getting a service that will make a long-term difference to the health and safety of your staff and your business. If in any doubt, please do contact us without obligation.
Where we work
MESH carry out health and safety inspections and audits for companies in a diverse range of industries throughout the UK and Europe.
Our Head Office is in Kent, with regional offices located in London, The Home Counties, The Midlands, and The North East.
