Why was the OSHCR Introduced?
Back in October 2010, the Government published a common sense and common safety report, which evidently recommended health and safety consultants across the UK should be able to be found online and as a result, OSCHR was devised. In addition, the health and safety consultants should be accredited to professional bodies, which will help people choose the right health and safety consultant for them or their business.
This gives health and safety consultants opportunities to demonstrate their credentials in terms of skills, experience, cost and reputation; reviews and comments can help people make decisions when it comes to hiring personnel online.
Who can join the Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register?
Health and safety consultants that want to go must be assessed by their professional body, if they are to ‘get on’ the register. This is to ensure that each health and safety consultant that is accepted onto the register has at least an adequate standard of health and safety experience and knowledge in their field of ‘expertise’.
These skills etc can all be assessed by the professional body through analysing the experience, qualifications and skills in which the health and safety consultants possess, or not, in some cases.
Why do Health and Safety Consultants want to join the Register?
Once they have been accepted onto the OSHCR register, they are then able to gain access to businesses across the UK. In other words, they will be able to contact and advise businesses in relation to health and safety issues.
So what does this mean for businesses and the health and safety consultants…?
Any business that is contacted by or gets in contact with a health and safety consultant that is on the register will know that they are professionally accredited, which is great news for businesses across the UK and also the ‘true’ professionals.
Hopefully, the scheme is ‘common sense’ and that things do run and go smoothly, otherwise the register could just end up being a waste of time and money for businesses and tax payers (Government reports cost time and money).
The main aspect that could possibly go wrong quite easily is that if a lot of the health and safety consultants get bad reviews and in turn a bad reputation, the register would be looked at as a ‘joke’ and will not be taken seriously. Therefore, any health and safety consultant that is accepted onto the register must ensure that they provide the right advice to businesses by not cutting corners in order to take advantage of being on the register.
Another issue in which this could cause is that businesses may not be aware of the scheme; getting this across to the vast majority of businesses within the UK will be very difficult to do. Bearing this in mind, who is going to be responsible for marketing this scheme to the potential businesses and health and safety consultants? This could end us costing a vast amount of money, if so, who would pay for the marketing etc? There are so many questions in relation to the new register that can perhaps only be answered by those at the ‘top’; very likely then!
The register could on the other hand, be a revelation for businesses across the UK and could over a period of time show evidence that the scheme has helped businesses to minimise risk of accidents occurring within the workplace, which is becoming increasingly important due to the sheer number of claims that are made each and every year against businesses and employers.
The claims made each year by employees, the public etc is on the increase due to the ‘no win, no fee’ policy and now very much the culture of today’s society in Britain.
However, if the number of claimants is reduced due to businesses properly covering themselves, then much of the cost for rolling out the scheme will be covered and will hopefully pay for itself in the not so distant future. But what we don’t need in the UK at the moment is a bill that is both hefty and unnecessary.
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License: Image author owned
License: Image author owned
License: Image author owned
Steve is an expert in the industry and has worked with several professional Health and Safety Consultants for over 2 decades. Steve has provided a vast amount of advice and information to businesses.