Posted By Finlay McGuire Just a thought from a bit of a newbie. Would it be possible / useful for members to be able to create viewable profiles, a bit like the things on social networking sites. Detailing professional experience, qualifications, areas of special interest career aspirations and etc., as opposed to sexual proclivities. I would suggest two immediate benefits. Firstly, the careers forum could be freed up for discussing careers issues of more general applicability and interest, rather than just advertising one's availability for work. This would be further enhanced if one's employment status (actively seeking, open to offers, in with the brick work) and experience (new comer, experienced, Guru) could be indicated along with name on each post. The latter would be most useful in relation to what I would see as the other main benefit, assessing the value of advice given, opinions offered in posts. A possible spin off benefit would be that prospective employers could adjudge, from the contribution made to debates, whether they felt it worthwhile looking at a poster's profile. Could save a bit on recruitment costs.

Posted By Finlay McGuire See that's sort of thing I'm talking about. Just starting to look at this as new career direction, hadn't been to that site. But no, not going to stump up £25 just yet to access a forum where I'm sure the opinions are of no greater value than the ones I can get here for free!!

Posted By FAH Hi Finlay, it's nice to know that you're actually following your own thread. I'm not entirely sure what you were inferring about comments, I was simply trying to help broaden your scope for potential employment - so I'll move on . Like the IOSH site, the [reference removed] site has a great number of facets - to me it is simply another vehicle by which potential clients can become aware of me without my spending a huge amount of time & money trying to find them. They also provide different services to those provided by IOSH. Incidentally, I consider that the ability to advertise in the way that I can there is superior to the advertising of my services provided by IOSH; in particular, the IOSH Consultants Register - which incidentally costs more. I suspect that this post may cause a few brows to furrow, but it is my opinion. Frank Hallett

Posted By Finlay McGuire Hi Frank thanks for your response, and steer. Actually thought you were suggesting that I was engaged in some form of subliminal / subversive advertising for a rival site. Got an unsolicited e-mail today suggesting I register with another site with similar name. Appreciate what you're saying about reaching potential customers. I've got a bit to go before that becomes main focus. And, of course I'll keep following my own thread: getting to the stage where the only way I can "hold the thread" is when it's written. cheers

Posted By martinw Trick is to know when to ask for help. I know when to stop when giving advice or opinion on this forum, and ask for help, which I have done on a number of occasions. Nothing wrong with that - I am happy to admit that I my ignorance is much greater than my knowledge when it comes to H&S. Knowing the regs is not enough - it is the application in practice which sorts the grown ups from the opinionated juveniles on this forum.

Posted By Finlay McGuire Hi D apologies if I've said something here or in another discussion that you've felt was a personal attack, definitely not my intention. The point I was trying to make here is that there is lots of conflicting opinions expressed in these forums. Which is great, its why I'm here. However, as I'm sure you agree debates can be won as much by eloquence as by weight of reason. Therefore, especially for newcomers like myself, it would be both interesting and useful to gain some understanding of the background of contributors. Your final comment actually leads well into another aspect of the debate. Sorry if this ends up a bit long winded, and, I hope is clear here and in all my contributions, that my main objections and criticisms are directed at systems, rather than individuals. I would argue that, understandably, most of the legislation and guidelines in relation to H&S have been reactive. The difficulty then is that the resultant laws. regs. and etc. are overly proscriptive in relation to their general application. There is then a "tragedy of errors" as professionals from various fields unwittingly collude to make things "fit". I am sure the following is not unique to social care, and it is not meant personally. How much of your insight into residential settings has been provided by people like me. For years I prepared individual and environmental risk assessments, PEEPs and the like (don't even start me on COSHH) because they had to be there. I then sat with good folk like yourself and convinced them that these documents relevant and effective tools. I knew they were not worth the paper they were written on, too lengthy, too detailed too proscriptive..., but my managers (second guessing) were telling me that that is what was going to be required. You then take this "insight" I've just gave you to your next appointment, over time and by custom and practice it becomes The Law. Having said that, if we stop Swis will have no elf & safety stories to post.