How long's a piece of string.....................

AK, I would not want to give you any indication of professional fees for the requested service until I had seen the operation and discussed the project with the management and then produced a formal proposal. This would include a full scope of work, agreed outcomes and any anticipated variations etc. COSHH and PUWER related work may be relatively simple or highly complex, requiring little or much work. Bio-investigation is different to nuclear physics and asbestos analysis is different to wet chemistry research. My pricing would be based on a range of factors, mostly commercially sensitive and not for disclosure on a public forum. Please contact me offline via PM facility and I will be delighted to discuss further.

why do you want to know?

Twice the length from the middle to the end...

One of the problems with your question is that you have included a mixture of predictable and unpredictable pieces of work. For a small company of 16 employees a day on site should be enough to conduct a review and audit. Add a day to prepare (review policies, procedures etc.) and a day to compile a report, that makes three days total. This could include a brief overview of recent changes to legislation. So that is items 1, 2, 4 and 7 on your list. Provide safety training will depend on what training you want/need. You could assume one day per year, but that may depend on the availability of your employees. The consultant will not charge you just for one day because they need to cover their preparation and intellectual property. So that is item 6. Risk assessment and workstation assessments. Should not require too much time for a small company, but when will you want them done? If you can say once a year that is fine. But if they can happen at any time the consultant will have to charge you a minimum amount each time. That is items 3 and 5 That leaves general advice and incident investigation. These are completely unpredictable and so could not be included in an up front price. So, to answer your question the total number of consultancy days could be between 6 and 12 days. The daily rate could be between £300 and £800. Plus expenses. This gives you a range of prices between about £2k and £12k.

In response to your question, If this was to be based on hourly/daily rates, what would they be?', a common thread in the answers appears to be very simple, 'A trap!'. A consultant offering any professional services is wise to practise the guidance in 'The Trusted Adviser', by the gurus in consulting David Maister and Charles Green (and Rob Galford), published by The Free Press, 2002. Green's followup, 'Trust-based Selling', is also a good guide on sidestepping traps of solely time-based provision of professional services.

1. Annual Review Health & Safety Policy Statement. This could take anything from a few minutes to a few hours 2. Annual Review Health & Safety Organisation & Arrangements document. As 1 3. Assist with the writing of and provide a review of all Risk Assessments including COSHH and PUWER. Depends - how many chemicals/tasks using hazardous chemicals. Depends - what types of machines, function, purpose. Possibly done with a general PUWER checklist type document. Possibly 2-3 days - but difficult to say with out knowing more. 4. Carrying out an annual Health & Safety Audit. 3 days - 1-1/2 days to audit. Same time to write up (assumes existing template document available) 5. Carrying out Workstation Assessments as required. How many? Assume workforce is split - 10 lab workers, not DSE users, 5 office staff - DSE users, MD, not a DSE user. 1/2 day. 6. Provide Health & Safety Training eg carrying out COSHH or General Risk Assessment training etc. Depends- Developing bespoke training package or generic? If generic - maybe 3 session, 3-4 people per session. Assume offcie staff won't need COSHH training. Generic training package - 1 1/2 days delivery, training development 1 day. 7. Supply updates on changes in Health & Safety legislation, etc. Annual update - incorporate with 1 & 2 8. Provide general H&S advice. How will this be done - by email/phone call or in person. Work on 2 calls per month, maybe some research time if answer isn't known - 15mins - 2hrs. (Possibly no charge beyond 1hr, consultants business risk) 9. Investigate Accidents and if required report incidents to HSE under RIDDOR. Possibly no charge - consultants risks that this service may or may not be required or include in any retainer fee charged. Total time anything between 8 - 12 days. Daily rate of £4-500 Total fee range of £3200 - £6000 + VAT, + expenses (if any - travel, hotels etc) All pretty variable depends on what material the consultant already has available or if any new documents produced might have a future use for other clients e.g. template documents, checklists, audit proforma etc Also depends on how urgent the client wants the work doing, an 'x' factor - might be under HSE pressure or civil claims pressure. Is the consultant putting off other work? Is this a new client? Is there future work to be done? So price low to get a foot in the door, for the future work? Is the consultant a new starter himself/herself so needs to build a client base? Numerous things to think about, as well as the actual work.

I agree with what several posters have already said; a competent consultant wouldn't even think of quoting without visiting the company, talking to their management, seeing what they already had in place and getting to know their business. There is no "one size fits all" model in H&S consultancy and I despair of websites that offer a "complete H&S compliance service" (some go on to say "approved by IOSH"!) for £150. All these people are doing is giving the client a load of irrelevant documentation with the client's name inserted and then giving the client a totally false sense of security. I came across one recently where the name of the previous client had been left in and where the Policy for the business (a small electrical contractor) included such things as maintenance of their tower cranes (which of course they neither have nor ever use!) Any decent consultant makes a free initial visit to discuss the requirement with the client and then presents a personalised proposal designed just for that client. Yes most of us will base this on a daily rate. Anything from £300-£800, although the top end of that scale is unlikely to be appropriate for a smaller business unless they are doing something pretty unusual! Happy to advise further if this is a real scenario. ;-)

A consultant once said to me when I posed the price question, that he charges what he thinks they can/will pay! A different consultant said establish what you want to earn per year, then work out how to earn that amount in 20 weeks using either a day rate or an hourly rate. Then double it! - It might even have been said on this forum! Regards Clive

I have had all sorts of problems in the past with "Service Level Agreements". The receiver of the service has, in my humble opinion, no idea of what they really want but will argue for months about the cost of it. I got over this by asking them for a specification of the service they wanted provided - I costed that and let them have it back - they didn't like it and queried the figures, much as you are experiencing. My response that's my cost of providing the service you specified, you do not have to accept it you can always go elsewhere. Interestingly they went elsewhere but soon came back!

If you believe the myths then ... as much as they can for as little as they can, for as long as they can.... present company excluded - of course.