Does anyone on here do extra health and safety work on top of their full time health and safety job, if so what? I dont mean ridiculous hours running their own consultency but I mean extra days here and there. I seem to here this kind of thing from people I meet through work and courses where they do the odd day reveiwng risk assessments for companies or writing reports but they dont have their own consultancy firms they just get bits of work from contracting firms etc. Is this what people mean by associate work?....sorry if this sound a bit thick!!!

Good point Bob; you have to be extremely careful about giving out H&S advice outside of your own company. Negligence in carrying out any H&S related work or advise as an Occupational Health & Safety adviser etc. may lead to a claim. Having Professional Indemnity Insurance protects you from financial loss by providing cover for damages and legal costs in defending a claim. So if you take on any "associate work" that is not connected to the company you work for, be careful because you are liable and will need to be insured. I work full time for a national company as its H&S manager but also have a small H&S consultancy business therefore I have a insurance policy. Another thing you may have to check is to whether the company you work for needs to know you have a part time work venture, some companies are not to keen on this. Steve w

Hi Like Steve W I work as a H&S Manager and started a Ltd Consultancy about three years ago as I was asked a few times to assist another Company with some H&S issues. I had to get PI Insurance (A must) and thought I may as well start a Company as the cost was pretty low. I don't do much of my own H&S Consultancy as I just don't have the time after work so only just cover my annual Business costs with one or two jobs per annum. Plus I find it a bit tricky if any potential Clients want to meet during the week or request a Site inspection - have to use up my Holidays without possible gains. Good luck if you decide to do this - I personally found it a steep learning curve.

For me as a full time consultant, Associate Work is when another organisation requests me to carry out a piece of work on their behalf (or I request another to do the work for me). I do this for a variety of reasons: I have the capacity to accept the work I need extra work to put food on the table The other company or individual does not have the capacity at that time The others do not have the required competency I am a nice bloke! For small consultancies this is an excellent method of dealing with blips on workflow. BUT, it depends on trust - trust that the parties have professional integrity, trust in the individuals. Having another person carry out work in your name requires its own risk assessment.

Thanks again everyone