Hi I’ve joined an organisation following the death of a member of the pubic, who was hit and killed by a moving vehicle on one of our sites. The HSE investigated and found the company liable. Since my appointment I have discovered that the company have never employed a competent H&S person since its creation in 1974, and that H&S is regarded as a necessary evil by many senior managers. The Director (appointed as the safety champion) has very little respect for the safety post and does not see it as an important part of the business. Following an audit of its H&S compliance, the results revealed that most if not all relevant H&S legislation is not complied with and that there are a multitude of safety procedures not provided. All this was presented to the director and none of which was taken seriously. I have also discovered that a million near misses involving MOP are occurring annual, again little response. I have tried to engage and steer the director to accept the seriousness of the companies H&S positon, following the results of the audit, but it has been rejected. It now transpires that the director is trying to protect their position by undermining my advice, with the aim to remove me form the post.

Has an actual prosecution occured? Before or after the revised sentencing guidelines? Use this as your "in" to crack the current intransigence, if you see no movement from the business the best thing to do is get out of dodge.

Thanks for your replies. Q1. What were the consequences of the HSE prosecution? (I would have thought this would elicit more concern and interest than an audit) - When they were assessing the case whether to prosecute or not, it was 49 v 51 not to proceed. We had also fulfilled all their required works to prevent a further death, which over the years have now slowed down to an almost stop. Q2. Are you serious about a million near misses involving members of the PUBLIC every year? (yes). Q3. How do you know this? (we have carried out site data sampling on near misses. By the way they are trying to manipulate these numbers). Q4. Who did the audit? (our internal staff over 5-6 yrs, this results in 6m over the period). Q5. Is this a recent appointment - are you still on probation? (I’ve been there several yrs). Q6. Do you want to stick with it? Are you looking for a way ahead or a way out? (I want to stay and improve the safety for the public good). Q7. Has an actual prosecution occurred before or after the revised sentencing guidelines? (neither, they have been very luckly). Q8. Use this as your "in" to crack the current intransigence, if you see no movement from the business the best thing to do is get out of dodge.

David Your account of the organisation you work in raises questions about why you accepted an appointment there. By accepting an offer of employment, did you and the management not explicitly agree to purposes expressed in the offer or in associated documentation? And that there was fair agreement that you have the 'competence' to resolve problems associated with your role? I imagine you will be aware that many other OHS specialists, including 'competent' ones, have experienced the core problem as you describe it. I suggest that you may find the most fruitful approach is the 'Stages of Change' approach to OHS described in several issues of 'Applied Ergonomics' since the paper by Roger Haslam CFIOSH (an IOSH Trustee and member of the IOSH Research Committee) in its May 2002 issue. For starters, your account is on the boundary of the first and second stage of change. If you regard these research papers as a bit too highbrow, 'Changing for Good', is an account of the SOC model by its creators J Prochaska, J Norcross and C DiClementi It is available on Amazon.co.uk for 0.01p

David, am I right to assume your employer is a large construction company? Are you the only safety professional? In my opinion and what I think I would do, is to throw away every single safety procedure and start again from scratch. Possibly the first would be the H&S Policy and name the individuals responsible for the various roles. Do a presentation to the board and get their support. Then choose your next target, perhaps site safety procedures, re-write and present to the main players, management down to the people at the sharp end. Get their buy in and monitor their following your new practices. Your next steps will be up to you but if you get those two right you are on your way. Only my opinions mind.

Is this director in question the overall boss, or are there a number of directors and an MD in the company? If the latter is true then you need to work to get support from each director individually and build up the momentum of support this way. It will be harder for the one director to block you. Sometimes H&S is about influence and people skills. See if you can work with them to introduce changes which will also save money. If it is a case of the former, then see Ian Bell2 post at #9

Talk to the workers and thry and get them on board, they might surprise you. But remember it is only a job, someone pays you to do, don't let it interfere with your life outside of work or you'll just burn yourself out. when I finish at 4 on a friday I don't think about work until the monday, the same each night. I will look at H&S topics outside of work only if i want to.

Hi Many thanks to all of those who gave advise, it is much appreciated. Kind regards