Hi everyone, I'm Michael from Manchester. I think I'm in a different boat to a lot of a people who seem to be using this site. I am in charge of the health and safety at my office and we are looking to get some health and safety training done to show us what we need to improve around the business and what things we already do well. I was hoping therefore to get a bit of advice off you lovely people. I have been having Google around and I'm not sure what type of organisation would be best to carry out the training(if any) or whether I should just get some information from the internet and carry some basic training out myself. I have been looking at a company near me who are IOSH qualified and offer this for their training (http://www.vitasafety.com/training.php) Does anyone have any experience of them or should I go at it alone? What would you suggest? Thanks for your help guys! Looking forward to getting involved on the forum!

Hi Mike It depends on what type of work your company does, your knowledge of health and safety and what you want to achieve out of the training. Are we talking about basic health and safety ie inductions or more detailed work like RAs, FRAs, fire prevention? Really need some more 'meat on the bone'.

Mike Why not step back a bit and request you do the IOSH managing safely course. It would give you more of an idea of where the gaps are in your company.

Hi Michael from Manchester and welcome. I would suggest you have a look at http://www.hse.gov.uk/si...-health-safety/index.htm this is a starter for anyone looking to start a health and safety system. Apologies if you are already past that stage, if so come back to me/us and we can look further. A H&S Audit could help you and I'm sure there are plenty on this forum who can help with that. Good luck Chris from Liverpool (True blue)

Greetings Michael - I'm Zyggy from Manchester! Some great advice already given on your way forward, but have a think about attending your local IOSH Branch meetings - Manchester & NW District Branch (details on this website) or other groups such as the Manchester Occupational Health & Safety Group (affiliated to RoSPA) - mike.nixon@mohsg.org.uk Great places to learn new things & network - the HSE attend most of the MOHSG meetings with updates. Best wishes for what you are trying to achieve, & as others have already stated, just keep posting!

Hi Guys, wow great response! Thanks a lot! I decided to take the plunge and go with the firm I mentioned in my first post - http://www.vitasafety.com/ After speaking with the director Mike, I feel a lot more confident moving forward with the Health and Safety work at our office. Thanks for all your great posts! Hopefully I will be able to help out some other people with the information I learn along the way! Mike

Micheal; can you explain what you mean by the comments 'I am in charge' as you may not be in charge as your employer/manager may have given U a job to do as against 'being in charge' which is different to undertaking a job/activity Best of luck

Hi Mike You can learn a lot from these guys. Good luck and lead from the front. zimmy