Posted By Robert Paterson Hi Zoe You could visit the website www.safetynews.co.uk and look at the jobs section where they feature quite a few agencies Good Luck Robert Paterson

Posted By STEPHEN HOLDEN Zoe Try principle people (www.principal-people.co.uk) in Chertsey or Review (www.review.co.uk , I think!) in Harrow. There are numerous others, try searchin "Health & Safety" + "Recruitment" Good Luck

Posted By Lewis T Roberts Zoe I from experience have found to date none as good as advertising directly your self. What you have to remember is that agencies and consultants in general terms are more concerned with their commercial sucess than the quality of the service they give. This may not be true for a few but there are few. Lew

Posted By Lewis T Roberts David, You are absolutley right in what you say. You may well be one of the few. I am sure that you would agree that there is in general terms a vast difference in what a consultancy or agency advertises or proports to be able to deliver and what actually gets delivered. It is rife in all service areas you only have to look at watch dog type programmes to get a feel for trends. What is promised is rarely recieved. Expectations are rarely matched and less exceeded. Lew

Posted By peter gotch Somewhat worrying when an agency posts a vacancy indicating the person spec.... The ideal candidate will hold a NEBOSH Certificate, or equivalent and be a Corporate Member of IOSH. I would expect any recruitment consultant specialising in H&S professionals to know what the academic routes towards MIOSH status are. Peter

Posted By Diane Thomason I agree totally with Lew and Peter. 4 years ago when I was job searching I applied for a number of jobs through agencies. Not one single time was I contacted to let me know the outcome of my application. This I find discourteous in the extreme. I also agree that any agency that deals in H&S vacancies should at least take the time to familiarise themselves with H&S qualifications and professional body memberships. I have to say also that having been on the other side - using agencies to recruit staff - that was not a great experience either; we were sent far too many totally unsuitable candidates whose strongest point was having a very attractive CV, full of personnel-management-speak, that had obviously been beautifully polished by the agency. Apologies to you "good" agency people but this is what my experience has been. Diane

Posted By Mark Burton I couldn't agree more with what Dave has said. As an individual member of the REC and working for an organisation that has for a long time been a member of the REC and has been recruiting HSE professionals for almost 10 years, there are very clear guidelines about what we should and should not do. We also have a very important role to play in educating clients about the expectations of candidates and vice versa and we spend a lot of time discussing relevant qualifications with clients and matching them to the scope and responsibility of a role. Clients will often ask for a candidate with health and safety qualifications but may be unaware of what qualifications would best suit their role and what the expectations of a candidate with a certain level of qualification may expect to be paid. If a client is looking for MIOSH but would accept applications from candidates with perfect experience and the right personality fit and a lower level of qualifications then this will be reflected in our advertising and should not be taken as an indication that as an agency we do not understand the levels of qualifications or experience within the profession. In terms of the suitability of c.v.'s, our practise is to send no more than 5 to a client that match their expectations. Reputable, professional agencies will not make any changes to a candidates' c.v. The Recruitment and Employment Confederation has a very strong code of conduct and if an agency is suspected of misleading clients or candidates I would certainly suggest that they direct a complaint to the REC who will deal with the agency through their disciplinary procedures. As in any other profession, one bad company can create a negative perception of all recruitment companies. However, if you do the right thing by people they will keep coming back to you. Companies who mislead clients or candidates, or behave in an inappropriate way will soon be found out and will hopefully disappear before they have the opportunity to damage the reputation of all recruiters in this niche market place. Mark