Posted By Jim Walker I would suggest you look at the prosecutions where companies have used under qualified advisors and got their fingers burnt. Sainsburys was one, and there are a few others which maybe someone will remind us about. Also have a look at HSG65 (page 31 - Role of H&S advisor)

Posted By Graham Bullough As any health & safety adviser for a local authority (LA) will confirm, LAs ARE complex organisations with a lot of people doing a very diverse range of activities. Unitary authorities provide almost "cradle to grave" services, with the obvious exception of healthcare. Most LAs are also the biggest employers in terms of employee numbers in their localities. However, as David Brede suggests, LAs do ask a lot of their advisers. This partly reflects the fact that most LAs have insufficient numbers of advisers in relation to their size and range of activities. In turn this reflects the fact that their pay is poor compared with equivalent jobs in commerce and industry: As someone suggested recently in the IOSH careers forum, the difference for most posts is about £5K. On the plus side, few H & S advisers outside LAs probably encounter the range of people, activities and associated problems or challenges we get in LAs. Thus we're never short of work and never ever bored! One aspect of being a LA adviser is that some people have a strange perception about what we do. Thus we tend to get all sorts of strange queries and requests about a wide variety of subjects. I agree with David's suggestion of getting a few job descriptions and person specifications from current job advertisers in the TSHP. Also I would suggest being wary of any health & safety posts which include managing "security" or "environmental matters" as these may suggest that senior management don't have much idea about what health & safety is about. Most if not all LA descriptions have a catch-all clause at the end along the lines of "any other duties as allocated by management". The clause should finish with something like "and consistent with the nature of the post". Also be wary of any posts which include "carrying out risk assessments". This is a line management responsibility. By all means train, guide and assist managers in carrying out risk assessments, but don't do it all for them, otherwise they get to think that H & S is not their responsibility and something that H & S advisers do! Time to stop and get on with other work. No doubt other LA advisers will add their thoughts. Another source of advice could be contacting or, if feasible, going along to a meeting of your nearest IOSH Branch Public Services Section as most members will be from LAs.

Posted By Geoff Burt Michael If you email me your address I'll send a copy of a job description I negotiated with an LA. I only lasted a few months, I couldn't stand it any longer - if you think it is hard getting things done in the commercial sector try an LA, they're full of negatives waiting for their pensions and finding reasons why things can't be done. The lessons I learned were 1)negotiate the highest reporting chain you can - preferably directly to a Director 2)and as was mentioned earlier have responsibility for advice only - line managers should be doing their own risk assessments. Geoff