Posted By fats van den raad Yep, that would be ace. If one is concerned about general access such a board can be placed whithin the membership forum to limit acces to bona-fide members.

Posted By Roger Well Martin that means nothing will happen then.... RoSPA might though

Posted By Mark B I totally agree with James on this! also am I right in thinking that those who need this kind of help the most, are less experienced and may therefore not be members. So by having this as members only we may actually make the situation worse. Any thoughts? Regards, Mark.

Posted By Website Content Co-ordinator Morning Thomas, With regards to your request for information on best practice. Have you been introduced to IRMA yet? We also have a technical information area of the site dedicated to providing guidance notes, position statements, journals and toolkits. I hope this helps! Kind regards, Lou www.iosh.co.uk/technical/riskmantoolkit.cfm (IRMA/risk management toolkit) http://www.iosh.co.uk/index.cfm?go=technical.main (technical info pages)

Posted By steve e ashton Nice idea but..... wet blanket time Most of us are employed under contracts of employment that specify ownership of intellectual capital is vested with our employers. That means any writing, invention, etc that we devise whilst at work belongs (quite rightly) to our employer. Giving it away for free is therefore likely to be in breach of our contract of employment. Most (many? some?) employers may turn a blind eye where one professional passes on some 'tit bit' to another, but I suspect eyebrows would be raised at the thought of wholesale large-scale copyright breach in the same way as music pirate download servers are being targetted by the music industry. I suggest extreme care will be needed if the idea goes anywhere. And, sorry, but I don't think IOSH should be in the business of providing information for free that many of its members are making a living selling. Yes, I am a consultant, and I make my living by selling my intellectual capital. If my professional body starts giving it away, it is effectively taking the crust out of my mouth. (Note this isn't entirely self-interest - I made the same objection many years ago when IOSH services began selling training - thus reducing potential market share for many of its consultant / trainer members - and I made that objection before I became a consultant myself. Plus, I share the concerns of others here that under-competent persons accessing freely available information may (wrongly) try to use it when that they are simply not equipped to understand or critically evaluate it. And who is going to 'moderate' the postings? I wouldn't like to see IOSH hosting an information source giving access to the ideas recently touted here in relation to 'phone cleaning, for example. Sorry again, nice idea in theory, but I don't think it will be legal, be right for the membership, or practical for IOSH to implement. Steve

Posted By Thomas, Andrew Kim, It is Andrew. I'm with you, I don't really care about 'vested interests' and I really find the thought of letting lesser experienced colleagues find there own way disturbing. We all need a nudge in the right direction sometime. I'm a RSP and I see it as part of my role is assist and advise, and would never not. Like any idea there will be challenges to getting it implemented (we're all the experts in that)but I honestly believe that this should be a service provided by IOSH.

Posted By Sean Fraser I can understand and respect all points of view posted so far and to be honest, I'm not sure which colour I want to nail to the mast. I can appreciate that consultants offer a service that can provide businesses with a start in H&S, but why are they REALLY taken on? To provide a framework involving a documented system, and then go? Or to provide value to the organisation either to assist in the implmentation, development and even running of the SMS or even as a speciailist in a particular field to help out with a specific matter? If it is the latter, then there is little that putting some basic checklists and presentations is going to change. If it is the former, then it is obvious that the client hasn't a scooby and will be exposed in any case. Fact is, organisations often take on consultants because a) they need the intellectual capital is offers and/or 2) they haven't the time to do it themselves. So if time is an issue, will they really want to trawl the IOSH website (or others) and set up their own system? Probably not. However, there is the danger that IOSH could be unwitingly prompting organisations to try and cover H&S "on the cheap" by simply downloading the stuff on offer and attemtping to use it without really understanding or appreciating the gravitas involved if it all goes pear shaped. We are a professional body that advocates the H&S is a professional subject and that organisations should always be seeking to have constant access to professional advice and expertise. Remember though that more than 80% of our economic base is SMEs and in a comptetitive environment they often have neither time nor money to devote to this perceived peripheral issue. For this reason the HSE itself has a "starter kit" which at least informs - is the case that all we are proposing to do here is provide a range of tools to match?

Posted By Thomas, Andrew My thoughts remain the same. The notice board would be for us, the members of IOSH. To share information, without promotions, without signing up to another web-forum. I work on a COMAH site, I have major hazard issues and much as I think myself capable to write an inspection regime for warehouse racking, I don't want to. But if there is a member who has the information and would like to share it, great. Equally, if I can help a colleague at a SME who needs help with new legislation from left field i.e. DSEAR, no problem, I could post an example policy that would set them on the way. Assisted as you say with HSE guidance (that gets less useful each time they are issued). That's where I'm coming from, we all help each other. I've seen examples on this forum were people have asked for examples and got 'buy a book'as a response. I think we could all do more. But the question remains where does the idea go from here?

Posted By Roger Nice one Ciaran - I believe that is the professional response required - instead of reputations. PS I thought that IOSH is the membership... nah! maybe not

Posted By Dave Wilson Got to remember that not all people who enter this site are H&S people, may get the wrong message from a 'written' piece rather than a verbal instruction, people can and will use the info for financial gain! I would! Intellectual property rights, copyright etc etc dodgy wicket to say the least.

Posted By steve e ashton Just re-read this thread, and have changed my viewpoint in light of the other postings... (I still have reservations about copyright, and potential abuse / misuse of postings, but:) Rather than offering 'best practice' which is impossible to define (one mans meat being another mans poison) and requires extensive moderation, IOSH could host a forum for members posting items 'for peer review'. Any offering could then be downloaded and used / adapted as initally proposed in this thread, but the main intention would be to generate (constructive) comment from other members. The peer review element would prove extremely useful for those in the early stages of their careers, and should also be helpful to those working 'in isolation' without the benefit of large safety teams to provide internal review of the documents etc produced. Because the postings will be 'for review', I think it may be possible to get round the copyright problems associated with posting 'intellectual property', and since the postings will likely be headed 'draft for development' I would hope the risk of misuse could be minimised. The difficulty will be in assessing the value of any comments received - but thats always the way innit. Of course, there's always the question of who's got the time? but from the postings on this and other threads, it is clear that there are many very knowledgeable people out there who are willing to put time and effort into helping their fellow members. [If the comments received are especially helpful, there might even be (gasps of astonishment?) an offer to pay for the time and assistance provided?. Perhaps we could even get into the habit of shareware - try it and, if you like it, pay for it later.... Just a thought.] So, yes, a change of mind. The value of debate... Steve

Posted By Website Development Co-ordinator Hi, This has been an interesting thread with several suggestions coming out of the discussion. They have all been noted as it is something actively being considered once the review of IOSH Information Systems strategy is completed. The topic will also be added to the Technical Affairs Committee agenda for debate at a forthcoming meeting. Thanks to all of you, Angela Wheatcroft