Posted By y99san
Hi

I'm just starting out as a H&S advisor and have been asked if I would carry out a risk assessment on a pregnant lady. Can anybody please advise me on what would be a reasonable rate to charge.
Thanks in anticipation.

Posted By Merv Newman
Ian,

you may have jumped in a bit hard and fast there. Y could well be experienced and have done similar assessments before. He is now going "private" and is seeking advice on fees. Can we not just answer his question ?

IF Y is experienced and HAS done such assessments before, then what is a reasonable fee ?

Personally, never having done the piece-rate sort of consulting that many do, I have no real idea. Perhaps some who do could offer better advice than I.

We have had other threads on fees, mainly on day-rates.

General advice seems to be : think of a number which represents what you could reasonably hope to achieve after ALL expenses are paid. Accept that you will not sell much more than 100 paid days per year. (on piece-work this could be the equivalent of, say, 400 paid hours) At least double that number to cover costs such as tax, insurance NH, car, office and office supplies etcetcetc. OK, a lot of that is deductible but you have to get it in first.

So, now you have your annual total hoped-for fees. Divide by 100 for day rates or 400 for piece-work.

Do you want to end up with £10 000 pa disposable income ?(remember to dispose of it quick before it gets taxed out of existence) Double it gives you 20K, £200/day, £50 per risk assessment.

Hope someone else can offer more concrete advice.

Best of luck

Merv

Posted By GeoffB4
Quote: Good luck with your career, but.....

"you are just starting out", and
"you don't yet know what to charge"

On that thought Ian, it would seem difficult for anybody to start out - even you. Yet you managed!

Give them a chance eh?

Posted By Merv Newman
Ian,

You made an immediate assumption of incompetence on the part of y.

if you read the question posed : "I am just starting out as an H&S adviser (and need advice on fees)" one can equally assume, and I accepted the possibility, that a person who is now in a position to charge directly for their services could have the requisite level of competence. But I accept that you could be right. Not enough info supplied by the poster.

However, given my assumption of the possibility of competence I decided to answer the actual question posed within the limits of my limited, as admitted, knowledge and experience. And I did mention insurance as a necessary business cost (tax deductible)

Have a nice one

Merv

Posted By Crim
I tried to avoid the discussion forum all over Christmas so as not to get too involved or irritated by some of the answers applied here.

I have just opened up and find right away that people are not answering the simple question.

Competence is not an issue here as the question purely relates to guidance on charges for risk assessment.

I would suggest that you find a basic rate, hourly will do, and carry out a trial assessment using your procedures and see how long it takes.

Solicitors always start their clock as soon as they start to do a job, you should try that and stop the clock every time you break off to do something else. when you have finished stop the clock for the final time and tot up the hours total.

As self employed you have to be prepared to get the money wrong sometimes but hope to be right most of the time.

I would look at what is required i.e. visit to employer address, interview the individual, make lots of notes and then take guidance from HSE website, IOSH forum etc. Include driving time as well.

You will then be able to estimate the cost.

I can do fire risk assessments quite cheaply using the above - some people put a blanket cost on assessments but this sometimes puts people off as it is usually more expensive.

Posted By Ian P
Sorry Ron but I have to defend the employer. If they even know they have a duty to carry out an expectant mother risk assessment then they are ahead of the field. At a pre natal clinic an employee of ours was the only person who had one and most of her fellow EMs were employed.

Posted By y99san
Thanks to all who have offered constructive advice and support to a ‘budding’ freelance H&S advisor.

Just to clarify, I have been working in H&S (for a medium sized company) for a few years and have the relevant experience and qualifications.

I would have thought that for anyone just starting out on their own, knowing what fees to charge can be a bit hit and miss. I just wanted some guidance from those who have been there before me that’s all.

Posted By Merv Newman
Y,

thanks for the clarification on your experience and qualifications. More or less what I had sort of assumed.

Richard,

thankyou for supplying pricing information. Just what y and I were hoping to get. £20 to £30 per hour does seem a bit low to me, though I can see your commercial logic in varying fee levels for large or small companies. Just be careful that the small one doesn't talk to the big one. Who will then ask for the lower rate.

I have, however, over the years, found that it can be beneficial to be flexible on fees. Within reason.

When I went private in 1992 I calculated fees based on ending up with the same disposable as when I had been salaried. Which worked fairly well.

Over the years our fees have gradually increased but not, in our opinion, excessively. We know that our principal (bespoke) competitor still charges at least three times higher and our largest competitor (bulk supplier) is at about half our level.

This year, with the recession, we are thinking of revising our tarifs. May have to round down to the nearest £K per day.

Back to the original question : RA for a Pregnancy . Not really coveered by other correspondants but pregnancy is a dynamic condition. Risks and needs can change day by day or week by week. So the RA has to be reviewed quite often. This would need explaining to your client, the pregnant lady and her work coleagues. Either you make arrangments to revisit the workplace or you take extra time to train the lady, boss and colleagues on simple RA and monitor the results. (personally, I would do this by an occasional fly-by FOC. (maybe tea and biscuits)

Merv

(now off to do the MOT on my wife's ageing mini. Definitely feeling pregnant)