Rank: Forum user 
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Ok I know this is a question with numerous variables that can affect the answer, plus you never have enough people to do all the work required, and there is no right or wrong answer.
But putting all that aside, how many people do you have in the safety department and for how many employees and in what industry?
Just curious
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Hi
we operate on a shift basis (4 shifts=2 dayshifts and 2 nightshifts) we have 1 health & safety coordinator on each shift and a health & safety manager (who manages all shifts)which are all based on site. beyond that there is a regional health & Safety manager then director.
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Hi
We have 1 H&S Manager, between 50 and 60 employees working for an RSL.
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We have 6 fte. One Head of (me) and five health and safety development officers. We are a charity with around 4,000 paid workers and something around 15-20,000 volunteers. We work in ambulance support services, first aid provision and training, civil reslience, disaster response (mostly in the UK but also overseas) and general humanitarian provision. The H&S people are all quite busy!
John
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Just me, construction industry, with approx 120-140 staff and operatives.
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Only meeee - over 700 staff and 1360 pupils.
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Just me and I'm part time - 130 employees, manufacturing engineering organisation.
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Just me, over 200 stores warehouses and head office. It depends also on the industry as to how many a company ought to have.
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x 2
1500 employees
Transport & storage
Included in our duties is 14001, 9001, 18001 and DGSA for me. Can I hear a violin
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200 people in a heavy engineering manufacturing environment running power presses and I’m on my own, also I’m not a senior person on site. I also have Environment, waste, fire protection and now have been given all the energy saving projects. All the other departments [and there are a few] have teams with a manager heading them, but of course it’s “Safety First”!
At least its Friday.
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I know it's a bit of a Friday question but it's interesting how many one man bands there are!
Just for fairness I have around 7000 employees, public sector, everything from hospitals, schools, emergency services and waste management and general municipal/local authority work. I have myself, three full time safety managers, two assistant safety officers to support them and quite a few NEBOSH Gen Cert qualified employees acting as safety advisors as part of another job role.
I’m not saying I need more or less and certainly no violins for me
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2 full time health and safety managers - over 2000 staff spread over the UK
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Construction industry, one Health and Safety Manager (myself), and one Health and Safety Administrator for a company with 65 employees but with many subcontractors to manage also.
Regular H&S duties plus ISO 9001, 14001 and OHSAS 18001 leaves us under-resourced and always busy and having to prioritise/compromise somewhere...but SLOWLY but surely are getting departmental management buy-in to assume their H&S responsibilities!
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Just me, part time. Manufacturing industry with 150 employees. Also responsible for ISO 14001, waste control, facilities management, fire protection, contractor management. And alos, like one of the other posts on here, i am not a senior person on site and do not have a manager to report in to.
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Just me.
Construction
50 employees but all our site work is sub-contracted so many subbies.
Andy
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Just me.
Education, about 1000 postgraduate research and staff. Add about 200 undergraduates in term time.
And I am working tomorrow (exam season).
And we don't get Bank Holidays off in May ('cos it's term time).
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12
1head, 3 managers & 5 advisors. 3 administration team.
Primary authority for both fire and safety
We have a very varied skill set front safety practitionairs to fire safety practitionairs. Building surveyors auditors and insurance expert...
25,000 + employees 1800 sites & millions of customer footfall....
We are responsible for everything you name it.
Retail, transport, distribution, construction, fit out redevelopment etc etc & of course fire & insurance.
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there was 1 H&S + environment competent person & 1 fire competent person for >9000 PAYE staff, ~1000 agency staff, 100's of contractors, >20,000 controlled volunteers with 1000's of buildings and land areas scattered in a wide area with many different business areas most of which operating a 24 hour 365 day service, in my friends last position
There were dozens of HR, trainers [non-H&S] QA, procurement and other such staff - both the fire and HSE new about the lack of resources but did nothing
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Blimey Bob, surely there is no way your friend's firm could be compliant with fire safety legislation with 1 'fire competent' persons and 1000s of premises!!
I am responsible for fire safety for 80+ buildings across all parts of the UK, training 8000 staff (using contractors) and for all the other stuff like building changes, fire investigation, projects & scores of day to day enquiries - And I struggle!!
Goodness knows how your friend had any chance of compliance!!!
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apparently it is now worse since my friend left -this is not unusual especially in many local gov areas -lots of talk about H&S but very little action & as already stated the enforcers know all about it but do nothing!
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5 professionals (Head of, 2 x Manager, 2 x Adviser) currently. Over 9,500 Colleagues - retail and services.
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Just me working part-time with around 500 staff over about 40 sites (granted some only have 2 members of staff) and it's office based. However, also have lots of other people attending each site including families, social workers etc and often they some of them do not want to be there or have been escorted by the police or secure unit so increased risk of violence.
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Just me , 16000 staff , 2000 volunteers & 40 building spread over England & Wales. I drive 1300 miles a month , am I happy ....oh yes , organise my own work and diary, and counting down the years to retirement, which I might just make before this government kills off this industry.
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2500 staff spead over UK and Europe, 40 plus locations. 1 boss (qualified EHS advisor), 1 x EHS advisor trained to NEBOSH diploma level, 1 x environmental specialist, Handful of onsite part time EHS reps.
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For 4000+ staff spread in premises all over the country in healthcare - me plus three advisors the joy.
Pete,
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It depends on various requirements, I work in Qatar and here as per QCS 2014 we need one safety officer for every 50 persons at site.. apart from HSE Manager.. The same goes to subcontractors also at projects.
regards,
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Reading through all these posts it is pretty clear that the balance is way out of kilter when it comes to the number of H&S professionals repsonsible for the safety of employees. It's a shame that someone from the Daily Mail or any other paper don't do a feature on this thread and discuss the lack of resources/investment for keeping people safe rather than taking a swipe at every opportunity to ridicule an industry straining at the seams to ensure we all go home safely at the end of a working day.
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Rank: New forum user
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I have 52 colleagues and am the only person responsible for SHEQ
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I don't necessarily think it is out of kilter, it could be that some companies have good Managers, Supervisors etc who incorporate H&S well into their everyday tasks.
Just a thought.
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Just me....... All responsibilities for HSE in 300 + food manufacturing. Reporting into a European group HSE manager whom has no HSE experience but can produce some brilliant graphs..
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grim72 wrote:Reading through all these posts it is pretty clear that the balance is way out of kilter when it comes to the number of H&S professionals repsonsible for the safety of employees .
agreed, phargreaves04
The EMPLOYER is responsible for the health and safety of employees - not me!
Notable that no-one has mentioned: Budget. External Agency Support (e,g. Occ. Hygiene Services). Occupational Health Provision.
Regulation 7 MHSWR is a broad brush not just the "health and safety bod."
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2900 full time employees scattered across Scotland - Two people in the safety department.
One H&S Director
130 Managers Training in IOSH Managing Safely
230 Supervisors Trained in Supervising Safely
All staff go through Safety Induction
4 Regional Safety Committees (8 representatives in each region)
1 National Safety Committee (12 representatives)
500 fully trained fire wardens, etc...
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Rank: Super forum user
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I used to enjoy baiting H & S sales callers who ask "how many staff are you responsible for" with the answer 1,3,6,8 whatever size of safety team i managed. Not the 10,000 or whatever workforce figure they were clearly expecting. Pedantic? Maybe, but i also notice so many JDs for safety jobs saying that the postholder 'will be responsible for ensuring safety compliance at all times / all areas' etc. How?
I have found that safety tasks (busy-ness) expand to fill the number of people available.
The organisation can perceive that a large team "do" safety, so no need for anyone else to get involved ("thats what we have YOU for"). The list of responsibilities grows ever longer. The team get busier than ever. More staff needed!
When limited in number, the adviser(s) can actually step out of "doing" and get back to advising in a more strategic way.
So there is no "right" number or ratio of practitioners in an organisation, as the role and functions will vary so much.
Does more mean better?
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80 Employees with one health and safety manager and an assistant.
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Just me, 3 days a week, 16 operatives and subbies. I go five days a week as a site manager when we have a notifiable project.
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Twenty three sites, of which three are manufacturing facilities and one is a Powder Coaters. Only 200-250 employees.
Manager (me) plus two others of which one is mainly admin. Can also utilise a couple of people to assist with internal training.
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Rank: Super forum user
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aud wrote:
When limited in number, the adviser(s) can actually step out of "doing" and get back to advising in a more strategic way.
quote]
Spot on.
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Local Authority with around 12,000 employees (oops! sorry, colleagues) with 2 full-time advisors, 2 part-time advisors and one on contract. Busy busy busy!
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Rank: Super forum user 
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700+ staff, 2 hospitals and 7 clinics with one safety manager (me). we do however have a very active safety committee of managers and an employee safety committee, so plenty of support.
Kevin
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