Hi all,  I've just registerd on this forum after a long break away.  I'm after a bit of advice from you lovely people please.  I am an ex-HSE advisor, I worked as a Process Safety Engineer then HSE Advisor in the Chemicals Industry, looking after Process Safety and Occupational H&S.  I did my Nebosh level 6 diploma in 2010.  

I was made redundant from my last job in H&S in 2009 thanks to the economic downturn then, and I was 8 months pregnant when I was made redundant. Due to family circumstances I have not yet got back into the workplace, and to be honest I don't want to go back to being an employee - I want to be self employed.

I have gained loads of experience of running a Limited company over these last few years as I have run a residential management company (think like a managemegnt company for a block of flats, only this is for a large estate).  I have used all my skills to set up as a Virtual Assistant (VA) - offering admin and bookkeeping / finance support to small businesses (I've also done my AATs).

I was thinking of pivoting my VA business to support freelance H&S consultants in running their business, then I thought about being a H&S consultant myself.  My fear with that is I have not kept up with legislation changes over the 10 year.

So here are my questions (1) do you think there would be a demand for a VA to help freelance H&S consultants with their admin, bookkeeping and maybe low-level H&S stuff and (2) if I were to offer myself as a freelance H&S consultant rather than a VA how much 'catch-up' would I need to do from the last 10 years and were would be the best place to start??

I'd appreaciate any help / input.  Many thanks.