Posted By Ian Waldram
If you are genuinely referring to the UK 'Revitalising' plan, one of the key points is that you CAN'T tackle everything at once - so HSC/E have identified 8 national priority areas. Therefore a way to start is to decide which of these apply to your enterprise, and do something about managing those areas first. HSE have now published lots of guidance about good practices in the 5 hazard areas, so you can use an internal team or Focus Group to benchmark against that without the expense of an external audit.

Using a formal management system when you don't have much in place tends to result in a long list with no real prioritisation. Using external auditors right from the start often leads to a pass/fail attitude to audits, rather than continuous improvement which is the real secret of effective management systems.

Again, you can use an internal team to 'map' the systems you have in place against a recognised standard, such as 18001. BSI publish a very helpful reference called 'Managing Safety the Systems Way' which shows how a system could apply for six typical smallish businesses.

Within the next few months IOSH expects to publish practical guidance on choosing an OSHMS, with ideas on how to implement and adapt it for your situation. It also shows how many of the recognised standards are in fact very similar. No fixed publication date - but there will be lots of publicity when it's ready (it's at pre-print draft stage right now).

Posted By Ian Waldram
Andy,
A true audit involves understanding the types of hazard the organisation faces and checking that the controls for these are effective in reducing risk to an acceptably low level.

Good auditors nwill collect and evaluate sample evidence from documents, interviews at all levels and workplace observations. It is very unlikely this could be done in a day unless the organisation is tiny.

From your response it seems you are determined to call on external help. Are you doing this because you expect them to identify issues you have missed internally, or reinforce the messages you are already giving and priorities you have set? Do you want a compliance audit (e.g. have we missed any key legislation?) or one aimed at helping the organisation to reduce risk exposure with business excellence in mind?

If you can answer these sorts of question, you should be able to find a commercial audit organisation which will meet your needs.