It keeps slipping down the list
You have tried to manage it yourself. Policies have not been reviewed since they were written, assessments have gone out of date, and nothing is anyone's actual job.
Regulation 7 says you must appoint a competent person. Where that competence is not in-house, outsourced health and safety support from a retained consultant is how the duty gets met, without carrying a full-time safety hire.
Twenty minutes, no charge. Or call 07949 084819.
From £199 a month
Consultants in Cheshire and the West Midlands
Professional indemnity insured
Who this is for
Retained support is usually taken on at a specific moment. If you recognise yours here, the Greenlight Call will tell you which tier fits.
You have tried to manage it yourself. Policies have not been reviewed since they were written, assessments have gone out of date, and nothing is anyone's actual job.
A tender, a framework or a client audit has asked who your competent person is, and you need a real name and real credentials on the paperwork.
A near miss, an incident or an inspection has left you wondering whether your arrangements would have stood up if anyone had looked properly.
Packages
Every tier is a rolling monthly agreement with thirty days' notice. Prices are from figures, exclusive of VAT, and the Greenlight Call confirms which tier fits before you commit to anything.
Essential
from £199 a month
Micro businesses, roughly 1 to 9 staff.
Professional
from £399 a month
SMEs, roughly 10 to 49 staff.
Premium
from £799 a month
Larger SMEs, 50+ staff, or higher-risk sectors.
On every tier
Assessments are quoted separately. Fire, DSEAR and PUWER risk assessments and bespoke on-site training are scoped and priced as their own pieces of work, alongside a retainer rather than buried inside it. That way you can see what you are paying for, and the monthly fee stays predictable.
How it works
The aim of the first month is to find out what you already have and what is missing, so that the support you pay for goes on the gap.
Twenty minutes to understand the business, the headcount, the risks and what exists on paper.
Which package fits, confirmed in writing, before anything is signed.
A look at your existing documentation and a policy written or rewritten for your business.
Your named consultant, the visits your tier includes, and someone to call when a client audit lands.
Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires you to appoint one or more competent persons. The point of a retainer is that a named, qualified individual carries that role and can be produced on request by an insurer, a client or an inspector. That is the part you cannot get from a document pack.
How the work is delivered
Support is delivered by professionally qualified consultants working to a single documented method, with technical sign-off held centrally.
The same consultant, who learns your operation, rather than whoever picks up the phone that day.
Documentation is reviewed and signed off by a Chartered practitioner before it reaches you.
Policies and assessments your supervisors can follow, not legalese that sits in a folder.
Manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, trades and construction, and office-based businesses.
What this support is built on
Consultants are professionally qualified and every deliverable is technically reviewed before it reaches you. Registrations and CVs are available on request.
Proof
Straight answers
Yes. Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires every employer to appoint one or more competent persons to help them comply with health and safety law. The regulation does not say the person has to be an employee. Where that competence is not available in-house, a retained consultant is how it gets met.
A full-time safety officer is a salary, on-costs, training and cover when they are away. A retainer gives you a named qualified person and a defined level of support for a fixed monthly fee, with the option to scale it up or down as the business changes. Where the risks are high enough or the work complex enough to need someone on site every day, an in-house appointment starts to make sense and we would say so.
Headcount is the starting point but risk decides it. A twenty-person office and a twenty-person engineering shop are not the same problem. Essential suits micro businesses with low-hazard work. Professional adds quarterly site visits and assessment sign-off, which is where most SMEs land. Premium adds monthly visits, full assessment management and enforcement liaison, and suits higher-risk operations. The Greenlight Call is where that gets decided, and we would rather put you on the right tier than the expensive one.
No, and deliberately. Those are scoped and quoted as their own pieces of work, so you can see what each one costs and the monthly fee stays predictable. Where you hold a retainer they are quoted alongside it. Bundling a fire risk assessment into a monthly fee tends to mean either you are overpaying every month or the assessment is thinner than it should be.
It is a rolling monthly agreement with thirty days' notice. There is no minimum term and no exit fee.
Call. We will advise on how to respond, review the documentation you are going to be asked for, and on the Premium tier attend the premises alongside you where that is warranted. Enforcement liaison and accident investigation support sit at Premium, and if you are on a lower tier and something serious happens we will tell you honestly what falls outside your package.
York Green's consultants are based in Cheshire and in Shropshire and the West Midlands, and the regular patch is the Midlands, the North West, Yorkshire and North Wales: roughly everywhere within two hours' drive of a consultant, from Hereford and Coventry in the south to Preston, Leeds and Doncaster in the north. Sites beyond that are taken on where the work justifies the travel, and the method and the technical sign-off are the same wherever the site is. Wherever the site is, the price quoted after the Greenlight Call is the price.
Next step
Five boxes, about a minute. Every enquiry is read by a consultant rather than a call centre, and we come back to you within one working day. If the honest answer is that you need one assessment rather than a retainer, we will tell you that instead of selling you a package.
Would rather talk now? Call 07949 084819 or email enquiries@yorkgreen.uk.
We reply within one working day.