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 Policies have not been reviewed since they were written, assessments have gone out of date, and nothing is anyone's actual job.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 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 says you must appoint a competent person. Most small and medium businesses do not have one on the payroll. Outsourced health and safety is how that duty gets met without a full-time hire: a named Chartered consultant who carries the role for your business, a monthly fee agreed in writing and thirty days' notice if you want to stop. It is one of the services in our health and safety consultancy.
Twenty minutes, no charge. Or call 07949 084819.
From £199 a month
Working across the Midlands, the North West, Yorkshire and North Wales
Professional indemnity insured
Who this is for
Outsourced 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 Policies have not been reviewed since they were written, assessments have gone out of date, and nothing is anyone's actual job.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
Month one
Onboarding, £1,200 one-off, plus VAT
Invoiced with the first month on every tier. A site familiarisation visit, a baseline review of what you have and what is missing, your policy and document set built into GreenLight, the action register set up and your team's logins created.
The £40 a month alternative
A certificate and a phone number
Some firms sell a competent person certificate for around £40 a month: a name for your paperwork, an advice line and the certificate. Nobody visits and nothing is written for your business. If a name on a form is all a contract asks of you, it will do that job. A monthly arrangement is for when someone has to come to the premises, write the assessment and put their name to it.
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 the monthly arrangement rather than buried inside it. That way you can see what you are paying for, and the monthly fee stays predictable. Clients on a monthly plan pay for each one when the report is delivered, or spread it into the monthly plan over 12 or 24 months at the same price; if the arrangement ends, whatever is left on a spread assessment is invoiced with the final month.
Straight answers
Yes. Regulation 7(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires every employer to appoint one or more competent persons to help them meet their health and safety duties. The regulation does not say that person has to be an employee. Where there is nobody in the business with the training and experience to do it, an outsourced consultant is how the appointment gets made. Our consultant's name goes on your policy and your documentation and can be produced for an insurer, a client auditor or an inspector. The full explanation of the duty, who counts as competent and when you can do it in-house is on the competent person service page.
From £199 a month plus VAT for a micro business, from £399 for roughly 10 to 49 staff and from £799 for 50 or more or higher-risk work, each on a rolling monthly agreement with thirty days' notice. Month one includes Onboarding at £1,200 plus VAT: a site familiarisation visit, a baseline gap review, your policy and document set built into GreenLight, the action register set up and your team's logins created. Fire, DSEAR, PUWER and Legionella assessments are priced on your actual premises and quoted alongside the monthly fee, never hidden inside it. The figure for your business is confirmed in writing after a twenty-minute Greenlight Call.
The national providers sell the same bundle to tens of thousands of businesses: a 24-hour advice line, a competent person undertaking, document templates, software, an annual visit and legal expenses insurance, on a fixed monthly fee and a contract that usually runs for years. For a business that mainly wants a phone number to ring, that works. York Green is built the other way round. You get the same named consultant every time, the monthly price is published on this page, the agreement is rolling with thirty days' notice and the person who signs your assessments is the person who stood in your building. We do not sell insurance and we do not sell software; GreenLight, our client portal, is included.
A Greenlight Call to understand the business, the headcount and the risks. A written confirmation of the tier and the monthly figure. Then Onboarding: a visit to the premises, a baseline review of what you already hold and what is missing, your policy and document set built into GreenLight, an action register with owners and dates, and logins for your team. By the end of month one you have a named competent person on your documentation and a list of what to fix in what order. A small family retailer came to us with a local authority Improvement Notice and a compliance date three weeks away: blocked aisles, stock stacked where it should not be, no assessment for the stockroom. The first month was one assessment that described the stockroom as it was actually used and a day-by-day plan the staff could follow.
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 tier fits and the monthly figure, confirmed in writing, before anything is signed.
£1,200 plus VAT in month one: a site familiarisation visit, a baseline gap review, your policy and document set built into GreenLight, the action register set up and your team's logins created.
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 outsourcing it 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
More questions
A full-time safety officer is a salary, on-costs, training and cover when they are away. A monthly arrangement gives you a named qualified person and a defined level of support for a monthly fee agreed in writing, 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 are on a monthly plan 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. Clients on a monthly plan choose how to pay for each one: on delivery of the report, or spread into the monthly plan over 12 or 24 months at the same price, with any balance due if the arrangement ends.
It is a rolling monthly agreement with thirty days' notice. There is no minimum term and no exit fee. If you have spread an assessment into the monthly plan, whatever is left on it is invoiced with your final month: that is the balance of work already delivered, not an 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 tier.
Our consultants work across the Midlands, the North West, Yorkshire and North Wales: roughly everywhere within two hours' drive of one of them, 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 monthly arrangement, 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.