IOSH has stepped up its campaign for the introduction of accreditation for the health and safety profession via an address by the Institution’s president at a special lunch at the House of Lords today (20 May).
John Holden told an invited gathering of fellow professionals, distinguished guests and politicians that accreditation will help make the health and safety more trusted and respected, and will strike a major blow in the fight to quash the many myths that have grown up around the profession.
Challenging IOSH members to “not get mad but get even – even more professional than we have ever been before” John said the cross-party political support for accreditation, plus IOSH’s work with other industry leaders on a pilot accreditation scheme has been encouraging.
Noting that, as things currently stand, anyone can claim to be a health and safety “advisor” without any qualifications or experience, he said: “The official guidance to the law tells businesses they must get a ‘competent assistant at an appropriate level’ to help them with their health and safety, yet employers and recruiters are left to guess what ‘competence’ actually means.
John added: “This possible playground for poor advice is potentially very threatening to workers, whose lives and long-term health can be put at risk; to businesses, in terms of wasted time and money; and to people whose image of health and safety is formed by negative media coverage of some poor decisions made in its name.”
The Institution’s work towards accreditation was commended by HSE chair, Judith Hackitt, who told the gathering: “We will all benefit from being able to demonstrate that we are competent and confident health and safety professionals, who can apply knowledge in a proportionate way.”
However, she added that any scheme would have to involve “CPD, different routes to accreditation, and methods to sanction inappropriate behaviour”.
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No accreditation will not build up trust and respect; only a responsible attitude will do that. Take lawyers for example, no amount of accreditation or certification will give them a good name for much of their work lacks a moral compass.
Health and safety practitioners do have a moral compass but frequently lack common sense and logic.
This is a difficult area but it must be tackled, there are to many people in industry with the function of health and safety officer / advisor in positions of authority who give wrong or in appropriate advice but are not challenged.
To practice as a solicitor, accountant, architect etc. one must be chartered, a difficult situation for us as they are many competent safety staff who are not qualified to this level but we may need to go this way.
I fully support this. Only yesterday a lampost nearby sprouted an arrow sign illegally fixed to it saying “WARNING – HEALTH & SAFETY NOTICE – DO NOT REMOVE – beneath which it went on to say “Circus Monday to Thursday £5.00 adults” The sooner Cowboy H&S brigade join Cowboy builders and Cowboy clampers and are prosecuted or otherwise prevented in bringing the profession into disrepute the better.
Competency = KATE (Knowledge, Ability, Training, Experience) Knowledge – education, IOSH, NEBOSH, degree, or other (or proven grandfather rights at start) Ability – to rationalise, apply comon sense, think outside the box! Training – maintain and improve knowledge by CPD Experience – obvious. Suggestion submit to IOSH details of all these, option to be called for interview if any doubt. IOSH then grant acreditation/Licence at a skill level (that is the hard bit). By always maintaining a “Grandfather rights”, experience type route by interview it means the old heads with lods of good knowledge can be in the system. Acreditation/licence… Read more »
Having a piece of paper will not give H & S specialists experience. It will take years of having experience as a professional trades person as well as academics and theoretical knowledge.
A long serving Professiojnal Engineer will have more knowledge of the risks in his sector than someone who has just left scool or iuniversity with a paperwork accreditation.
Professional accreditation for Safety professionals should become a must. I personally fully back the idea and will be one of the first to go down the route of accreditation.
I would like to see professional accreditation including practical examinations to ensure basic compentance in relevent day to day subjects for example electricity, using ladders etc. To many H&S specialists only know the theory, I wonder how many can recognise an overloaded 4 way extension lead? We expect apprentices and gas fitters to demonsrate these skills so why not H&S workers.
Accreditation will be a good way of policing the industry. There are however people working at different levels. There are those with NEBOSH certificates alone, Construction, Fire and other such specialists. There are Grad and CM IOSH members, MIIRSM, CIEH etc. The levels of accreditation should reflect the qualification and expertise of the individual offering the service. Perhaps we could have grades of consultant. I know of several people for example, who have never taken high level qualifications, but have spent their entire careers in construction, and are a mine of information on the subject. These people would be precluded… Read more »
have I missed something somewhere? What actually does everyone mean by accreditation, will this give protected status as say the term Architect does?
What actually will this ‘accreditation’ mean to the existing membership structure?
It seems that we are tilting at windmills until we all know the parameters. As the field is so vast, possibly there needs some sideways classification to reflect differences in say Construction against Manufacturing or Fire Safety?
I agree in principal with the above article however, i am in the construction industry (sighs) and when certain people are promoted ahead of you who dont have even half the qualifications that you possess – i sometimes wonder – maybe its not the qualification but who you know higher in the food-chain that matters. I have a degree in safety, engineering, and am CMIOSH along with a host of other qualifications training and over 30 projects under my belt and i was overlooked for promotion. and who got it? a chap who doesnt have any accreditation with any body… Read more »
Well said John!
This move toward professional accreditation is long overdue. We need to shake off this (often ill founded) reputation as non-collaborative pedants and convince our critics that we are a forward thinking, enabling profession whose job is to make things happen without compromising our overall objective – a healthy workforce engaged in thriving businesses.
If I can help in any way, let me know.
Mike.
What is the difference between being competent and working your way up the current IOSH ladder? Is there a suggestion that Chartered means nothing? What about the other grades of dedicated people? There must be some recognition of the graft and ££££££. Courses already cost individuals, businesses and taxpayers a small fortune. For a lot of decent hardworking people accreditation is just another word to put the price up yet again.
It will be interesting for professionlas to read what is meant by; ‘even more professional’ – could it be the UCMIOSH, where the ‘U’ means ultimate!
This debate is happening because of the poor image and disrespect of the H & S industry largely produced by the media in reaction to stupid decisions made in the public sector to eradicate liability payouts. In my experience, the persons who make these decisions are likely to be IOSH members and well accredited.
Whilst Iagree with a process or scheme to ‘clean up’ and professionalise the industry I do worry that this may prove to be an opportunity for exploitation by some less honorable people. I know too may safety professionals that blanket ban step ladders on sites that they control or who focus on the minutia instead of advising on pratical safety management and operate in risk avoidance rather than safety management. Some of these people are qualified members of IOSH and would no doubt qualify for registration , so what tool will we use to determine ‘competence’. Affiliation to IOSH goes… Read more »
Colin makes a very good point, experience must be taken in to account when assessing the competence of persons working within the health and safety sector.
I would welcome an interview process that would assess experience, qualification and an assessment of previous bodies of work over a number years including live working assessment. I hope the accreditation does not become another desk top profit making accreditation like the ones within local government and the construction industry that take a fee for a logo and prove nothing.