Miss Amie Angell
Overview
I'm a health and safety and fire safety consultant, which is a job title that tends to clear a room at parties. But the reality is a lot more interesting than the reputation. My work is about helping organisations get to a point where their people go home in one piece and their paperwork doesn't fall apart the moment somebody official asks a question. I work across care homes, hotels, schools, factories, building sites, leisure venues and shops, and no two of them are ever quite the same.
A good chunk of what I do is acting as the competent person for businesses that don't have one in house. That means being the person they ring when something has gone wrong, or when they're not sure whether something is about to go wrong, or when a client has sent them a questionnaire full of questions they don't understand. I build and review health and safety management systems, write the policies and arrangements, and make sure the structure underneath actually reflects how the business really runs rather than how it looked on a template somebody downloaded in 2013.
Risk assessment is the bread and butter. General workplace assessments, task-based ones, COSHH, manual handling, DSE, work equipment, young persons, expectant mothers, lone working. With COSHH in particular I read the actual safety data sheets rather than guessing, because guessing is how you end up with a control measure that protects nobody from anything. The aim is always a document somebody will genuinely use, not one that lives in a folder and gathers dust until an inspector arrives.
Fire safety is the other half of my working life. I carry out fire risk assessments under the Fire Safety Order, from straightforward Type 1s through to Type 4s and sleeping risk premises where the stakes are considerably higher. That covers evacuation strategy, occupancy calculations, fire safety management arrangements, and a prioritised action plan that tells people what to fix first rather than handing them forty items and wishing them luck. I also deal with Fire and Rescue Service audits and enforcement officers, which is less adversarial than people expect and mostly comes down to being able to show your reasoning.
Then there's monitoring and assurance — site inspections, workplace audits, contractor competence checks, and keeping an eye on the statutory stuff like electrical testing, LOLER, PUWER and asbestos management. It's the unglamorous end of the trade, but it's where you catch the problems while they're still small and cheap.
When things do go wrong, I handle incident investigation. Root cause analysis, RIDDOR reporting, the full documentation suite afterwards, corrective actions and lessons learned. I've done this under real pressure with regulators involved, and the thing I've learned is that clear, honest, well-evidenced documentation is worth more than any amount of defensive wordsmithing.
I also deliver training and awareness sessions, run training needs analyses and build competence matrices, and I develop software tools that make assessment work faster and more consistent for the people doing it.
Underpinning all of it: I'm a Chartered Member of IOSH, I hold the NEBOSH National Diploma and an ABBE Level 4 Diploma in Fire Risk Assessment. Which is a formal way of saying I've done the reading, and I'll keep doing it, because the day you stop is the day you become the consultant everyone quietly avoids ringing.
Specialisms
| Industry | Years Experience |
|---|---|
| Catering and hospitality | 6 |
| Haulage | 6 |
| Retail | 6 |
| Woodworking and furniture | 6 |
| Warehousing | 6 |
| Manufacturing | 6 |
| Motor vehicle repair | 6 |
| Equine Industry | 6 |
| Topic | Years Experience |
|---|---|
| Fire and explosion | 6 |
| Hazardous Substances (COSHH) | 6 |
| Equipment at work | 6 |
| Ergonomics | 6 |
| Human factors | 6 |
| Managing for health and safety | 6 |
| Transport (workplace) | 6 |
| Welding | 6 |
| Noise | 6 |
Work History
| Role | From - To | Job Title / Description |
|---|---|---|
| Health and Saftey Advisor | 08.2020 - today | I'm the person a business calls when they need to know whether they're safe, whether they're compliant, and what to do about it if the answer to either is no. Managing a client portfolio I hold a large and varied portfolio of clients across care, hospitality, education, manufacturing, construction, leisure and retail. For most of them I'm the appointed competent person under Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, which means I'm the one on the end of the phone when something happens, when a tender questionnaire lands, or when someone in a high vis jacket turns up unannounced. The portfolio work is relationship work as much as technical work. You can't advise a business properly if you don't understand how it actually runs, as opposed to how the org chart says it runs. Fire risk assessment A substantial part of my role. I carry out Type 1 to Type 4 fire risk assessments under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, including sleeping risk premises. That covers the site work, the occupancy calculations, evacuation strategy, means of escape, compartmentation and fire safety management arrangements, plus the production of the assessment itself and a properly prioritised action plan. I also handle Fire and Rescue Service audits and enforcement engagement, and I review and quality assure assessment work. Risk assessment and documentation production Building and maintaining full assessment suites for clients: general workplace, task based, COSHH, manual handling, DSE, work equipment, young persons, new and expectant mothers, lone working. Plus RAMS and site specific documentation for project work, including in live healthcare environments where the constraints are considerably tighter than a standard site. Management systems and policy Developing, reviewing and updating health and safety management systems, policies, arrangements and procedures. Gap analysis against ISO 45001 principles and HSE guidance. Producing and revising documented procedures with proper version control, because a management system that nobody can tell the current version of is just a filing problem with ambitions. Auditing, inspection and monitoring Planned site inspections and workplace audits, contractor and supplier competence review, and statutory compliance monitoring across electrical testing, LOLER, PUWER and asbestos management. Building the tracking systems that make all of it visible rather than assumed. Incident investigation and reporting Root cause investigation, RIDDOR notification and reporting, corrective action planning and full post incident documentation. This is the end of the job where the stakes are real and the timescales are short, and where clear, honest, evidenced documentation matters more than anything else. Advising and influencing The part that never makes it onto a job description but occupies most of the day. Explaining risk to people who didn't ask, persuading people to spend money on something that will hopefully never visibly pay off, and occasionally holding a position that isn't popular. I've had to do the last one, including where a proposed process would have weakened assurance on a high risk sleeping premises. Being right isn't much use if you fold at the first bit of pressure, so I don't. Training and competence Delivering awareness briefings and toolbox talks, running training needs analyses and developing competence matrices. Systems and continuous improvement Developing internal tools and digital solutions to make assessment work faster, more consistent and less dependent on someone remembering. Including software supporting DSE self assessment, COSHH assessment and fire risk assessment workflows. What I'm accountable for The technical accuracy of everything that goes out with my name on it, the competence of the advice given, my clients' ability to demonstrate compliance if they're ever asked to, and keeping my own CPD current enough that all of the above stays true. |
Membership of Professional Bodies
| Professional Body | Membership | Member since | OSHCR Eligible Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| IOSH | Chartered Member (CMIOSH) | 07.2026 | 06.2026 |
Qualifications
| Accrediting Institute | Type | Qualification | Date passed |
|---|---|---|---|
| NEBOSH | Diploma | LEVEL 6 Occupational Health and Safety | 08.2023 |
| Other | Diploma | L4DipFRA | 06.2024 |
| City & Guilds | Certificate | Level 4 Advice and Guidance | 04.2022 |
Further Information
Chartered Membership of IOSH (CMIOSH)
Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health. This is the highest grade of individual membership IOSH offers and it isn't handed out for turning up. It requires the qualifications, a demonstrated body of professional practice, an assessed skills development portfolio and a peer review interview, followed by ongoing CPD to keep it. In practical terms it means an independent professional body has looked at how I actually work, not just what I've passed, and signed it off. It also means I'm bound by the IOSH Code of Conduct, which is a polite way of saying I'm accountable to somebody other than the person paying the invoice.
Member of the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management (IIRSM)
IIRSM membership sits alongside my IOSH chartership and looks at the work from a slightly different angle. Where IOSH is squarely occupational safety, IIRSM takes the broader risk view, which is closer to how businesses actually experience this stuff. Nobody in a boardroom worries about health and safety in isolation. They worry about risk to their people, their operation, their insurance and their reputation, usually all at once and usually on the same morning.
Member of the Institute of Fire Safety Managers (IFSM)
IFSM membership underpins the fire side of my practice. It's the professional body for fire safety management specifically, and membership means my fire competence has been reviewed by people who do this for a living rather than assumed on the strength of a certificate. It also keeps me plugged into a field that has changed enormously in the last few years and shows no sign of sitting still.
NEBOSH National Diploma (DipNEBOSH)
The NEBOSH National Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety. This is the benchmark academic qualification in the profession, sitting at Level 6 and broadly equivalent to a degree. It covers the legal framework, risk management, human factors, workplace and process hazards, and the whole science underneath them. It's also the qualification a lot of people start and rather fewer finish, which tells you most of what you need to know about it.
ABBE Level 4 Diploma in Fire Risk Assessment
The Awarding Body for the Built Environment Level 4 Diploma in Fire Risk Assessment. This is the qualification that underpins my fire work and it matters because fire risk assessment is an area where the barrier to entry is embarrassingly low. Anybody can call themselves a fire risk assessor. Rather fewer can demonstrate assessed competence in fire dynamics, building construction, means of escape, evacuation strategy and the Fire Safety Order itself. Given the direction of travel in fire safety regulation since Grenfell, being able to evidence competence rather than assert it is no longer optional.
City and Guilds Level 4 Diploma in Advice and Guidance
This one raises the odd eyebrow on a safety CV, and it shouldn't. Advice and Guidance at Level 4 is about how you actually work with people: how you have a difficult conversation, how you get to what someone really needs rather than what they first said, how you deliver information that lands rather than bounces. Which, if you think about it, is the entire job. I can write you the most technically immaculate assessment in Wales and it's worth nothing if the person who has to act on it feels lectured at and quietly bins it. Knowing the regulations is the easy half. Getting a busy manager on a bad day to hear you and do something about it is the half that keeps people safe.
Continuing Professional Development
CPD is a condition of Chartered status and I treat it as more than a box to tick. Legislation moves, guidance moves, and the sectors I work in move faster than either. The day you decide you already know enough is the day you start becoming a hazard yourself.
What all of this actually means for you
Between them, these cover the two things a client needs to be able to prove. First, that the person advising you is competent under Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. Second, that the person carrying out your fire risk assessment is competent under the Fire Safety Order. Three separate professional bodies have independently looked at my competence and reached the same conclusion. If any of it is ever questioned, whether by an enforcing authority, an insurer or a court, you want the answer to be short and documented rather than long and creative.