Consultant Profile

Mr Gareth Smith

CMIOSH

Overview

Overview

G O Safety Solutions Ltd was set-up with the intent to provide support to smaller growing firms as they look to cross the "less than 5 employees" threshold or where their clients are requiring a greater level of evidence that they have a policy and procedures in place than legislation needs. We are based on the border between Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire with good connections to London and Buckinghamshire.

Gareth Smith, the lead consultant and managing director, has a background in construction, working at height, manufacturing and property maintenance from his previous roles at one of the foremost building cradle/maintenance unit manufacturers/maintainers and a growing mechanical and electrical services company. He has experience of systems development having managed ISO 9001 certification (including transfer from non-UKAS certification to a UKAS accredited provider) and the development and implementation of ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 management systems within his previous employer.

Specialisms

Specialisms

Industry	Years Experience
Construction	10
Manufacturing	14
Engineering	14

Topic	Years Experience
Equipment at work	14
Falls from height	14
Maintenance	14
Managing for health and safety	12
Risk management	14

Services

Fire
Audits

Accredited Training

We can provide both IOSH Managing Safely and Working Safely as an approved IOSH trainer. These are held as open courses in Letchworth Garden City or can be tailored as an "in house" course for your organisation.

Please contact us for dates of upcoming training courses or to discuss in house solutions.

Fire

Our lead consultant has carried out fire risk assessments for office and landlord (commercial) environments for the past eight years and previously trained on an IFE accredited course covering fire risk assessment and the changes brought about by the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order.

Construction Work

We are able to provide construction health and safety support to contractors or clients directly. Our lead consultant has experience in commercial fit out, commercial design and build and data centre build/refurbishment.

With experience since the inception of the 2007 version of the regulations we are able to assist clients with pre-construction information, review of construction phase plans and site audits to ensure that all stakeholders are working together in line with the current legislation.

Similarly we can provide project specific support to SME contractors and principal contractors without their own H&S staff or even provide additional resource to a larger organisation wher they have taken on a project that needs a greater level of oversight than their current team is able to provide.

Audits

We are able to develop a tailored H&S audit service for a client, whether this is closely defined as landlord areas for a managing agent or a wider audit of a business's health & safety management system including how it is implemented the scope can be at the discretion of the client.

Work History

Work History

Total years experience: 12

Role	From - To	Job Title / Description
HSQE Manager	03.2008 - 09.2017	• Provision of competent H&S advice to a rapidly growing company (previously a group of six companies that merged into one between 2012 and present) • Provision of construction focused H&S advice to key clients • Provision of independent H&S audits and fire risk assessments to key clients • Liaison with client H&S stakeholders. • Carrying out and presenting the results of audit reports in line with regulatory requirements • Designed, implemented and maintained health & safety management system meeting regulatory requirements and managing the high risks to which the companies are exposed. • Achieved and maintained OHSAS 18001 certification for health & safety management systems via BM Trada auditing. Investigating implementation of ISO 45001 • Developed organisational environmental management systems to allow the companies to achieve ISO 14001 accreditation. • Implemented systems for and carried out workplace/task inspections and audits to meet requirements of internal and external stakeholders. • Developed and managed implementation of risk control measures in high risk areas (e.g. laboratories in the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries or live data centres) in consultation with stakeholders responsible for the work area. • Changing perception of workplace health, safety and environment procedures at all levels within a growing group of companies. • Designed and implemented in-house training presentations for different aspects of health and safety tailored to different levels of employee (e.g. training on latest version of Construction (Design and Management) Regulations for directors; risk assessment/method statement/permit to work procedures for project managers) • Advising on available external training courses where in-house training is not appropriate or particular industry recognised certification/qualification is required. • Communication, co-ordination and co-operation with client employees responsible for health, safety and environmental to ensure JCA meet client expectations as well as regulatory requirements. • Approved IOSH Managing and Working Safely trainer, achieved IOSH training licenses for employer to deliver standard IOSH Managing and Working Safely.
Assistant Health and Safety Advisor	05.2003 - 03.2008	• Provision of health and safety advice to maintenance department of the company focusing on working at height, man riding lifting equipment and construction legislation. • Assist division Health and Safety Advisor with duties in all areas of the wider division • Advising clients on requirements of lifting legislation and guidance within the appropriate British Standard including changing client perception of the maintenance and upgrades to ensure the needs of the legislation and guidance are met. • Managing consultation meetings with employees and communicating information gathered to both company and divisional stakeholders along with any recommendations for action. • Implementation of site audits to ensure company safety procedures are implemented by operatives • Design and implementation of log books to manage safe systems of work and audit records for client equipment maintained by the company. • Advise on and assist with site/task specific risk assessments and method statements ensuring that hierarchy of controls is considered by managers and supervisors responsible for these documents.
Managing Director and Lead Consultant	10.2017 - today	G O Safety Solutions Ltd was formed to provide competent health and safety advice and ongoing support to companies of all scopes and scales. The focus will be on companies who wish to develop their health and safety systems however some larger organisation prefer an additional external level of support to help their existing inhouse health and safety team. This will be balanced with providing IOSH licensed training as both open and closed (inhouse to client) courses.