I am a Chartered Safety Professional and Fellow of IOSH and have over 38 years experience in a wide range of occupational safety, health and environmental management disciplines. I am also a Registered Expert Witness and hold full membership with Expert Witness Institute.

Having worked in consultancy for most of my career (I started in the newspaper industry) I have experience in just about every industry sector apart from nuclear and offshore. Having left the consultancy I built from scratch 38 years ago I am now working on a freelance basis, supporting clients with a range of services.  I can be contacted at nicola@nicolacoote.co.uk.  Over the years I have been author/contributor to several leading publications, and continue to write and update chapters for Lexis Nexis Butterworth Tolley's Health and Safety publication. In the last year I have updated chapters on occupational stress, neurodiversity, lighting, workplace transport and access. 

Having built a business from start-up to being on the AIM investment market I have significant experience in working at board and strategic level as well as working operational.  I can complete basic and complex risk assessments, basic and bespoke designed audits, simple and complex policies and processes etc.  I can work from Board level through to the proverbial shop floor and adapt language, context etc so the message is relevant and clear and consistent with the strategy.

I specialist in  providing advice, support, cosultancy, system development and training to board directors, leadership and teams within organisations .  In my personal life I am a Non-Exec Director of a national charity, employing over 3,000 staff (Thera Trust).  In particular I deliver Director / Board level training and coaching, using a strategic and holistic approach to safety and risk management and considering how this can be / should be aligned to wider management processes. This follows on with aligned training to other managers and teams to enable seamless messaging that fits with their role and level of responsibility.

I have spent a great deal of time over recent years, and particularly since the introduction of the Sentencing Guidelines, in developing and presenting Board briefings and other director /senior executive level training.  Having built a successful business from scratch whilst developing as a health and safety practitioner, I am able to speak and provide pragmatic consultancy and training at both operational as well as strategic level in a way that reflects the real challenges that businesses face in a fast moving world. 

I am also a Registered Expert Witness and full member of the Expert Witness Institute. I have been involved in a high number of civil and criminal cases. Examples of industry sector include: construction, care home, warehouse environment and hospitality.  This work is complex and sometimes challenging but it helps me to keep abreast of legal changes, interpretation of law in the courts and what my clients need to do to avoid litigation risk themselves. 

I have Level 6 Diploma in Professional Marketing with the Chartered Institute of Marketing which has been particularly beneficial in understanding, inter alia, the power of simple and effective communication. This has helped with development of group strategy and understanding how different elements of business management interlink, also different audiences and methods for communicating to them effectively.

I specialise in complex health and safety issues, including neurodiversity and health-related workplace assessments, using a pragmatic approach and whilst based at the worksite. I also conduct mental health / occupational stress assessments. 

Another specialism which is of particular interest is behavioural safety. I have developed behavioural safety strategies in a range of organisations. Often the causes of poor behaviours stem from non-safety processes and are affected by wider organisational processes, culture and management so an holistic approach is needed for poor safety behaviours to be recognised and understood in order to put changes in that are effective for more than a few weeks. In one project I developed a complete behavioural safety strategy from director level through middle management and into the warehouse/production lines to enable consistency in messaging and approach. The result was the company improving their safety record so they had no RIDDOR incidents and their lost time injury reduced 70%. This was a good result in 18 months, given the client had suffered a fatality which had prompted need for a different approach.