Health & Safety Consultancy That Works on the Shop Floor
Practical H&S support for UK manufacturers: systems your team will actually use, and a safety culture that holds up when the auditor leaves.
Manchester-based. Working UK-wide. Trusted by many. Do your own assessment now!
Most health and safety consultants hand you a binder, invoice you, and disappear. Six months later, the policies are out of date, the risk assessments don't match what's actually happening on the line, and your team has quietly gone back to doing things the old way.
We work differently. DBIM is a people-first H&S consultancy built for UK SMEs in manufacturing and industrial sectors. We build systems that fit how your business actually runs - not how a textbook says it should - and we stay involved long enough to make sure the changes stick.
Who We Help
We work with manufacturing and industrial SMEs across the UK - typically businesses with 20 to 250 employees - where health and safety has outgrown what one person can manage on the side of their day job.
You're probably here because:
You've been told you need a competent person under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, and you don't have one in-house
Your insurance renewal is coming up, and the broker is asking questions you can't answer
You've had a near-miss, accident, or HSE visit, and you need to get on top of things fast
You're going for ISO 45001 and need someone who can run the project without taking your ops manager off the floor
Your safety culture has drifted - people tick the box, sign the sheet, and carry on regardless
You want to stop firefighting and build something that runs itself
If any of that sounds familiar, we should talk.
What's Included
We scale to what you actually need. No shelf-ware, no paying for things you'll never use. A typical engagement covers some or all of the following:
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We come on-site, walk the floor, talk to your people, and give you a clear picture of where you are against HSE requirements and ISO 45001. You get a prioritised action list - not a 90-page report nobody reads.
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Act as your named competent person under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. Phone, email and on-site support when you need it - without the cost of a full-time hire.
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We write documents in plain English that match your operation. Risk assessments that reflect real tasks. Safe systems of work your supervisors will actually enforce.
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Behavioural safety, leadership coaching, toolbox talks that don't put people to sleep. We help your leaders have the right conversations and give your shop floor a voice in how safety is done.
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Root-cause analysis that goes beyond "the operator didn't follow the procedure." We find the system failure, not the scapegoat.
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Internal audits, contractor audits, pre-HSE-visit reviews. We show you what an inspector will see before they see it.
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If you've had an improvement notice, prohibition notice, or fee for intervention, we'll help you respond properly and get things back on track.
Competent Person Health & Safety Support
Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (Regulation 7), employers are required to appoint one or more competent persons to assist in meeting their health and safety duties.
For many SMEs, maintaining that level of in-house expertise is not practical. DBIM provides competent person support as a retained service, giving you direct access to experienced, qualified advice without the overhead of a full-time role.
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Competent person support is not just a legal formality. It is ongoing, practical input into how risk is managed across your business.
This typically includes:
Ongoing advice on legal compliance and regulatory requirements
Review and approval of risk assessments, COSHH, and safe systems of work
Support with incident investigations and corrective actions
Guidance during changes to processes, equipment, or materials
Input into management decisions where health and safety risk is involved
Support during HSE inspections or external audits
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Support is structured to fit your business, typically through a retained monthly arrangement.
This can include:
Scheduled on-site days
Remote support and advice between visits
Priority response when issues arise
Ongoing action tracking and follow-up
You are not left with a report, you have continued access to support as situations develop.
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Competent person support is particularly suited to:
SMEs without a dedicated health and safety manager
Supporting any H&S professionals with advice
Businesses where H&S is managed alongside other responsibilities
Growing organisations needing more structured support
Companies preparing for ISO 45001 or increased scrutiny
Businesses wanting assurance that they are meeting legal obligations
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Hiring a full-time health and safety professional is a significant cost and not always justified.
A retained competent person service provides:
Access to qualified expertise when needed
Flexibility as your business changes
Consistency in approach and decision-making
Reduced risk of non-compliance and enforcement
This allows you to maintain compliance and control without unnecessary overhead.
Our Approach: People + Systems
The technical side of health and safety isn't the hard part. Any competent consultant can prepare a risk assessment for you. What actually changes outcomes is whether your people buy in.
You can have world-class documentation and a terrible safety record. You can also have a great culture undermined by messy systems. We work on both, together, because that's the only thing that lasts.
That's where we're different. Every DBIM engagement works on two tracks at once:
The systems track
Policies, risk assessments, procedures, and auditable records. The stuff that keeps you legally compliant and insurance-ready.
The culture track
Leadership behaviours, supervisor coaching, workforce engagement, and the language people use when nobody's watching.
How We Engage
Project-based - a defined piece of work with a fixed scope and fixed fee. Good for gap analyses, ISO 45001 implementations, or one-off audits.
Retained partnership - ongoing monthly support acting as your outsourced H&S function. Typically 1-4 days per month, scaling up or down as you need. Most of our clients end up here.
Ad-hoc / day rate - for businesses that just need an experienced pair of eyes now and then.
Industries We Know
Manufacturing and engineering
Chemical processing and hazardous substances (COSHH, DSEAR)
Warehousing, distribution and logistics
Food and beverage production
Plastics, rubber and composites
Metalwork and fabrication
Manufacturing and engineering Chemical processing and hazardous substances (COSHH, DSEAR) Warehousing, distribution and logistics Food and beverage production Plastics, rubber and composites Metalwork and fabrication
Why DBIM?
DBIM is built around one principle: health and safety should improve how your business operates, not slow it down.
With a background in manufacturing and chemicals, the approach is grounded in real operational environments - where risk, production pressure, and commercial performance all intersect. This isn’t theoretical advice. It’s practical, experience-led support that works on the shop floor.
Systems are delivered with a clear focus on outcomes. That means ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 frameworks that are not only compliant, but embedded and effective. It also means a proven track record in improving safety culture, strengthening accountability, and reducing repeat issues.
Most importantly, the focus stays on performance: not paperwork.
Start the Conversation
If your current approach to health and safety is reactive, inconsistent, or overly reliant on documentation, it’s time to take a different approach.
You don’t need more policies. You need a system that works.
Book a call to discuss your requirements or request a proposal tailored to your business. From there, we can define what support looks like in practice and how it will deliver measurable improvement.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, every UK employer must have access to "competent" H&S advice. If nobody in-house holds that competence, you need to appoint someone - and most SMEs find outsourcing is cheaper and more flexible than hiring.
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It varies with scope. Day rates typically sit between £450 and £850 for a qualified consultant. Retained monthly support for a small manufacturer usually ranges from £800 to £2,500 per month. We give fixed quotes after a free discovery call so you know exactly what you're paying for.
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For urgent situations - HSE visits, accidents, audit deadlines - we can usually be on-site within a week. Retained work typically starts within two to three weeks of signing.
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We're based in Manchester and cover the North West intensively, but we work with clients across the UK. Travel is factored into quotes up front, if required.
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H&S consultancy keeps you legally compliant and operationally safe. ISO 45001 is a certified management system that proves it. Most of our clients do both - often together.
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Yes. We regularly support businesses after improvement notices, prohibition notices and fee-for-intervention letters. The sooner you call, the more options you have.