WHO WE HELP
Who we help
Manufacturing and industrial businesses where quality, safety or environmental demands have outgrown what one person can manage alongside their day job.
Does this sound like you?
Most of the businesses we work with recognise at least two of these.
A tender, a PQQ or an approved-supplier questionnaire now asks for ISO certification, or for evidence of health and safety management you can't currently produce.
Somebody holds “and health and safety” at the end of their job title, and has neither the hours nor the qualification the role actually needs.
Your QHSE, safety or quality manager has gone, and whoever picked it up is reconstructing the picture rather than inheriting it.
A serious near miss, an accident, an HSE visit, or an enforcement notice — and the board wants to know where else you're exposed.
Systems that worked at 80 people are creaking at 250, and nobody has stopped to redesign them.
You hold ISO, but it was implemented from a template and surveillance is getting harder each year rather than easier.
When we're not the right fit
COMAH-tier sites, a permanent contractor population, 24/7 multi-shift operations where safety leadership has to be visible on every shift. Hire someone — we'll help you write the job spec and sit on the interview panel if it's useful, and it costs nothing.
If you just need an extra pair of hands on a defined project, buy ad-hoc days — from us or anyone else. It will cost you less than a retainer.
The economics don't work. A £1,800 health check and a monthly retainer are hard to justify at that size, and you'd get more from a few days of focused help.
There are consultancies who will sell you documentation that passes an audit and does nothing else. We're not one, and we're more expensive than they are.
You need a solicitor first. We work alongside them, not instead of them.
Industries
Manufacturing is where DBIM started and where most of the work still is. In practice that covers:
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Manufacturing and engineering — machinery guarding, PUWER, workplace transport
Chemical processing and hazardous substances — COSHH at scale, DSEAR, permitting, storage
Food and beverage production — combustible dust, hygiene-driven process control
Plastics, rubber and composites — fume and LEV, hot work, solvent exposure
Metalwork and fabrication — welding fume, noise and HAVS, lifting operations
Warehousing, distribution and logistics — racking integrity, FLT operations, pedestrian segregation
The approach carries over to any operational business; warehouses, workshops, processing sites. If your process is genuinely outside this, we'll say so on the first call rather than learning on your time.
What usually happens next
Three routes in, depending on what you already know about your own position.
You don't know where you stand
Start with a Compliance Health Check — a scored assessment across health and safety, quality and environment, from £900.
You know what you need
A defined project: an ISO system build, a competent person appointment, a batch of assessments. Fixed fee after a scoping call.
You need someone in the role
An outsourced H&S manager or a fractional HSEQ advisor covering all three disciplines, from £200 a month.
Best Health and Safety in Manufacturing — SHE Awards 2024
For a three-year safety culture programme at The Rakem Group. Read the case study →
Common questions
No, but it's where we come from and where most of the work still is. The approach carries over to any operational business - warehousing, distribution, workshops, processing sites. What matters more than your sector is whether you have real physical risk and systems that have to stand up to an auditor.
Do you only work with manufacturers?
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Sometimes, but be aware the economics change. Below about 20 people a retainer rarely makes sense and you'd get more from a few focused days. Between 20 and 50 it depends on your risk profile - a small site running hot work and forklifts needs more than a 200-person office-based business. Ask, and we'll tell you honestly.
We're smaller than 50 people. Can you still help?
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Yes. Greater Manchester and Lancashire are standard because we're based in Bury and can be on site quickly. Elsewhere in the UK works where the travel makes sense for both sides - which usually means fewer, longer visits rather than the same pattern stretched over more miles.
Do you work outside the North West?
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How do we know if we need this at all?
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The honest test: if something happened tomorrow - an accident, an HSE visit, a customer audit - could you produce current records for it, and would you be confident in what they showed? If the answer is no, or you're not sure, that's what the health check is for.If you’re not happy, returns are on us within 30 days.
Not sure whether you're the right fit?
That's exactly what a twenty-minute call is for. We'll tell you if you're not.
Where we work. Greater Manchester and the North West as standard: Manchester, Bolton, Bury, Stockport, Rochdale, Oldham, Preston, Blackburn, Warrington and Trafford. Appointments elsewhere in the UK where the travel works for both sides.