Member profile: ‘I give people the right advice for their situation’

I’d reached a stage where it felt like a natural progression. I’d been at Pick Everard for about six years and had become a national director. During my time there, I grew my team from five to 35 people, all specialising in the advice and delivery of the CDM principal designer role, and more latterly in preparing for the Building Safety Act coming into force.

I felt confident about how to run a business, but I missed having a broader mix of clients and projects of my own to look after. I knew I didn’t want to work for someone else again and wanted a bit more autonomy. I had a few friends who already ran their own consultancies and they really gave me the nudge to go for it. They also supported me with some interim work, which allowed me to make the jump. That’s how my company, Honest Safety, was born.

I provide general health and safety support, which helps me stay close to the realities clients face on a day-to-day basis. For example, I’ve worked with organisations looking at the health implications of supporting someone with Parkinson’s. Broadly, the business operates across two main workstreams.

The first is construction safety, where we help clients navigate the Building Safety Act, explaining the new legislative framework and supporting designers in working effectively within it. This includes health and safety project management, design risk management services and workplace safety advice covering policies, procedures, risk assessments and the organisational management of risk.

One of the things I’ve never liked about some consultancies is the tendency to sell services for the sake of it. Consultants can fall into a trap where commercial pressure drives them to offer more and more services, rather than focusing on what clients genuinely need.

Sometimes a client doesn’t need you to step in as principal designer and charge an additional fee. They might just need a few hours of clear, practical advice. My approach is to give people the right advice for their situation, even if that’s not always what they want to hear.

It happened in a fairly roundabout way. My first job was at Mars back in 2008, working on the Mars/Snickers production line. I’d always wanted to be an engineer and initially thought I might be able to move into that area internally. However, I was told I’d need an engineering degree first; fortunately Mars supported me in starting a degree with The OU.

So I started studying for an engineering degree in my own time. While I was doing that, a safety role within the Mars engineering team became available. I was encouraged to apply because it would give me a foot in the door and allow me to get involved in some project engineering work alongside completing my degree. I ended up doing that role for a couple of years.

I quickly realised that I really enjoyed working in safety. When the principal designer role was introduced in 2015, I found CDM and the concept behind the role genuinely fascinating.

After around eight years at Mars, I felt I needed a change and moved to Arcadis, where I worked in a principal designer role. That shift into construction was brilliant. It was a great company to work for and offered significant opportunities for growth and development. That experience played a big part in getting me to where I am today.

One of my core priorities is technical competence, particularly when it comes to the principal designer role. Across the business world, organisations are becoming more knowledgeable and more demanding, and the health and safety industry needs to keep pace with that shift.

I also really value developing people. One of the things I enjoyed most at Pick Everard was bringing graduates into the business and helping them build a strong foundation of knowledge before developing new skills on top of that. Supporting people to grow properly, rather than rushing them through roles, is something I’m keen to continue.

There’s no doubt that industries are now recognising the value of health and safety much more clearly. It’s become far more embedded in everyday operations, rather than being seen as an add-on. That’s a positive shift.

However, it also means that health and safety practitioners need to become increasingly technically competent and knowledgeable. That includes helping organisations make effective use of tools such as BIM, AI and other building management systems that are being introduced to drive better safety and efficiency across projects.

At the moment, I don’t think that’s happening quickly enough. 

At the same time, we’re facing an imminent exodus of highly skilled and experienced professionals who are approaching retirement and not enough talented people entering the profession. That combination creates a real challenge for the sector.

There’s also a flip side to this problem. With too few experienced people available, some individuals are progressing through roles too quickly without having time to fully learn from their experiences or develop a deeper understanding of complex issues. In some cases, people are being pushed towards senior principal designer roles after only a few years’ experience. That’s particularly concerning given the increased responsibilities designers now face under the Building Safety Act.

I think some elements of it are misguided. My main concern is that there’s currently too much focus on compliance for compliance’s sake. People are becoming overly wrapped up in ticking boxes and meeting specific duties, sometimes without fully understanding the risks those duties are meant to address.

We’ve actually been very good at managing risk for a long time, and I think there’s a danger of forgetting that. What I’m seeing more of now is people entering design teams demanding evidence of compliance without really understanding how the risks fit together or how they’re being managed in practice.

For me, effective risk management should also enable innovation. If we truly understand and control risk, we can unlock better design solutions rather than stifling progress. Take tall buildings as an example: are we genuinely focusing on where the real risks lie, or have we tried to change too much, too quickly?

There’s no doubt that serious issues needed to be addressed, but I do think there’s a tendency at the moment to question people’s competence too readily. That can create unnecessary self-doubt. Having gaps in knowledge doesn’t mean someone isn’t competent – it simply means there’s more to learn and develop.

I’m an adrenaline junkie. I’ve got a motorbike, a sports touring bike and I love the speed and elements. Everyone needs balance in their life, don’t they? And you can’t spend all day trying to protect people and then not have something outside that to balance that out a little bit.