Specialist Consultancy
Two areas we worked heavily in is environmental management (ISO 14001) and occupational health and safety management (ISO 45001).
Awareness Training Sessions
In both cases we have a wealth of tools, documents, procedures etc. our clients use to manage environmental and health & safety. However, sometimes there is insufficient expert knowledge either within Episode or the client to address the area to the depth needed. For example, one of our clients needs to substantially alter the licence they have from the Environment Agency, and in this case it is a complex and potentially costly exercise to get wrong, so a specialist in this field has been brought in.
We have partnerships with two consultancies that are subject-matter experts:
As experts in ISO based management systems we regularly work with clients on occupational health and safety management systems. As a result, we do have a lot of experience in general health and safety issues.
Occupational health and safety
As a result of our clients wanting one provider to deliver all of their health and safety management needs, we spent quite some time finding the right partner to be able to do this. We have found an excellent Yorkshire based consultancy that has the same pragmatic, real-world based approach to health and safety management. We have jointly designed a comprehensive yet light-touch health and safety framework that ensures you have the bases covered.
Legal responsibilities
Health and safety is, rightly, highly regulated.
Any employer, regardless of the number of employees, have to comply with the requirements laid out in the legislation.
So, we have Libryo as a platform to deal with that for you - Libryo home page . This is a powerful tool, designed by a consultancy (Standards and Legal - Home page ) that has over 25 years of experience in supporting clients on health and safety, Environment and Social Governance (“ESG”) matters. Built and maintained by fully qualified lawyers, you get definitive details of the rules and regulations that apply to your whole organisation, down to a site by site basis. The legislation is presented in plain English so you don’t have to be a lawyer to understand it. There are even web chat facilities to speak live with Libryo lawyers who can help you when you get stuck.
Competent person
That’s fine, but what do you do then about meeting those requirements and continually improving your performance? For this you need a team that helps with the system management side of things (Episode) and specialist health and safety experts.
If you have 5 or more employees, you must have a documented health and safety management system (Episode’s area of expertise) you must have a “competent person” appointed to manage your health and safety.
Episode’s associate partners are such safety experts. Based in Yorkshire they have a national footprint, and they ensure that our clients are fully supported with their Health and Safety and Employment Law needs by providing user friendly systems, personal contact, and proactive advice. Their expert assistance is at your disposal whenever you need it.
Health and safety audits
Health and safety audits are an important tool in benchmarking companies compliance with current legislation related to health and safety at work. It is a critical, in-depth examination of an organisation’s health and safety management system. Where we feel that between us we haven’t got the skills to audit health & safety, we turn to our partner for input.
Their audits are always undertaken by an experienced qualified health and safety consultant, and this can be provided as a one-off ‘stand alone’ service, but it is normally carried out for our clients at commencement of the support service in order to provide a clear picture of an organisations performance in terms of health and safety management. As a result, remedial actions can be taken before incidents occur. Once the audit has been completed we’ll then submit a report outlining the findings with our recommendations of any actions required – helping to form your health & safety plan.
We are here to work with you every step of the way, and so any deficiencies we do identify during the audit will always been fully discussed and actions agreed every time – thereby ensuring there are never any nasty surprises.
Risk assessments
Risk assessments are important as they are a tool to identify areas within your business where employees, visitors and contractors could potentially come to harm.
All businesses with 5 or more employees are legally obligated to carry out risk assessments. Our consultants are here to guide you through this process. By using our user friendly risk assessment formats, that have been designed in conjunction with clients, we can help you create the risk assessments relevant for your business.
Our risk assessment formats include:
Premises/Sites
- Fire
- Display Screen Equipment
- Office
- Work Place Transport
- Machinery (PUWER)
- Manual Handling
- Forklift Truck(s)
- Warehousing
- Working at Height
- COSHH
- Our consultants can also carry out Asbestos and Noise assessments if required.
Construction (Design and Management) - CDM - duty holders
From the 6th of April 2015 all construction projects have needed to comply with the Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM Regulations 2015).
Compliance with all duties under CDM 2015 now also applies to domestic and non-notifiable projects. If you work in construction, you need to know about CDM.
Our experienced consultants are able to deliver everything you need to comply with the regulations, from cradle to crave on any construction project.
Environmental consultancy
As experts in ISO based management systems we regularly work with clients on environmental management systems. As a result, we do have a lot of experience in general environmental issues (such as identifying aspects – what you do or potentially do that can affect the environment – and impacts – evaluating the affect, actual or potential).
Legal responsibilities
There are over 191 pieces of law listed in the government’s legislation website http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ . If you search for “environment” on this site you will see what we mean. How on earth does an organisation like yours figure out what applies to you, and how to comply with it?
So, we have Libryo as a platform to deal with that for you - Libryo home page . This is a powerful tool, designed by a consultancy (Standards and Legal - Home page ) that has over 25 years of experience in supporting clients on Environment, Social and Governance (“ESG”) matters. Built and maintained by fully qualified lawyers, you get definitive details of the rules and regulations that apply to your whole organisation, down to a site by site basis. The legislation is presented in plain English so you don’t have to be a lawyer to understand it. There are even web chat facilities to speak live with Libryo lawyers who can help you when you get stuck.
Specific potential environmental compliance requirements
Libryo is fine in identifying what legislation applies, but what do you do then about meeting those requirements and continually improving your performance? For this you might need a team that helps with the system management side of things (Episode) and specialist environmental experts.
As a result, we spent quite some time identifying environmental consultants that are able to help our clients with expert environmental matters. One specialist (Asbestos Management Consultants) is an Episode client, so we really know how well the business operates.
Some headline requirements that can catch people out are:
- Site and organisational Environmental Impact Assessments (“EIA’S”)
- Environmental management and sustainability
- Energy performance consultation, auditing and management
- ESOS
- Display Energy Certification (DEC)
- CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme/CRC Administrator
- Air conditioning assessments
- F-Gas surveys and compliance reviews
- Waste management
- Legionella/L8 requirements
- Asbestos Surveys and guidance
Contact us today on 0113 8019001 or click here to email us
It was only by utilising the expert guidance and experience of Episode that Thurston Group was able to attain certification within an exceptionally challenging time frame. We therefore offer our thanks to Episode Ltd. For the diligent and professional services provided. We also look forward to working with them again soon and would not hesitate to recommend their services."
Peter Spieight, Senior Divisional Director, Thurston Group, Wakefield
Roger's support was invaluable in terms of gap analysis, recommendations for improvement, and facilitation of the certification process. I would strongly recommend Roger to any organisation wishing to develop or improve its management systems, in a way which minimizes bureaucracy, and focuses on best serving the needs of the organization.
Gary Evans, Flour Corporation, Abu Dhabi
Roger and Sandy at Episode were great in helping us achieve not only one but two ISO standards 9001:2015 and 14001:2015. Episode were extremely helpful from the onset, they were able to break down the ISO standard so they were easily comprehensible and well applied to our business in a sustainable manner. They are a company that offers a guaranteed certification at the end of the process and they delivered it. I believe that the work completed during this process was key to us having won the Leeds Bid contract.
Harvey Mills, Managing Director, Forge Recycling, Leeds.
If Sandy hasn’t already updated you we are delighted to say we passed the transition audit for ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. Sandy did an absolutely fab job and all credit to her, we have loved having both of you here it’s been a pleasure.
I have had a brief chat with Morgan[the CEO] about the next steps and how we manage things going forwards. Morgan will be in touch with you soon about this and getting Episode/Sandy back in on a regular basis. Once again many thanks for everything and especially to Sandy!!
Morag Tearne, HR and Health & Safety Manager, H. Slingsby plc, Shipley
Episode is always prepared to go the extra mile. When in a tight spot the lead consultant carried out an audit for us at very short notice (on a Sunday afternoon) to keep us on track. What is important to us is the advice they give us is practical and tailored to us. The quality of output Episode produces is very high.
This has resulted in us having a multi-year managed service from Episode so as a company we know our ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 integrated system is up to date and working for us.
Gareth Walters, Financial Controller, Sports Turf Research Institute, Bingley.
When asked by Episode what three things they do well, and what three things they could improve upon, my answers were:
Done well
1. Client Communication, responded to queries very quickly
2. Requirements of the standard were communicated in a simple manner.
3. Assistance from initial implementation to date of assessment was very good.
I can honestly there is nothing I feel they should improve upon.
Paul Hunneybell, Operations Manager, Fenland Fire Contracts Limited, Luton
The consultant worked with the team in Scott Bader Middle East Ltd. to completely re-engineer our Integrated Management System incorporating ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001. Until then we were slaves to the ISO audits, with the systems not adding much value beyond certification. Now we have a business management system that really works for us and is truly integrated into our operations. We were also successfully re-certified along the way.
John Kemp, CEO Scott Bader Middle East, Africa and Asia
The consultant really focused on making our systems and processes work better for us, not just help us comply with ISO 9001. He was able to work with Department Heads and Senior Management to shape their strategic thinking about quality and business objectives without telling them what they had to do because the standard says so.
Karim D'Alessandro, HSE Director, Shelf Drilling Inc.