Alternatives to Croner for UK SMEs

If you mainly use Croner for employment law and HR, Citation and WorkNest each sell HR, employment law and health and safety, and both sit outside the Peninsula Group. If health and safety is the part you want to replace, and you want one named consultant who visits your sites and writes your assessments, a health and safety consultancy such as Opus Safety, or an independent consultant from the OSHCR register, is the closer alternative. Peninsula and BrightHR belong to the same group as Croner, so moving to either changes the brand and keeps the owner.

If you only want Croner and Opus side by side, see Opus Safety compared with Croner.

Work out which part of the Croner service you are replacing before you shortlist anybody. Croner's own pricing page sells HR and employment law, health and safety, as separate packages or combined, and each points to a different list.

What Croner sells

Croner describes itself as a provider of HR, employment law and health and safety advice, documentation, software and insurance to business owners and senior leaders, and says it has been helping businesses since 1941. Its head office is in Hinckley, with offices in Glasgow, Manchester and London.

On health and safety, Croner says its experts carry out and write risk assessments. A consultant visits to audit your premises and carry out the first risk assessment on site, you get a written report with action points ranked by urgency, and a follow-up visit comes after that. Croner provides the policy, a management system and handbooks, and runs an advice line 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Its health and safety package lists an installation visit, annual audits and prosecution representation, with Croner BrightSafe software.

On HR and employment law, Croner offers a 24/7 advice line, employment contracts and documents, tribunal representation, settlement negotiation, Croner BrightHR software and optional legal expenses insurance underwritten by Irwell Insurance.

So Croner already sends a consultant to your site and writes your documents. Ask every provider on your list, Croner included, how often someone visits, whether it is the same person each time, and who writes the documents once the visit is over.

Why businesses look for a Croner alternative

This page makes no claim about Croner's contracts, reviews or service quality. It matches a need to a type of provider, and the needs point in different directions:

• The same consultant on every visit, writing your assessments and getting to know your sites.
• Sector knowledge, because your risk sits in yards, vehicles, forklifts, machinery, dust or noise.
• Paying for one half of the service, with HR kept where it is and health and safety moved, or the other way round.
• Health surveillance, such as hearing or lung function testing, from the team whose risk assessments decide who needs it.
• Leaving the Peninsula Group altogether.

Each provider below is described from its own website or its group's, read on 26 October 2026. Opus Safety is on the list and we wrote it, which is a conflict to keep in mind. We left out client numbers, ratings, review scores and awards for every provider, ours included, we repeat no other provider's claims about its staff, and we quote no other provider's prices and describe nobody's contract terms.

The alternatives

1. Opus Safety, for health and safety led by a named consultant

We are a health and safety consultancy founded by former health and safety inspectors, with occupational health, training and HR support alongside. On the Opus Safety Partnership, the same named consultant visits your sites, writes your risk assessments and policies, and is on call between visits. How often they visit is set in your contract, typically two to four times a year. Specialist work such as fire, asbestos, noise, legionella and occupational health comes through us, quoted separately or built into a Partnership by agreement. You get full access to Opus Compliance Cloud, the platform your consultant works in, and you can export all your data from it at any time.

HR support comes from Anna Chadwick, our HR consultant, and covers grievances, disciplinaries, absence, contracts and handbooks for employers in Great Britain and in Northern Ireland. Ongoing support on our HR Services Partnership starts from £75 a month.

We suit a business whose main exposure is health and safety on operational sites and which wants the same person every visit and wants some HR queries covered alongside. If employment law at volume is your main need, a provider built around HR and employment law will serve you better, and Croner is one of them.

2. Citation, for a bundled service with ISO and SSIP support

Citation sells HR, employment law, health and safety, wellbeing, e-learning, ISO certification and SSIP accreditation services to small and medium-sized businesses. It has been in business since 1995 and started in Cheshire. Its health and safety page describes a 24/7 advice line, an annual site visit followed by an inspection report, documentation, and Atlas, its online health and safety platform.

Citation fits a buyer who wants HR and health and safety from one provider outside the Peninsula Group, particularly one that also needs ISO or SSIP work. If you want a consultant on site more than once a year, ask how many visits the package includes.

3. WorkNest, for compliance across several disciplines

WorkNest is part of Axiom GRC and works across employment law, HR, health and safety, ISO certification, data protection and cyber resilience. Its health and safety package lists a dedicated consultant, a general risk assessment, helpdesk support, policies and handbooks, onsite and remote annual audits, and its SafetyNest software.

WorkNest suits a business that will use the breadth, for example one where data protection or ISO work sits on the same desk as health and safety. It also sells health and safety as a package of its own.

4. An independent consultant from the OSHCR register

The Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register is a register of consultants who can offer advice to UK businesses. HSE supports the register as a way to find consultants who have a status recognised by their professional body, valid insurance and up-to-date knowledge of standards.

One consultant works well for a single site with moderate risk, or for a one-off piece of work. HSE's guidance on getting the right help says that if you only need a one-off visit to manage health and safety in-house, you should be clear about that at the outset to avoid tying yourself to a long contract. Several sites, or work that spans more specialisms than one person holds, are a harder fit.

5. Someone you employ

Regulation 7(8) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, which applies in England, Wales and Scotland, says that where you have a competent person in your own employment, that person is to be appointed in preference to one from outside. The Northern Ireland Regulations of 2000 say the same.

If your risk needs somebody on site most days, employing them is the better call, with outside help for specialist assessments and for cover when they are away.

Peninsula and BrightHR, if you are happy to stay in the group

Peninsula's own timeline records that it launched BrightHR in 2015 and acquired Croner the same year, and the Peninsula Group lists all three among its companies. Peninsula sells employment law, HR and health and safety, and its consultancy page says a dedicated consultant comes to your site to answer questions and carry out your workplace risk assessment, with a 24/7 advice line alongside. The group describes BrightHR as HR and health and safety software for small and medium-sized businesses.

Moving to either gives you a different brand and product from the same group. That is a reasonable choice if you want a different service from the same owner. If leaving the group is the point, compare the options above.

The options side by side

Option	What it sells	Health and safety delivery, as its own page describes it	Software	Part of the Peninsula Group
Croner, for reference	HR, employment law, health and safety, insurance	Experts carry out and write risk assessments; an installation visit and annual audits; 24/7 advice line	Croner BrightSafe, HS Manager, Croner BrightHR	Yes
Opus Safety	Health and safety, occupational health, training, HR support	The same named consultant visits, writes your assessments and is on call between visits; visits set in your contract	Opus Compliance Cloud	No
Citation	HR, employment law, health and safety, ISO and SSIP support	An annual site visit with an inspection report; 24/7 advice line	Atlas	No
WorkNest	Employment law, HR, health and safety, ISO, data protection, cyber	A dedicated consultant, a general risk assessment, onsite and remote annual audits, helpdesk support	SafetyNest	No
Independent consultant	Whatever scope you agree	One person, on the terms you agree	Varies	Not applicable
Peninsula	Employment law, HR, health and safety	A dedicated consultant visits to carry out your workplace risk assessment; 24/7 advice line	BrightSafe, BrightHR	Yes

"Part of the Peninsula Group" means the company appears on the group's own list of its companies, read on 26 October 2026.

Which one is right for you

If employment law is what you ring Croner about most, a provider built around HR and employment law is the honest answer, and we are the wrong call. Compare Citation and WorkNest with what you have now, and ask each what tribunal support the package includes.

If your risk is operational, meaning yards, vehicles, machinery, dust, noise or vibration, choose a consultant who works in your sector and comes to your site. That is the work we do.

If you have one site, low risk and no machinery, an independent consultant from OSHCR, or a short engagement that leaves you running it yourself, may be all you need. However, feel free to speak to us, as we have a lot of smaller clients we look after too.

If you have competent people in-house, software may matter more than a consultant. Opus Compliance Cloud can be bought on its own, and Croner sells Croner BrightSafe and HS Manager. Software keeps the records, and a competent person still has to act on them.

If you are mid-enforcement or mid-claim, hold off. Deal with the notice, the investigation or the tribunal claim with whoever holds your history, and move afterwards.

If Croner covers almost everything you need, raise the missing piece with Croner before you start a handover.

What to check before you switch

• Your contract term, notice period and renewal clause. We have not seen Croner's terms, so read the agreement you signed and ask Croner to confirm the dates in writing.
• Which package you are on, and whether your agreement lets you keep one part and end the other.
• Where your risk assessments, policies, handbooks and accident records live. They may sit in Croner BrightSafe, HS Manager or Croner BrightHR, so ask how to export them and in what format while you are still a customer.
• Any legal expenses insurance you took through Croner. Ask how the policy relates to your service agreement, and arrange any replacement before you give notice.
• Anything Croner is handling for you now, such as a tribunal claim, a prosecution or an investigation, and what happens to it when you leave.
• Training records, and customer, insurer or prequalification paperwork that names your provider.

Appointing competent help is a legal duty, and it carries on while you change supplier. In Great Britain, regulation 7(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires you to appoint one or more competent persons to assist you in undertaking the measures you need to take to comply with health and safety law. In Northern Ireland the equivalent duty is in regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000. Plan the handover so one appointment starts as the other ends.

Regulation 7(4) of the 1999 Regulations also requires you to make sure an appointee from outside your business is informed of the factors you know or suspect affect the health and safety of any other person who may be affected by the conduct of your undertaking. Give your new provider the accident records and open actions on day one.

How switching works

1. Find your notice date and diarise a reminder well before it.
2. Decide whether you are moving health and safety, HR, or both.
3. Ask two providers the same questions: who visits, how often, whether it is the same person each time, who writes the documents, and what sits outside the fee.
4. Ask your preferred provider to review your current documents before you sign. With us, that starts with a free gap analysis call, and a full gap analysis and audit, which we quote for, then checks your documents against the law and against what happens on site.
5. Give notice in the form your agreement requires, and export everything while you still have access.
6. Confirm the new competent person's appointment in writing, starting as the old one ends.

Frequently asked questions

Can I leave my Croner contract early? It depends on the terms you signed. Read your agreement for the term, the notice period and any renewal clause, ask Croner to confirm them in writing, and take legal advice if the sums are large. We have not seen Croner's terms and will not describe them second hand.

Is Croner part of Peninsula? Yes. Croner's own website says it is part of the Peninsula Group, Peninsula's timeline records acquiring Croner in 2015, and the group lists Croner, Peninsula Business Services and BrightHR among its companies.

Are Croner and Croner-i the same? They are two businesses in the same group. The Peninsula Group lists Croner as its HR, employment law and health and safety business, and Croner-i as its tax, audit and accountancy specialist. This page is about Croner.

Can I keep Croner for HR and move health and safety? Croner's pricing page sells HR and employment law and health and safety as separate packages, as well as together. Whether your own agreement can be split is a question for Croner. Opus can take on health and safety on its own. If you split them, agree how absence cases, occupational health referrals and anything else that touches both will be shared.

Is Opus cheaper than Croner? They price differently. Croner's pricing page prices its packages per employee, per month. We quote health and safety work for your sites, and ongoing HR support on our HR Services Partnership starts from £75 a month. The fair comparison is two quotes against the same specification: your sites, the visits a year, who writes the assessments, and what sits outside the fee.

Where to start

Find your notice date first. Then, if health and safety is what you are moving, start with a free gap analysis call, so you know where you stand before you commit to anyone, including us. How to choose a health and safety consultancy covers the questions to ask whoever you shortlist.