Alternatives to Peninsula for health and safety, HR and employment law

If you want HR, employment law and health and safety from one provider with a 24/7 advice line, Citation, WorkNest and Avensure sell that model outside the Peninsula group. If health and safety is the real need 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 Peninsula alternative. Croner and BrightHR belong to the same group as Peninsula, so choosing either changes the product and keeps the owner.

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

Work out which half of the service you are replacing before you shortlist anybody. The right list for health and safety looks different from the right list for HR.

What Peninsula sells

Peninsula describes itself as an employment law, HR and health and safety services business, and it has traded since 1983. Its HR service includes a 24/7 advice line, contracts and documentation, tribunal support, workplace mediation and BrightHR software.

On health and safety, its consultancy page offers a dedicated consultant who comes to your site to answer questions and carry out your workplace risk assessment, documentation written for you, and the same 24/7 line. Fire risk assessments, audits and training courses sit alongside, and its BrightSafe software is included in the package. Peninsula also sells employee wellbeing services, including counselling and occupational health assessments.

So Peninsula already offers a consultant who visits. Ask any provider, Peninsula included, how often somebody comes, whether it is the same person each time, and who writes the documents once the visit is over.

Peninsula, BrightHR and Croner

Peninsula's own history page records that it launched BrightHR in 2015 and acquired Croner the same year. Both appear on the Peninsula group's list of its companies, and both give Peninsula's Victoria Place address in Manchester as their registered office. Croner offers its own Croner BrightSafe software for health and safety.

Both are covered below. If you want to leave the group, they are a change of brand within it.

Why businesses look for a Peninsula alternative

This page says nothing about Peninsula's contracts, reviews or service quality. It matches a need to a type of provider, and these are the needs that point in different directions:

• A named consultant who visits on a set schedule, writes your risk assessments and knows your sites.
• Sector knowledge, because your risk is operational: yards, vehicles, forklifts, machinery, dust or noise.
• Separate suppliers, with HR and employment law kept where they are and health and safety moved, or the other way round.
• Health surveillance, such as hearing or lung function testing, joined to the risk assessments that decide who needs it.
• Software to run your records, for a business with competent people in-house and no need for a consultancy package around it.

How this list was put together

The providers below are the ones named in the UK search results we read on 6 October 2026 for "peninsula health and safety alternatives" and "peninsula group alternatives", plus Opus Safety. Each description comes from the provider's own website, read the same day.

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, award claims and claims about staff qualifications, Peninsula's included, because we cannot check them. We say nothing about anyone's prices, contract terms or cancellation terms. Your own agreement is the version that binds you.

The alternatives

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

We are a health and safety consultancy with occupational health, HR support and training alongside. Our consultants include former health and safety inspectors. On the Opus Safety Partnership, a named consultant is appointed as your competent person, visits your sites (how often is set in your contract, typically two to four times a year), writes your risk assessments, conducts your audits and is on call between visits. Your records sit in Compliance Cloud, the platform the consultant works in.

Our sectors include builders merchants, where we are a Builders Merchants Federation (BMF) Preferred Supplier, warehousing and logistics, manufacturing and engineering, garden centres, metal stockholding and petrol forecourts. Our occupational health technicians carry out hearing tests, lung function testing and hand-arm vibration screening on your site. HR support comes from one named HR consultant and covers employee relations, contracts and handbooks, restructuring, absence and HR documents.

We suit a business whose main exposure is health and safety on operational sites and which wants the same consultant every visit. Look elsewhere if employment law at volume is your main need. Peninsula and Avensure both list tribunal representation in their HR services. Our HR support centres on a named consultant who guides each case and drafts its documents.

2. Citation, for a bundled service with ISO support

Citation sells HR and employment law, health and safety, wellbeing, e-learning, ISO certification and SSIP accreditation support to small and medium-sized businesses. It was founded in 1995 and is based in Cheshire. Its health and safety page describes a 24/7 advice line, documentation, an annual site visit with an inspection report, and Atlas, its online health and safety platform.

Citation fits a buyer who wants the bundled model from a company outside the Peninsula group, particularly one that also needs ISO or SSIP work. If you need a consultant on site more often than once a year, ask how many visits the package includes. We have written a fuller comparison of Opus Safety and Citation.

3. WorkNest, for compliance across several disciplines

WorkNest is part of Axiom GRC and covers 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, onsite and remote annual audits, helpdesk support, policies and handbooks, and its SafetyNest software. Its fire safety service is BAFE certified.

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. Its health and safety support is also sold as a package in its own right.

4. Avensure, for HR and health and safety from one designated advisor

Avensure was founded in 2011 and has offices in Manchester and London. It sells HR and employment law, health and safety, and a combined package that includes tribunal protection. On health and safety, its page describes a full site survey, a colour-coded action plan, documentation written for your business and a staff handbook, with access to its PeopleCloud platform. Its home page says each client is assigned a designated advisor.

Avensure fits a small or medium-sized business that wants all three disciplines from one supplier outside the Peninsula group, with one advisor who learns the business.

5. Croner, if you want a different service inside the same group

Croner sells HR, employment law and health and safety. On health and safety, its page lists a 24-hour advice line, risk assessments carried out and written by its experts, audits, gap analysis and consultancy projects, with Croner BrightSafe software.

Croner is a reasonable choice if you want a different provider brand and are content to stay inside the Peninsula group. It is the wrong choice if leaving the group is the point.

6. BrightHR, if you want software with advice

BrightHR sells HR software, payroll, a 24/7 employment law advice line and health and safety tools: risk assessment templates, accident reporting, e-learning and a 24/7 health and safety advice line.

It suits a small business with simple risks that wants to keep its own HR and safety records and ring for advice when it needs to.

7. An independent consultant from the OSHCR register

The Occupational Safety and Health Consultants Register is a register of health and safety consultants who advise UK businesses. HSE supports the register as a way to find consultants who hold a status recognised by their professional body, carry valid insurance and keep up to date with standards.

One consultant suits a single site with moderate risk, or a one-off piece of work that lets you run health and safety yourself afterwards. HSE's guidance on using a consultant says that if you need only 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 a requirement wider than one person's specialism, are a harder fit.

The providers side by side

Provider	What it sells	Health and safety delivery, as its own page describes it	Software	Peninsula group company
Peninsula	Employment law, HR, health and safety, wellbeing	A dedicated consultant visits to carry out your workplace risk assessment; 24/7 advice line	BrightSafe and BrightHR	Yes
Opus Safety	Health and safety, occupational health, HR support, training	A named consultant appointed as your competent person, site visits set in your contract (typically two to four a year), assessments written for you	Compliance Cloud	Not listed
Citation	HR, employment law, health and safety, ISO and SSIP support	An annual site visit with an inspection report; 24/7 advice line	Atlas	Not listed
WorkNest	Employment law, HR, health and safety, ISO, data protection, cyber	A dedicated consultant, onsite and remote annual audits, helpdesk support	SafetyNest	Not listed
Avensure	HR, employment law, health and safety	A designated advisor, a full site survey and a colour-coded action plan	PeopleCloud	Not listed
Croner	HR, employment law, health and safety	Risk assessments carried out and written by its experts; 24-hour advice line	Croner BrightSafe	Yes
BrightHR	HR, payroll and health and safety software with advice lines	Templates, accident reporting and e-learning, with a 24/7 advice line	BrightHR	Yes
Independent consultant	Whatever scope you agree	One person, on the terms you agree	Varies	Not applicable

"Peninsula group company" means the company appears on the group's own list of its companies, read on 6 October 2026.

Which one is right for you

If employment law is what you ring about most, a bundled provider is the honest answer, and we are the wrong call. Compare Citation, WorkNest and Avensure, 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 will come 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, but feel free to speak to us too, as we have a lot of smaller clients who we have worked with for years.

If you have competent people in-house and want software, BrightHR is the option inside the group. Outside it, our Compliance Cloud page offers a Software Only option, configured by our team, for businesses with in-house health and safety capability. Software keeps your 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.

What to check before you switch

• Your contract term, notice period and renewal clause. We have not seen Peninsula's terms, so read the agreement you signed and ask Peninsula to confirm the dates in writing.
• Who holds your documents and how they come back. Risk assessments, policies, method statements and accident records may sit in BrightSafe or BrightHR. Ask how to export them, in what format, and do it while you are still a customer.
• Training records, including e-learning that staff are part-way through.
• Any legal protection product in your package. Peninsula lists cover for tribunal claims and health and safety prosecutions; ask what happens to it when you leave, and arrange replacement cover first if you need it.
• How HR and health and safety will share information if you split them, particularly absence cases and occupational health referrals.
• Customer, insurer or prequalification paperwork that names your provider, so the change is notified where it needs to be.

Appointing a competent person is a legal duty, and it continues while you change supplier. Regulation 7 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. Those Regulations apply in England, Wales and Scotland. 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. HSE's guidance adds that a consultant should give you a proper handover explaining the main risks and the controls they recommend, so ask the outgoing provider for the same.

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, who writes the documents, and what sits outside the fee.
4. Ask your preferred provider to review your existing documents before you sign. With us, that is a gap analysis, which checks your policies, risk assessments, safe systems of work and training records against current law and against what happens on site.
5. Give notice in the form your contract requires, and export everything while you still have access.
6. Appoint the new competent person in writing, starting as the old appointment ends.

Frequently asked questions

Are Peninsula and BrightHR the same company? They are separate companies in the same group. Peninsula's history page says it launched BrightHR in 2015, the Peninsula group lists BrightHR among its companies, and BrightHR's own site gives the same Manchester registered office as Peninsula's.

Is Croner part of Peninsula? Yes. Peninsula's history page records acquiring Croner in 2015, and the group lists Croner among its companies. Croner offers Croner BrightSafe software for health and safety.

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

Can I keep Peninsula for HR and use someone else for health and safety? Yes. Agree how absence, occupational health referrals and anything else that touches both will be shared.

Do I legally need a health and safety provider? You need competent help, and it can come from inside the business. 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. A provider is how you meet the duty when you lack that competence.

Will my risk assessments transfer? Your assessments are records of your own business, so ask for an export before you give notice. A new provider should review them and keep what is sound.

Where to start

Find your notice date first. Then, if health and safety is what you are moving, book a gap analysis so you know where you stand before you commit to anyone, including us. Outsourced health and safety explains how the retained service runs, and how to choose a health and safety consultancy covers the questions to ask whoever you shortlist.