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Outsourced health and safety, with a named consultant who does the work
For managing directors and operations leads weighing a hire against an external team. What outsourcing covers, what stays your legal responsibility, and what changes when Opus is your competent person.
What outsourced health and safety includes
Everything an inspector would ask to see, kept current by the consultant who knows your sites. Appointing Opus as your competent person gives you a complete service, including advice by phone or email whenever a question comes up, and solutions that are commercially and operationally sensible for how you run it. The main areas are set out below. Your documentation, actions and renewal dates sit in Compliance Cloud, so you can see what is in place and what is due without asking anyone.
Assessments and surveys
The assessments and surveys your sites are expected to hold, from fire risk and COSHH through to asbestos, noise and DSEAR. Your consultant carries out or organises them, and keeps them current as the work or the law changes.
Audits and oversight
The checks that keep it all working between assessments: where you stand against the law, what your policies and procedures say, who still needs training, CDM support where you have construction work, and what changes when the regulations do.
When something goes wrong
If there is an incident: investigation, RIDDOR reporting where a report is due, and support through any enforcement action, including dealing with the enforcing authority.
What changes when Opus is your competent person
Five things, from the first month onwards.
The work gets done
Assessments carried out and written up to standard, with the actions we own closed off by us. Your team is not left chasing a list.
A named competent person, not a helpline
One consultant who knows your sites, your processes and your people, rather than a ticket queue. You are not explaining the operation again every visit.
Documentation that stays current
Policy, records and renewal dates kept up to date as the operation changes. Compliance Cloud gives you a single view of what is in place, what is due and what is outstanding.
Specialists without new suppliers
Fire, asbestos, noise, legionella and occupational health all come through us, so you are not coordinating five vendors.
Your legal duty to appoint, fulfilled
Appointing Opus fulfils your legal duty to have a competent person in place, under Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
What an inspector asks to see
An inspection or an investigation comes down to evidence. These are the things asked for first. Could you put your hands on all six today?
- ✓Risk assessments for the significant risks, current and specific to your site
- ✓A written health and safety policy required once you employ five or more people
- ✓Training records that match the jobs people actually do
- ✓Accident records and RIDDOR reports where they were required
- ✓Your competent person appointment in writing
- ✓Inspection and maintenance records from racking to local exhaust ventilation
What outsourced health and safety costs
Price depends on a number of variables, including:
Sites and geography
One unit and a six-depot business need different levels of health and safety support, and the number of site visits changes with it.
Risk profile
Machinery, work at height, hazardous substances and vehicle movements each add assessments. An office does not need what a yard needs.
Headcount
More people means more training records, more induction and more health surveillance to coordinate.
Scope
Health and safety alone, or with occupational health, training and Compliance Cloud.
For context on the other option: the median salary for a health and safety manager or officer is £44,551 (ONS, April 2025), before employer National Insurance, pension, recruitment and cover when they are away. Outsourcing is priced against the work you need. Working with Opus Safety will often work out more cost effective.
Two ways to work with Opus
Book a one-off service for a specific need, or take on a partnership for ongoing support. Either way, the work gets done by the same team.
Book a service
For a specific need - a single assessment, audit, or
on-site service with a clear deliverable.
Opus Safety Partnership
Ongoing support and consider-it-done compliance. For businesses that want compliance off their plate, not on their to-do list.
Not sure which fits? Speak to a consultant - no commitment required.
Alsford Timber
Why businesses outsource health and safety to Opus
Our consultants include former inspectors and environmental health officers, so the advice comes from people who have worked on the enforcement side. That shapes what you get told: what an inspector looks for and accepts as evidence, proportionate to your risk.
Ex-inspectors on the team
Judgement about where the real risk sits, not a document set built for an audit that never happens.
Sector experience, not a template library
The consultant who visits a metal stockholder has stood in one. The sectors below are where most of our work is.
We will say when outsourcing is the wrong answer
If your risk profile needs somebody on site daily, a hire is the better call, and we will tell you that rather than sell you a retainer.
Outsourced health and safety by sector
Builders Merchants
Yard traffic, forklifts working near customers, and timber dust from cutting.
Warehousing & Logistics
Keeping people apart from materials handling equipment, racking damage, loading bays and agency staff starting on a Monday. The assessment is revisited as the operation changes.
Manufacturing & Engineering
Machinery guarding, local exhaust ventilation, noise and process-generated exposures, assessed by a specialist with hands-on experience in your sector.
Garden Centres
Seasonal staff, the public walking past working forklifts, a wide chemical range and legionella in the water systems. We keep induction, training records and assessments aligned across the season.
Metal Stockholders
Welding fume and metalworking fluid mists, noise from cutting, hand-arm vibration and overhead lifting. The assessment follows the material through the yard.
Education & Nurseries
Asbestos in older buildings, evacuating young children, science lab COSHH and lone working early and late.
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Hospitality & Catering
Extraction canopies, fryers and hot surfaces next to combustible stock, wet floors through service, agency and under-18 staff, and guests on site late.
Petrol Forecourts
Often three businesses on one site: DSEAR zones around the pumps and tanks, fire risk across shop, canopy and car wash, and lone working at 2am.
Not sure whether to outsource or hire?
Tell us the size of your business and what is already in place. We will tell you honestly which of the two fits, including when a hire is the better answer.
Frequently asked questions
Does outsourcing transfer our legal responsibility?
Is outsourcing cheaper than hiring?
What does a competent person actually do?
Can you work alongside our existing H&S team?
What is the difference between the Partnership and a one-off service?
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