Safety Reps' Conference 2026

A dedicated CPD day for Health & Safety Representatives

Welcome to the hub page for the Safety Reps' Conference 2026

The Society delivered its second Safety Reps' Conference on Thursday 25 June, bringing together Health & Safety Representatives from across the country for a dedicated day of continuing professional development (CPD).

 

Although the conference was originally planned as an in-person event, severe weather conditions and widespread transport disruption meant we made the decision to move the event online. While this wasn't the experience we had hoped to provide, we were pleased to welcome delegates virtually and continue with a full programme of expert-led sessions.

 

Throughout the day, delegates heard from specialist speakers, shared good practice with colleagues, and explored practical ways to strengthen their role in protecting members' health, safety and wellbeing in the workplace.

The programme included sessions on:

  • Working Time – making use of the regulations
  • Menopause
  • Asbestos and RAAC
  • Stress in the Workplace
  • Health & Safety for Disabled Workers

Speaker Presentations, Resources and Synopsis

Slides: Working Time - making use of the regulations

Mike Kidd | Lecturer in Trade Union Education | Capital City College


This session briefly recapped the Working Time Regulations and considered how Reps could best make use of them.

Additional resources:


Slides: Menopause

Jenny Noble | Lecturer | Newcastle College Trade Union Education


Women aged 50- 64 are the fastest growing economically active group in the UK. 70% of working women are in this age bracket. The menopause is now more of a workplace issue than ever before as we are required to work longer, and early retirement options are not as available for a numbers of reasons. However, 1 in 4 women experiencing severe symptoms consider leaving their jobs.


This session covered the following areas;

  • The facts of the menopause
  • Symptoms and how they can impact women in the workplace
  • General health guidance and treatment including costs
  • How trade unions can support members
  • What reasonable adjustments the employer can offer
  • How the Equality Act covers women with severe symptoms


Slides: Asbestos/RAAC

Steve White |TUC Tutor | Capital City Colleges Group


Asbestos was banned in the UK over 25 years ago, so why are so many workers still dying of asbestos-related incidents? And why are so many of them in healthcare? What is RAAC? What are the dangers? And why do you need to think about asbestos when you think about RAAC?


Slides: Stress in the Workplace

Doru Athinodorus | Unison Branch Official | Hertfordshire Unison


This session explored workplace stress and bullying through a practical legal and trade union lens. It supported delegates to recognise the early warning signs of stress, bullying and unreasonable management behaviour, and to understand how these issues can escalate if not properly addressed. The session examined how stress and bullying are often normalised in workplaces, how power imbalances operate, and how organisational cultures can allow harmful practices to go unchallenged.

Additional resources:


Slides: Health & Safety with Disabled Workers

Kerith Harris | Trade Union Education Tutor | West Thames College


This session took a whistle stop tour of working with disabled members in relation to their health and safety in the workplace. The main aim was to get us, and especially our employers, to think and act more widely. We emphasised working with disabled members to build our branches and therefore our ability to negotiate real changes for our members. We explored:

  • Intersectionality
  • What is disability?
  • Physical disability health and safety
  • Non-physical disability health and safety
  • Who is responsible for what?
  • How do we use the law to help us?
  • How do we organise around this?
  • Taking further action on this issue

Additional resources:

SPEAKERS

  • Rhys Martin

    Health and Safety Policy Officer, The Society and College of Radiographers

    Rhys Martin is the Health and Safety Policy Officer at The Society and College of Radiographers. Rhys has previously worked for UNISON, NEU and ATL trade unions and started as a health and safety representative for the PCS trade union.

  • Mike Kidd

    Lecturer in Trade Union Education, College of North East London

    Mike has over 30 years of experience as an active trade unionist, during which time he's worked in a range of industrial sectors in a variety of trade union roles. For the last 15 years he has taught trade union education for many different unions and the TUC. His key areas of interest are equality, health and safety, and organising.

  • Jenny Noble

    Lecturer, Newcastle College Trade Union Education

    Jenny is a lecturer at Newcastle College and work in the trade union education department delivering all TUC courses for the Northern Region from short introductory courses, up to diploma level Employment Law, Equalities and Occupational Health and Safety. In addition to the TUC programme, Jenny also works with various trade unions delivering their regional education programmes.

    She has been a union activist all her working life and was previously a full time official for PCS union prior to changing career to work in education. Jenny has been delivering menopause in the workplace sessions for the last 6 years to unions and in workplaces as she believes it is essential for health and safety reps and union reps to consider the menopause and ensure members are informed and supported in the workplace and beyond.

  • Steve White

    TUC Tutor, Capital City Colleges Group

    Steve is a TUC Tutor from Capital City Colleges Group based at the CONEL campus in Tottenham and specialises in Health and Safety Organising for Union Reps.

    Steve is a retired Fire Brigades Union official and represented members' health and safety interests at regional and national level.

     

  • Doru Athinodorus

    Unison Branch Official, Hertfordshire Unison

    Doru is an experienced trade union officer and employment-law practitioner with extensive expertise in casework, representation, and training. His work has focused in particular on bullying, stress, mental health, equality, and health and safety at work. Doru has been active in the GMB and has previously worked for the NEU. He currently works for UNISON Hertfordshire Branch and also undertakes self-employed work for NAPO. Doru has trained workplace representatives, caseworkers, and union officials, and regularly delivers workshops and seminars on employment law, workplace stress, and good practice in handling disciplinary, grievance, and capability matters. He brings a practical, evidence-based approach grounded in frontline union experience.

  • Kerith Harris

    Trade Union Education Tutor, West Thames College

    Kerith started as a rep in their branch at Sussex University, and went on to be Branch President. Kerith then became a national official, working at NAHT as a Legal Officer, UCU as a National Bargaining Officer and NEU as a Learning and Development Organiser. Since 2017 Kerith has also worked as a Trade Union Education Tutor writing and delivering courses across different subjects and different unions. Teaching turned out to be the best bit of Kerith's career so far and they made the leap to doing this on a full-time, self-employed basis in 2022.

    Kerith is currently President of the Union Workers Union, a relatively new and utterly wonderful, independent trade union specifically for trade union workers.

    They also teach Pilates and volunteer as a Magistrate. As a disabled worker themselves, Kerith has a personal and professional passion for this topic.

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