Safety Reps' Conference 2026
A dedicated CPD day for Health & Safety Representatives
A dedicated CPD day for Health & Safety Representatives
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:
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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.
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;
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?
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.
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:
Job Title
Coordinator
Workplace
Greater Manchester Hazards Centre
Speaker Biography
Janet is the coordinator at Greater Manchester Hazards Centre and the Chair of the UK Hazards Campaign. Janet has been a trade union activist for more than 45 years, working in the public, private and not for profit sector. She has represented workers, delivered trade union education and sits on Employment Tribunals and in her current role advises and campaigns on occupational health and safety issues.
Job Title
Head of Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Workplace
Royal College of Nursing
Speaker Biography
Kim is a Chartered Safey and Health practitioner who has over 25 years’ experience of working for trade unions dedicated to improving the working environment for members. She is currently Head of Health, Safety and Wellbeing at the Royal College of Nursing and holds the staff side chair of the NHS Staff Council's Health, Safety and Wellbeing Group.
Job Title
Lecturer in Trade Union Education
Workplace
College of North East London
Speaker Biography
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.
Job Title
Policy Officer: Disability and LGBT+ Equality
Workplace
TUC
Speaker Biography
Quinn Roache is the TUC's LGBT+ Policy Officer working within their Equality and Strategy Department.
Previously he worked for the Equality and Human Rights Commission on high profile projects including their Pregnancy and Maternity Work Programme and Home Care Inquiry. He also led on their community engagement projects on a variety of themes including the UNCRPD and increasing LGBT+ hate crime reporting.
Job Title
Health and Safety Policy Officer
Workplace
The Society of Radiographers
Speaker Biography
Rhys Martin is the Health and Safety Policy Officer at The Society 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.
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Job Title
Health and Safety Policy Officer
Workplace
Trades Union Congress
Speaker Biography
Shelly Asquith is the Health and Safety Policy Officer at the Trades Union Congress, the umbrella body for more than 40 trade unions, including the SoR. Shelly works in the TUC's Education team, which helps train hundreds of new reps each year and provides them with tools to organise and take action to make work safer and fairer.
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