Safety Reps' Conference 2025
UK SoR safety representatives day of CPD and networking.
UK SoR safety representatives day of CPD and networking.
When?
Saturday 21 June 2025
Where?
ibis Birmingham New Street
21 Ladywell Walk, Arcadian Centre, Birmingham B5 4ST
IMPORTANT NOTE:
This event is now sold out.
The Society is delighted to announce it's first dedicated day of CPD for Health and Safety Representatives. The event will be an opportunity to hear from expert speakers and share best practice.
The programme includes sessions on lone working, equality in health and safety, making the most of your health and safety inspections, and what should be included in risk assessments. There will also be updates on the work the TUC are doing in this area, and the H&S arm of NHS Staff Council, the HSWPG.
This event is for SoR Health & Safety Reps and priority was given to those outside London and the South East.
Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions.
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Assessing the Assessments: A Critical Approach to Employers' Risk Assessment Practices | Mike Kidd
Risk assessment is a fundamental process in safeguarding workers' health, safety and welfare at work. Employers have a legal duty to carry out suitable and sufficient risk assessment, but what does this mean in practice? What makes an effective risk assessment process? Union health and safety reps have a right to be consulted about risk assessments, so what should we be looking for? This session will consider the risk assessment process and the outcomes that a robust approach should deliver. It aims to empower SOR reps to critically assess their employer's risk assessments and so help to improve the management of risk in the workplace, making workplaces safer and healthier for all who work there.
Workplace Inspections: The Health and Safety Police | Steve White
Workplace inspections are a key part of the safety representatives role but can often fall into the trap of becoming a pseudo-management function. This session will look at ways of using workplace inspections to best represent your members interests and how to use them as a trade union organising tool.
Racism: A Health and Safety Issue | Quinn Roache
Research has shown that sectoral and occupational segregation on the basis of race and migration status explains the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on Black workers and communities. The pandemic highlighted different experiences of health and safety for Black workers, often defined by direct or indirect racism and discrimination. We also know that there is a surge in racist violence, abuse and harassment are that it is not new and did not suddenly appear . However, there is new confidence among some with racist attitudes to voice their view publicly which has also led to a growth in visibility of the far-right, and incidences of violent disorder and racist attacks.
TUC Campaigns and The Work of the NHS Staff Council's Health, Safety and Wellbeing Group | Kim Sunley and Shelly Asquith
This session will include an outline of the work of the NHS Staff Council’s Health, Safety and Wellbeing Group, exploring existing resources of benefit to SoR Safety Reps and new and emerging priority areas within the group’s three-year work plan.
Helpful resources for this session:
Lone Working | Janet Newsham
Employers have a legal duty to manage the health and safety risks of people who work alone. Too often employers fail to identify, assess and control the risks, leaving workers exposed to risks including risks from violence, stress and others. The session will explore why it is a health and safety issue? How we can get employers to carry out their legal duties? What actions health and safety reps can take to prevent the risks that workers face on lone working?
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.
Job Title
TUC Tutor
Workplace
CONEL
Speaker Biography
Steve is a TUC tutor from the College of Haringey, Enfield and North-East London, specialising in health and safety.
Steve is a former London firefighter and Fire Brigades Union official.
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