Most employers expect and plan for their employees to take maternity or paternity leave at some point during their career, and many also expect the occasional minor disruption when, for example, an employee’s child is unwell and needs caring for at home. However, the changing demographics of the workforce is impacting employers in a way that has not been experienced by previous generations. It is estimated that around 2.4 million UK employees fall into what is known as the ‘Sandwich Generation’ – those aged between 40 and 60 years of a... Continue reading

With a picture beginning to emerge of the contributory factors that may have led to the fatal fire at Grenfell Tower last week, as a health and safety professional it’s hard not to have a personal perspective. Harriet Harman MP made a most telling contribution by pointing out that residential tower blocks, unlike commercial ones, might not have sprinklers and often only a single escape stair. I’m not able to check the fire safety strategy for 4,000 residential blocks of flats in the UK, but from experience that seems to be largely true. C... Continue reading

Those of us who work in safety – and particularly in fire safety – have learned to see fire risk on a continuum. There really is only a small degree of difference between a toaster burning out and the kind of catastrophe that brings about scores of deaths, days of national mourning, and fundamental change to how we treat this most ancient, most omnipresent and most duplicitous of hazards. Certain fires – Bradford, Kings Cross and now Grenfell Tower – are bad enough to alter the national consciousness. But they only require a modest amou... Continue reading

The recent shocking fire in Grenfell Tower, London should have focused the minds of all persons undertaking fire risk assessment works in the UK. As fire risk assessors, this incident should make us review what we look at and what we take into consideration when carrying out an assessment. As always, we should question our own competence to undertake the particular assessment concerned. The first obvious statement to make is that any fire risk assessment must ensure compliance with Article 9 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. S... Continue reading

What’s it like to return to formal study after a long break? What can you do to make it easier for yourself when you’re studying while you work? Heidi Thompson, Head of Learning and Development at International Workplace, provides some insights. Studying again can bring about a multitude of emotions from excitement to fear. Whether the last time you studied was at school a few (or many) years ago – or more recently at university – studying at the same time as working is certainly a challenge. I try to keep this in mind whenever I int... Continue reading