ENSURE
SAFETY AND COMPLIANCE
Safety and Compliance
At Ensure Safety and Compliance we take pride in helping our partners and customers develop and implement innovative safety compliance and assurance solutions.
From designing complex compliance assurance frameworks and regulatory submissions in the nuclear sector, through to the management of fire safety in social housing, our wide range of expertise and experience allows us to help our customers implement comprehensive systems for ensuring compliance, providing assurance, and enabling the effective management of safety.
Integral to the ongoing management of safety in any organisation is the ability to plan, assess, monitor and track actions and decisions through to completion, and periodically review. This provision of evidence gives assurance to those with responsibility for operations, governance, or enforcement. Our innovative software solutions help our partners keep on top of this, providing them with real-time information and management reporting facilities.
Fire Safety
Protecting people and property from the risk of fire is of fundamental importance to any organisation – the consequences of getting it wrong can be devastating. Our team of Fire Safety professionals work throughout the country providing fire safety assessments, advice, support and training.
The starting point for any organisation is to appoint a competent person to undertake a Fire Risk Assessment (FRA), but this is only one half of the equation. The law requires you to act upon the findings of the FRA and to demonstrably manage fire safety on an ongoing basis. This means reviewing, monitoring, and testing fire safety arrangements where appropriate, and backing this up with periodic fire safety training.
At Ensure we provide the full range of support, from conducting FRAs through to the provision of technical advice, fire safety training, and liaison with regulatory authorities. We back this up by providing our customers with a FREE software system to help them to remain compliant and manage the entire process – programme planning, accessing FRAs, managing and tracking the actions through to completion, performance dashboards and periodic reports as required. Although designed to help organisations that manage large numbers of buildings (Housing Associations, Local Authorities, Managing Agents), the system is equally appropriate for businesses and organisations of any size, and is capable of dovetailing with existing asset management systems.
Statutory Requirements
The duties and responsibilities of the landlord or business owner are laid down in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (available here), and further information can be found here. In summary, if you are responsible for a property or venue where people other than your family and friends can visit, then the law requires you to have a fire risk assessment carried out by a competent person and to act on the findings of that assessment.
Safety Assurance
Specialising in providing effective risk management and safety related compliance and consultancy services within the public and private sectors, our key clients are drawn from a wide cross-section of industry and the public sector, including Local Authorities, Defence, Maritime, and the Civil Nuclear Programme.
Whilst recognising the diverse nature of our client's business, we provide key services to ensure adherence to relevant legislation, regulatory expectation and best practice. In short, what you do is not as important to us as the way in which you do it. We are committed to provide support and advice that will make your business demonstrably safer, more risk efficient and therefore more profitable.
Our expertise includes, but is not limited to, the provision of:
- Compliance Assurance Frameworks;
- Regulatory Submissions;
- Event Investigations and Reports;
- Nuclear Licence Condition Compliance Arrangements;
- Planning, Training and Demonstration of Emergency Response Arrangements;
- Optimisation of System and Equipment Support Regimes; Organisational Learning;
- Development of Operational Risk and Safety Assurance Cases and Compliance Systems.
Quality and Innovation
Being an ISO9001-2015 accredited company, quality and continual improvement is at the heart of all our systems and processes. Through effective communication, continual training and development of our people, and a focus on designing and delivering innovative solutions, our aim is to facilitate the continually improving quality of our customer's outputs through the services we provide.
Case Studies
Every project we undertake, whether public or private sector, is unique in its size, complexity and demands. In these pages we endeavour to give a snapshot of some of our previous projects to convey a sense of our capabilities. If you have a project in mind and would like to discuss your needs, please contact us for an initial discussion.
ENSURE was tasked by a large Housing Association to
produce a Fire Safety management Plan (FSMP), in order
to satisfy the requirements of the Hampshire Fire and
Rescue Service (HFRS) (The Enforcement Authority) and
meet the requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire
Safety) Order 2005, in providing a demonstrable
document showing that the management arrangements,
control procedures, processes and mitigation in place
during major refurbishment work of a block of flats
reduced the fire risk to that which is tolerable and
ALARP.
The revised arrangements enabled the refurbishment
work to be completed in an inhabited building, whilst
ensuring the safety of both the residents and
contractors.
The UK Ministry of Defence requires the ability to
accommodate nuclear powered warships at a number of
berths around the UK and UK legislation requires that
these berths are suitably assessed, and that adequate
arrangements are in place to deal with any emergencies
that may arise. ENSURE Safety and Compliance are
contracted to provide the Nuclear Berth Safety
Management Arrangements, documentation and training in
maintaining the availability of the designated Nuclear
Operational Berths at Portsmouth Naval Base and
Southampton Docks in meeting the requirements of the
duty holders, the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator and
the Office for Nuclear Regulation.
ENSURE Safety and Compliance have accumulated
significant experience and worked diligently over many
years to engender highly effective working
relationships in continuing to satisfy both statutory
and duty holder requirements in maintaining the
continued availability of these berths. This has been
achieved through proactive management and training
across a range of public sector and industry
organisations and has delivered year-on-year
improvements in emergency response capabilities as
validated by continued regulatory assessment.
The Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers are the
largest surface warships ever constructed for the
Royal Navy and provide a significantly enhanced
increase in the UK’s defence and force projections
capabilities. As the base port for these vessels it is
vital that the Ministry of Defence is able to assure
that these vessels can safely conduct entry and exit
from Portsmouth Harbour and remain safely alongside in
all weathers.
ENSURE Safety and Compliance compiled and presented an
appropriate, wide ranging and compelling safety
argument to demonstrate to all key stakeholders and
the Defence Maritime Regulator that the necessary
measures were in place and suitably assured as
pre-requisite to authorising the first entry into
Portsmouth Harbour on 16 August 2017.
UK legislation requires that any site incorporating a
nuclear installation operates within a strict regime
of regulatory control based on a site licensing
process. Adequacy in maintaining nuclear safety is
verified largely through ensuring and assuring
compliance against the conditions attached to each
site licence and broader safety principles.
ENSURE Safety and Compliance are well versed and
highly experienced in the regulatory objectives and
required duty holder outcomes in applying these
licence conditions. This experience is being used to
good effect in providing on-going independent safety
advice and in supporting long-term periodic within
both the Ministry of Defence and civil nuclear
licensing domains.
ENSURE was tasked to assess the construct and effectiveness of a shipping company’s Safety Management System (SMS) for compliance with the International Management Code for the Safe Operation of Ships and for Pollution Prevention (International Safety Management (ISM) Code). This investigation was instigated as a result of specific concerns raised by a number of key duty holders within the business.
- To establish how the SMS should ensure compliance with ISM code;
- To establish whether the SMS was being implemented effectively;
- To consider what measures the Company should be taking to find a solution to any problems identified and any further recommendations for the organisation to consider for the future;
- To identify whether the Company has provided the appropriate training and support to all those involved with the SMS.