About Safegard

About Safegard

Safegard is a limited company within the Sodexo Group. It acts as an internal food safety, health & safety and environmental issues consultancy for the group and its clients, and offers these same services on the open market to organisations such as schools and colleges, universities, hotels and restaurants and other commercial organisations.

Most of Safegard's consultants have at one time been enforcement officers within local authorities. All are qualified by examination and are variously members of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH), the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), the Royal Society of Health (RSH), the Royal Institution of Public Health (RIPH), and some are Chartered Safety and Health Practitioners.

Health and Safety Management

Safegard has developed a wide-ranging, cost-effective health and safety management system that is applicable to almost all business sectors. It also has meticulously prepared specialist versions for schools, universities, hotels and restaurants.

It is not just another manual full of legislation and technical documents but is designed to provide simple straight-forward practical assistance. It is based on ‘how to do’ rather than ‘what to do’, whether this be risk assessment, safe systems of work or the inspection of a workplace. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 will determine that health and safety cannot be done for you by an outside organisation but must have internal 'ownership'. This fits exactly with the 'how to' system created by Safegard in 1994.

Our activities and services encompass safety audits and inspections, crisis management, helpline and update facilities. Manuals are available via the Internet making easy access to up to date information and print-outs, or on-screen use of forms, only a click away. The 500 page manual has become a thing of the past.

Our health and safety management system has been examined and approved for the government sponsored Lead Authority scheme and has received positive comment from enforcement authorities such as the HSE.

Environmental Issues

Green issues are becoming prominent in business activity. It is Safegard’s contention that good ‘green’ policies and benefits to a company’s bottom-line are synonymous.

Safegard’s Environmental Manager, Paul Bracegirdle, is an Associate Member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment and a member of the BHA Environmental Committee.

Food Safety & Hygiene

At the core of Safegard’s activities is its food safety expertise. We look after over 2500 catering operations in the UK and Eire for Sodexo and over 200 hotels and other high profile catering and leisure industry businesses.

We developed a practical food safety system incorporating the principles of Assured Safe Catering or, as Regulation would have it, a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system. It’s easy to use by any caterer and meets with the approval of environmental health officers around the country. It is ‘accredited’ by the Department of Health’s Home Authority scheme.

As with health and safety our activities and services include food safety audits and inspections, crisis management, helpline and update facilities. All manuals are available via the Internet.

Safegard also provides a comprehensive food supplier audit service. Certain specialist food sectors require specific expertise, such as meat hygiene, and we can provide that expertise. In the near future all third-party inspection services will have to be accredited. This we wholeheartedly support, having long been advocates of accrediting auditors, not suppliers, to ensure consistency of inspection standards.

For more information please contact Safegard

Telephone number 0161-873-6840 or Fax number 0161-873-6850

or on email: safegard@sodexo.co.uk