In September hardy ProAktive souls braved the Derbyshire moors and the inclement weather all in aid of charity, the Premature Baby Unit at Sheffield Jessops Hospital to be precise.

Some cycled, some walked and some carried buckets to raise as much money as possible for a fantastic cause. The event went without a hitch and a well earned picnic was the reward.

All in, £2000 was raised and the cheque handed over to a gathering of NHS dignitaries on the 19th December 2011 with the event covered by The Sheffield Star newspaper. To say that the hospital was pleased would be an understatement and in fact they’ve requested to work with us on future fundraising efforts.

The icing on the cake was handing over the toys that staff donated to the Childrens Hospital. Sheffield office kindly donated their lottery winnings for the year and this meant that we were able to hand over 4 large sacks of gifts, very gratefully received.

Well done to everyone who took part and all those who donated

Equip your supervisors with day to day safety management knowledge!

Out of the plethora of health and safety courses out there what makes this one stand out from the crowd?

Well to start with it equips your supervisors (who are at the sharp end of the business) with the key skills to identify hazards and take action to prevent accidents occurring.  It also gives them the confidence to know when to act and when to refer up the management chain.  The IOSH Managing Safely course is a nationally recognised qualification and has been taken by thousands of employees over many years.  It is widely acknowledged to be an excellent grounding in the world of safety management.

The course is split into eight modules and is usually delivered one day a week over four weeks.  It provides each attendee with the knowledge and skills to monitor health and safety in the workplace and to carry out risk assessments and accident investigations.  The cost of the course is £445 + VAT, but if you book to attend our January 2012 course the cost is only £395 + VAT providing excellent value for money….and we even provide a buffet lunch on each day of the course!!

The course is presented by experienced Chartered Health and Safety practitioners who know their stuff.  We promise not to unleash death by Powerpoint but to make the course informative and relevant.  With an impressive course pass rate and excellent feedback give us a call to book your places.

To book a place or for more information please call:

Ann Granter

(01302) 341344

Or click on the following link – IOSH Managing Safely

It’s Movember, the month formerly known as November, now dedicated to growing moustaches and raising awareness and funds for men’s health; specifically prostate and testicular cancer. A few of the ProAktive employees have donated their top lips to the cause for the past 30 days in an effort to help change the face of men’s health. Their Mo’s have sparked conversations, and no doubt have generated plenty of ridicule; all in the name of raising vital awareness and funds for cancers affecting men.

The Hairy Brokers have taken up the cause because:
* 1 in 9 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime
* This year 37,000 new cases of the disease will be diagnosed
* 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime

We are asking you to support the Movember campaign by making a donation online at: http://mobro.co/ProAktive

If you’d like to find out more about the type of work you’d be helping to fund by supporting Movember, take a look at the Programmes We Fund section on the Movember website: http://uk.movember.com/about

Thank you in advance for supporting the Hairy Brokers efforts to change the face of men’s health.

The Government has announced an immediate consultation on the abolition, consolidation and further review of large numbers of health and safety regulations and aims to remove the first rules from the statute books within a few months.  The announcement follows the publication yesterday (28 November) of Professor Ragnar Löfstedt’s review of health and safety legislation and the Government’s response.

The review is named after Professor Ragnar E Lofstedt, who is the director of the Centre for Risk Management at King’s College London.  In general, Prof Löfstedt found that the problem lies less with the regulations themselves and more with the way they are interpreted and applied. Nevertheless, noting that the sheer mass of laws is a key concern for businesses, the report recommends that the HSE undertakes and completes a programme to consolidate sector-specific regulations by April 2015.

The next step in the process to cutting the number of health and safety rules, which currently stands at 200, by about half, is to carry out a consultation headed by the Health and Safety Executive.

Professor Lofstedt’s recommendations mean that in future employers who have done all they can to minimise risks to employees will not be held accountable when something goes wrong.

Ken Stevens, Risk Manager at ProAktive has welcomed the review.  “This confirms our long held view that sensible and proportionate health and safety management and advice, will ensure that businesses keep their employees safe, comply with the law and minimise compensation claims”.

We’ve taken the brave decision to bring everything under one name

So why ProAktive?

Well we started with the dictionary definition of ‘proactive’; Taking action by causing change and not only reacting to change when it happens.

We like that

Then we have tinkered with the name – ProAktive – partly to make it stand out but mainly as a reminder of our roots in Atkinson Smith.

And those roots are important to us.

For over 30 years our aim has been to provide the highest quality, professional insurance broking and financial planning service to the business sector. By employing the best staff in the business we have always been able to deliver the quality. This has allowed us to grow to become one of the largest and most successful independent businesses in our sector. The challenge has been how to deliver more for our clients so to differentiate ourselves further.

In 2003 that route to differentiation began.

We identified a need in many of our clients for true hands on assistance with Health and Safety. We recognised that by satisfying that need we could also improve the risk and reduce premiums.

And so ProAktive Risk Management was born.

From that point on the evolution has been dramatic with the addition of Fleet Management, Business Continuity Planning, and Employment and HR services.

And to cement it all together we can offer our unique IT system which brings a myriad of benefits to our clients.

Now we are truly different;

We care about our clients;

We make the effort to understand what matters to them;

We help to create positive development where needed;

We use that change to bring the rewards they deserve;

We have fun doing it:

So we have our own definition of PROAKTIVE;

To CARE enough to want to UNDERSTAND each other so as to create positive DEVELOPMENT in the knowledge that if it is done well everyone will be REWARDED accordingly

And to have FUN doing it

Please click on the below link to read our news letter

Proaktive_newsletter_LRG