A decade of health and safety
Vanessa Brandham, our newly promoted Health & Safety Director, joined Rendall & Rittner ten years ago. Here she explains how her role has evolved, and how health and safety has become a cornerstone of the business.
When I joined Rendall & Rittner ten years ago, I was the first and only person in the health and safety team. Fast forward a decade, and we’ve grown to a team of 27, the largest in our sector, providing a wide range of expertise and services. As of January 2025, I’ve been promoted to R&R’s Company Leadership Team with overall responsibility for health and safety within the company. I also sit on the TPI H&S committee, am a chartered member of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) and volunteer as a chair and panel member for IOSH peer review interviews for those wishing to obtain their chartered status through the organisation.
Health and safety has always been important, but as the business has grown in those 10 years, the company needed internal support to establish processes and provide direct support to our property managers and clients. In those early days, there was less demand from clients for detailed H&S reporting or performance metrics. Now, when we tender for new business, clients want to know about our overall H&S performance and how we can support them – this includes using the latest technology such as our asset compliance software to help deliver our services.
Over time, health and safety has become much more central to the services we offer. My role has become more strategic - developing the team, managing regulatory requirements, and ensuring we stay ahead of industry changes. The department now includes a façade remediation team, building safety team and the technical support team.
The biggest shift of course has been the introduction of the Building Safety Act and the wider changes in building safety legislation. It’s been a steep learning curve for everyone. The scale of work required is enormous as it’s completely new and ever evolving, so it’s taken time to fully understand the implications. We’ve had to create entirely new teams to produce documentation and ensure requirements are met.
These changes have placed significant accountability onto the resident-led RMCs and RTMs, which are often made up of resident volunteers. Understandably, many of them rely on us to guide them through the complexities of the new regulations and I’m proud of the client-focused approach our team has developed.
I’m also extremely proud of the recognition we’ve received for our health and safety standards. In my second year at Rendall & Rittner, I introduced the RoSPA awards and we won a Silver award. The following year, we won Gold, and we’ve achieved that or higher every year since. We’ve also recently earned our sixth consecutive British Safety Council Five Star accreditation. These accolades demonstrate that we’re transparent, that we welcome external scrutiny and that we have gone above and beyond the statutory requirements.
The last decade hasn’t been without its challenges. The constant changes in legislation and regulations can be difficult to keep up with, especially when there isn’t always clear guidance on what’s required. However, the unwavering support from the business has been remarkable, and my recent appointment to the Company Leadership Team as Health and Safety Director highlights just how critical this role is to our operations.
Ultimately, health and safety is about keeping people safe in their homes and that’s a responsibility that we take very seriously. It’s rewarding to know that what we do as a team makes a real difference to the lives of residents and the smooth running of their buildings.
Our health and safety team is a great example of Rendall & Rittner’s overall approach in being people-led, technology enabled and service driven as we continually endeavour to meet the evolving needs of our clients and customers.
To find out more about Health and Safety at Rendall & Rittner, please click here.
