At Safety Forward, our health and safety advice is shaped by the people who deliver it. In this edition of People Behind Safety Forward, we introduce Faith Graham, Health and Safety Consultant, who began her career in the profession at 18 and has never looked back.
Faith came into health and safety almost by accident. A business administration apprenticeship placed her in the health and safety department of a nuclear engineering company. From there, she trained, developed her experience across several manufacturing industries, and later joined Safety Forward as a consultant.
Early in her career, she was often the youngest person in the room, surrounded by experienced workers who had spent their whole careers in the industry. Nearly a decade on, that experience has helped shape the confident, approachable consultant she is today.
Faith is motivated by the relationships that consultancy allows: supporting people, giving practical advice and helping organisations improve, rather than simply telling them what they are doing wrong. She believes good health and safety starts with leadership setting the tone.
Read on to meet the person behind the advice.
Meet Faith Graham, Health and Safety Consultant
Good health and safety consultancy is about more than policies, procedures and checklists. It is about understanding people, building relationships and giving advice that businesses can actually put into practice.
That practical, people-focused approach is something Faith brings to her role as a Health and Safety Consultant at Safety Forward.
From apprenticeship to health and safety consultancy
Faith’s route into health and safety wasn’t planned. She left school at 18 and started a business administration apprenticeship at a nuclear engineering company, where she was placed in the health and safety department.
She completed the apprenticeship in nine months, realised she enjoyed the work and decided to stay in the profession.
From there, Faith trained in health and safety and gained experience across several manufacturing industries before joining Safety Forward as a consultant.
Early in her career, she was often the youngest person in the room. On nuclear engineering sites, surrounded by experienced workers who had spent their whole careers in the industry, she sometimes sensed the unspoken question: does this person really know what she is talking about?
That experience shaped her. Nearly a decade on, she is no longer intimidated by the room.
Helping people make health and safety better
For Faith, one of the biggest changes in moving into consultancy was the relationship she could build with clients.
In-house, people can sometimes be wary of a health and safety team arriving to tell them what they’re doing wrong. In consultancy, that relationship can be very different. Clients are asking for help, creating an opportunity to work together and make improvements.
As Faith puts it: “I get to help people. I find it really rewarding.”
Faith is also drawn to the behavioural side of safety and understanding why people sometimes take shortcuts. Complacency is one of the recurring issues she sees on site, and helping people recognise and change those habits is one of the parts of her job she finds most satisfying.
A practical approach to health and safety consultancy
Friendly, approachable and straight-talking, Faith believes in being honest with clients. If something isn’t right, she will say so, but her focus is always on helping people understand the issue and what they can do about it.
That balance between clear advice and trusted relationships matters.
On a recent health and safety audit, one client photographed every issue Faith raised and responded with, “I’ll sort this.” Rather than simply waiting for an audit report, he wanted to make improvements there and then.
It’s the kind of relationship Faith values: working with people who want to listen, understand and make things better.
What Faith has learned about good health and safety
For Faith, effective health and safety is cultural, and it starts at the top.
When business leaders have a genuine health and safety mindset and demonstrate good practice themselves, others are more likely to follow. Policies and checklists have their place, but they cannot replace leaders setting the right example.
It is also advice she would give to anyone beginning a career in health and safety: be passionate about what you do, trust your judgement and don’t be afraid to say what you think.
Life outside work
Outside work, Faith is a busy mum to her young son. She is also a proud Leo who takes her birthday month seriously and a lifelong musician.
She’s played trumpet and saxophone since childhood and has even toured with orchestras across Italy and Spain.
When she gets the chance, she’s happiest walking her dog or catching up with friends over a glass of Prosecco.
Why Faith’s approach matters to Safety Forward clients
When clients work with Safety Forward, they are not just buying a document, audit or checklist. They are working with health and safety consultants who take time to understand their business, explain things clearly and provide practical advice that people can act on.
It’s that combination of technical knowledge, honest advice and genuine relationships that Faith brings to the businesses she supports.
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