Former healthcare safety director launches independent consultancy to bring board-level governance thinking to SMEs

Our founder, Graham Cowan, did not come into health and safety through paperwork.

He came into it through frontline responsibility.

His early career began in the British Army Royal Army Medical Corps, serving as an Operating Theatre Technician and Combat Medical Technician, including active serformer-healthcare-safety-director-launches-independent-consultancy-to-bring-board-level-governance-tvice during the Gulf War. He later worked within NHS hospitals as an Operating Department Practitioner before joining Humberside Police.

In each of these roles, risk was real and consequences were immediate.

After leaving the police, Graham established his first training and consultancy business. Many of his early clients were residential and nursing homes. As those organisations began asking for broader support in fire safety, manual handling and risk assessment, he undertook formal health and safety qualifications and transitioned fully into compliance and risk management.

Over the following years, his career progressed into senior leadership positions across major healthcare organisations.

At Nuffield Health, he was responsible for the operational running of the group Health, Safety and Environmental management system, overseeing more than 300 operational sites including hospitals, decontamination facilities, wellbeing clinics and corporate fitness centres. He led the development and accreditation of management systems including ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.

At Spire Healthcare Group, he held responsibility for the operational and strategic management of health and safety at group level.

At Fourseasons Healthcare, he acted as Competent Person to the Board, providing assurance that risks were controlled and properly managed across a complex care estate.

Throughout his career, Graham has built systems, led teams, managed budgets and advised Boards. Between 2013 and 2017, he served on the Board of Trustees of the British Safety Council, contributing to health, safety and environmental strategy at national level.

His qualifications include a Postgraduate Diploma in Health, Safety and Environmental Management and Lead Auditor status in ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001.

Graham Cowan QHSE Consultancy was established to bring that experience into organisations of all sizes. Graham said:

"As I moved through senior healthcare roles, I kept seeing the same gap,” Graham says. “Large organisations have governance structures and assurance frameworks behind them. Smaller organisations often don’t, but the responsibility is exactly the same. That’s the gap this consultancy exists to close."

And so the consultancy was built on a clear principle: Protection Through Prevention.

A fire risk assessment is not the work done. It is the starting point. The actions that follow are what protect people.

Competent Person support and a health and safety policy are the bare minimum.

The objective is not to create dependency. It is to take everything off your hands, build structure and guide organisations on a pathway towards self sufficiency.

The same board level experience used across hundreds of operational sites is now applied to healthcare providers, property portfolios, construction environments and multi site operations across the UK.

Protection Through Prevention.