EHJ June 2003, page 176-179 Allan Davies has five years to win 'hearts and minds' at the Health and Safety Executive and to raise the profile of health and safety in local government. He talks to Tracey Khanna about the challenges that lie ahead

It's easy to get along with Allan Davies. As a self-confessed conversationalist, talking comes easy for the new head of the Local Authority Unit (LAU) at the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). "My nature is that I talk a lot, and I talk a lot to people", he breezes. "I don't possess all the ideas", but I'm happy to take other people's ideas and try to develop them. That's what I'm about." It's a necessary characteristic for someone who shoulders the task of engaging a wide variety of stakeholders in order to raise the profile of health and safety in local government.

"The role that I've got now as head of the LAU is quite challenging," he says. "The economy is changing and the role of local authorities is becoming more and more important, and there is a recognition that within the HSE and the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) we have to move with the times and reflect that. So my role has become pivotal as it is about trying to explain to the executive and the commission what issues local authorities face, what they are able to do, what they are not able to do, and then to find a way of making those changes take effect." Given Allan's professional background in local government, he is well suited to the assignment.

Born and educated in Swansea, Allan hoped to train as a veterinary surgeon after passing his A-levels, but lower than expected results left him thinking about a new career. "I was studying my A-levels in physics, chemistry and biology - a simple combination - and my intention was to become a vet," he says. "I didn't achieve the grades that I needed and my choice was to re-sit to get better grades or to do something else." At that time, Allan's father was a local councillor for what was then Swansea County Borough Council, and the idea of environmental health as a career opportunity was first laid down. "My father said to me: 'oh, there's a job going at Swansea for I think it's called a student public health inspector - and I think it has something to do with animals!'" he laughs. "So I thought, that'll be interesting, went along and there were two jobs. One was a pupil public health inspector, which was paid, and one was a student public health inspector, which wasn't paid. And guess which one I got?"

Having secured his unpaid position, Allan headed off to Portsmouth to do a three-year sandwich course, with his practical training in his home town. However, after two years, the pressure of being unpaid and having to take evening and weekend work led to an application to Westminster Council, where he was employed to complete his training. "Once I qualified," he says, "I rewarded them by moving straight to Brent!" Having "the NW10 patch" for the next three years, where, he says dryly, "everything that could happen happened", gave Allan a solid grounding in basic public health. "It was a milestone in terms of change in legislation because a new Housing Act, the Control of Pollution Act and the Health and Safety at Work Act all came out at the same time (1974 - 1975). They were pioneering pieces of legislation and they were all applicable in 'my patch' without any problems whatsoever."

At the same time, family commitments and a longing to return home was compelling Allan to think about the future. Married at the age of 21, and with two small children by this time, he decided to head home to Wales, "as every Welsh person does in the end". Securing employment as an EHO with Carmarthen District Council for the next six and a half years, it was during this period that he began to focus increasingly on food safety and health and safety. "I found it very different to London obviously, but I enjoyed what I did there," he says. But then in 1984, an opportunity came up at Tesco, and then came the big decision, about whether to leave the security of local government and go to work for them or not. "Lots of people were saying to me 'they hire and fire at Tesco at the drop of a hat - you get a bit more money and a company car, but the security isn't there'," he explains. "At that time, it was a very different company to the one it is now". But he took the risk.

It was an uncommon move, as at that time most of the EHOs working in the commercial sector were either retired or disillusioned with local government. And he was relatively young - at that time just 31 - to be taking the plunge. But it was a successful move for Allan, and one that lasted seven years rather than the two years he had initially planned to be there. "I was picked out by Tesco and put through a management development programme and then promoted to chief EHO for the company in my last two years there." It was a daunting task as he was handed responsibility for all promoting and assuring food safety across all the Tesco premises in the UK. "Again, it seemed to occur at a milestone in legislative change," he says, "because at that time the Food Safety Act was coming into force, so a lot of my work during that period was to develop policy for the company to meet the demands of the act."

In the end though, while he was making many important contacts in government and he was starting to become better know in the profession, it boiled down to getting the right "work-life balance". So he took another bold step and returned to Wales once again. "My family was growing up, still living in south east Wales," he explains, "and I was living in Hertfordshire Monday to Friday." Strangely, he had the same cries of disbelief that he's received before moving to Tesco. "People told me that I must be mad to leave all that I'd achieved behind to go for lower money, no company car and no company shares," he laughs. "But life improved for me."

It was a good move as within three months of joining Monmouth Borough Council as principal EHO heading up the commercial sector, he became assistant director with responsibility for environmental health. "Right place, right time, I guess," he says philosophically. His success continued, as the local authority reorganisation that occurred across Wales in the mid-1990s saw him securing the position of head of public protection in the new Unitary Authority, Monmouthshire, with responsibility for environmental health, trading standards, and waste management. Further periods of reshuffling reduced the number of chief officers to eight directors. He became one of them, with a much wider remit which embraced responsibility for highways, engineering and flood control, which he continued to manage for a further three years.

During this time, Allan was at the centre of the development of the Society of Directors of Public Protection in Wales (SODPPW), and he represented the profession and local authorities in Wales at a range of levels, including the Local Government Association, the National Assembly for Wales, Lacots, and the CIEH, as South Wales centre secretary. Then, at the age of 49, the urge to move on and do something different took hold and he found himself back in the job market.

"I thought, 'I'm still ambitious', 'I'm still keen' and I've always had an ambition to work in government as an area I'd not experienced before." And that was that. Allan became a civil servant. "I'm not sure what sort of civil servant I'm making at the moment," he muses. "I'm certainly not the archetypal civil servant that people have this image of." So what does he think made him the man for the job? "When the advert for the head of the LAU appeared, I applied, but not having worked closely with health and safety 'at the coalface' for some time, I thought that maybe I wasn't going to be what they were looking for," he declares. "But, it would seem that they were more interested in my management and networking experience than knowledge of health and safety, because they wanted to make changes in the HSE and particularly in its relationship with local government. And, they felt that maybe I could influence that."

One of Allan's priorities is to raise the profile of health and safety in local government. "Health and safety has lost its profile. In unitary authorities it's even more difficult than in smaller authorities because of course they are fighting for resources against the big players like social services and education. What is left is being taken by higher profile areas such as food safety." Allan is quick to point out, however, that this is in no way a criticism of other services, just that it is about trying to persuade local authorities to redress the balance and convince them that they have an important role to play in the health and safety agenda. "There is the old adage," he says, "that any publicity is good publicity and unfortunately for the Food Standards Agency it has been plagued with problems since it came into being, from BSE through foot and mouth, and now issues with imported foods. So it has always found itself in the limelight - that's one of the reasons why its profile has been higher."

Apart from striving to raise the profile of health and safety, Allan is looking at a number of other issues - including reinvigorating the liaison committee Hela. "Hela has achieved quite outstanding things over the years it has been in place," he points out, "and I want to look at radical new ways to make it even more effective." As well as looking to improve the status of Hela within the HSE, Allan feels that it is extremely important to engage with those "at the sharp end of health and safety service delivery" to encourage them to feed into the process as well as receiving from it. "One of the important things that we could do," he says, "is to try and mesh the planning cycles of the HSE and local government so that when policies are developed we can implement them jointly and concurrently, instead of local government having to implement them two years later."

This clearly means looking at the support needs of local authorities and seeking new more effective ways of working. "There is talk of 'partnership' but not really in the true sense," he continues. "One of the things that the HSE is trying to do is to recognise that if we are going to have partnership working, then local authorities need to be engaged much earlier so that we can truly develop strategy jointly. Hopefully, then there will be shared ownership and we can take things forward." In what he sees as a "recognition of the importance being attached to local government" by the HSE, Allan says he has been given the honour of having "almost unfettered" access to the most senior members of the HSE, and the chair of the HSC, and that the positive reception he has so far been given has been really encouraging.

"There are lots of people to talk to and lots of things to do," he enthuses. "I've got five years to do it in - I'm eight months into it and time has flown by!" He also realises that he has to try and include the business interest, pointing out that "a lot of environmental health practitioners are doing now what I did years ago and the balance has shifted. But these people have a huge contribution to health and safety standards."

Yet he is still trying to get that illusive work-life balance sorted out. "The pressures are different now," he smiles, "but I delight in keeping fit and active, so I enjoy hill walking, I've tried glacier climbing at Mont Blanc and I've climbed mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania - which is quite an experience but not as difficult as it sounds." He also enjoys skiing, and didn't let a broken leg sustained while pursing this exhilarating activity at Christmas put him off returning a few weeks ago to give it another shot! Another passion is for fast motorbikes. "I like riding motorcycles. I've got a reasonably powerful motorbike and I think I'm trying to recapture my youth by returning to a teenage passion."

Nevertheless, he is aware that when it comes to fulfiling his role at the HSE there will be many hurdles along the way. "In general terms, most people recognise that there is a need to change and do things differently and are positive about that. But, like everything else none of us like change very much." He goes on: "I support the independence and diversity of the local authorities and trying to get them to work more strategically is not always the easiest thing to do. But the HSE has an obligation to look at what is important at that level, and help them to do it." He stresses that this might be through simply raising the profile of certain issues, or by doing more practical things like looking to provide expertise or even finances. "I can't and won't make any promises of any kind around that," he emphasises, "but those are the sort of things we need to be looking at."

It sounds like a mammoth task. "It is a task and a challenge," he declares, "there are hearts and minds to be won in local government and at the HSE, which is going through fundamental change at the moment. But the LAU will be part of that change and I'm hoping that there will now be greater recognition of what we can achieve. Everyone is very positive that we are going to get there."