2026 is the year that ACT celebrates 35 years of providing quality health, safety, environmental and wellbeing training. To mark this huge milestone in our journey, we sat down with ACT’s founder and Managing Director Ian Coombes to reflect on how far the business has come, how the industry has changed, and what’s next for ACT.

Why did you start ACT?

Although ACT was established as a business, as a health and safety professional it was, and still is, my goal to help organisations to manage their risks effectively and succeed in minimising harm. In the late 1980’s the UK suffered a series of major disasters. 

At the time, I had been working with several organisations on improving their management of health and safety so they were more proactive, effective and assured.

This approach involved moving from a focus on what health and safety professionals could achieve to embedding health and safety as a management activity, supported by health and safety professionals.

It was clear that this approach was an important way forward for organisations that wanted to be more confident about health and safety. I started ACT to provided services I knew organisations would need – Auditing, Consultancy and Training.

How has the industry changed since you started ACT 35 years ago?

One of the landmark changes that has delighted me as an advocate of organisations proactively managing health and safety is the progression of structured health and safety management systems.  

What an achievement this is, how far have we come from the simple, but important obligation in the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 – to so far as reasonably practicable, ensure the health and safety of employees.

35 years ago, the ‘six pack’, including the ‘Management Regulations’, were in draft and soon to be implemented, creating a stronger impetus for organisations to systematically manage health and safety.  With different HSE and BSI iterations of what structured management systems looked like they are now shaped to reflect an internationally recognised standard, ISO 45001.  Developed through worldwide consensus.

We have also seen the growth in enthusiasm of managers to ‘become part of the solution’. managing health and safety as an active element of what they do and an expansion of people wanting to become a health and safety professional.

35 years ago, I was one of the youngest people to enter the health and safety industry and most people in the industry were male and often mature in years.

For most, health and safety was a second career, often taken because circumstances dictated it was a necessary pathway. I am delighted to say that this has changed for the better, people join the industry out of personal choice, often at a relatively young age and many are female. This has greatly changed the dynamics and the perspective other people hold of what a health and safety professional is.

How do you feel about health and safety training today?

Health and safety training now reaches all industries and roles, enabling everyone to participate in making health and safety work well. It is still a pleasure to see people ‘grow’ in their abilities and confidence in their health and safety role. 

I feel it is important for all of us who have gained a career in health and safety to give something back and nurture those who are joining the industry or embracing their management responsibilities for health and safety.

What qualities make a good health and safety professional?

There are many qualities that contribute to someone being a good health and safety professional, but the two I have applied most is empathy for those you are helping, don’t expect those who are new to health and safety to have all your knowledge and skill from day one, and take a positive approach, whether it is in a meeting or during an audit avoid only focusing on negatives.

Identify and recognis what is being done that is positive, this is always a better foundation for future success and makes it more likely that this will continue.

What’s been the biggest challenge for ACT and how did you overcome it?

One of the biggest challenges is the enthusiasm of our team to come up with new ideas for continued success. How we overcame this is that we embraced them.

For example, when someone had the idea of putting learning into an electronic format over 25 years ago few people had done it in the educational world and none for health and safety. Although it was challenging, we found solutions and developed an electronic format of our IOSH Managing Safely course on ‘floppy discs’, which pre-dated CDs and of course the internet. 

This enabled this important course to be available to a wider group of people and provided a platform for us to develop NEBOSH Certificate level courses in electronic format too. It all feels a little amazing as elearning online has become ‘normal’ for many.

What’s next for ACT?

We will continue to lead the way to success.  For us, it is important to continue to make a difference, helping individuals and organisations to learn and apply positive health and safety techniques that nurture success.

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