SHP

About SHP

SHP — Safety & Health Practitioner — is the leading information brand for health and safety professionals in the United Kingdom, and the official magazine of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), the chartered body for health and safety professionals. Published monthly in print and received by all IOSH members — around 35,000 professionals — it offered the most comprehensive health and safety coverage in the UK, and continues today as a digital brand at shponline.co.uk alongside its sister title IFSEC Global. It was published by UBM Built Environment.

The magazine served everyone from board directors to health and safety managers to trades union safety representatives, with news, in-depth features, prosecution reports, product news and hundreds of jobs every month. Its digital evolution has brought podcasts, legislation ebooks and daily online news, keeping it — in its publisher's phrase — the number one source for health and safety content.

The Official Magazine of IOSH

Safety & Health Practitioner was the official magazine of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), the UK's largest organisation for individual health and safety professionals. Published monthly, it was received by all IOSH members — around 35,000 people — giving it unmatched reach into the profession, from board directors setting safety strategy to health and safety managers and trades union safety reps on the front line.

That official status made the magazine the profession's own journal: the place where IOSH members found the news, analysis and guidance they needed, and where the institution's standards and campaigns reached the membership. IOSH itself was not responsible for the SHP website's content, preserving the editorial separation between the professional body and its journal.

Comprehensive Coverage: News to Prosecutions

The magazine offered the most comprehensive health and safety coverage in the UK: news, in-depth features, "in court" prosecution stories, the latest industry products and hundreds of appointments every month. Its focus was the professional's need for information in a constantly changing industry — covering government decisions, legislation, initiatives, research and jobs.

Particularly valued were its prosecution reports: each issue carried an average of three pages of health and safety prosecution reports, which readers used as examples of worst practice to underline the importance of good health and safety to employers and workforces. In a field where the consequences of failure are measured in injuries and lives, those reports were a uniquely powerful editorial tool.

In-Depth Features and Practical Guidance

Every issue of SHP carried up to eight in-depth features — compared with an average of three in each of its two closest rivals — ranging from high-level theoretical articles to practical "how-to" pieces for those newer to the profession. That depth reflected the magazine's ambition to serve the whole profession, from chartered veterans to those just starting out.

The features covered the full agenda of modern health and safety: occupational health and wellbeing, mental health, working at height, fire safety, construction, manufacturing, legislation and enforcement, safety culture and leadership. It was also a key source of information on safety products and services, conferences, seminars and events.

Published by UBM Built Environment

The magazine was published by UBM Built Environment, the construction and built-environment division of United Business Media. Under UBM the title developed its digital presence — including the SHP Magazine app, an interactive version of the print edition with searchable back issues dating to August 2010 — and its events and awards programmes.

The UBM years saw the brand extend beyond print into the digital services its professional audience demanded, while maintaining the monthly magazine as the core of its offer to IOSH members. The publisher's investment kept the title at the forefront of B2B health and safety media.

The Move to Digital: SHPOnline

As with much B2B media, the SHP brand's centre of gravity moved online. SHPOnline — shponline.co.uk — became the website for the Safety & Health Practitioner magazine, carrying health and safety news, prosecutions, guidance, legislation updates and jobs for the profession. The digital brand continues the magazine's mission with the immediacy of daily online publishing.

The site's keywords tell the story of its coverage: health and safety, IOSH, news, prosecutions, guidance, legislation, HSE, working at height. For professionals who once waited for the monthly magazine, the website offers the continuous flow of information the modern regulatory environment demands.

Podcasts, Ebooks and New Formats

The digital SHP has diversified into new formats. The Safety & Health Podcast, launched in July 2020 and hosted by SHP editor Ian Hart, delivers news, insights and legislation through interviews, discussions and panel debates with the profession's leaders, influencers and innovators — from company chief safety officers to mental health campaigners.

The brand also publishes free legislation ebooks, gathering the latest measures and guidance — from coronavirus regulations to fire safety and building safety legislation, Brexit implications and the latest fines and prosecutions — into practical resources for businesses. These guides extend the magazine's historic role as the profession's explainer of the law.

Sister Title: IFSEC Global

SHP sits alongside IFSEC Global as sister titles in the security and safety media portfolio, together covering the converging worlds of health, safety, security and fire protection. The relationship reflects the real-world overlap of the professions: as the SHP podcast launch noted, health and safety professionals work ever more closely with security colleagues on occupancy monitoring, thermal checks and integrated risk management.

The combined portfolio gives the brands a powerful position in the professional safety media market, serving the practitioners who keep workplaces safe, secure and healthy across every sector of the economy.

The Profession's Journal

From its monthly print editions received by 35,000 IOSH members to today's digital brand of news, podcasts and legislation guides, SHP has been the continuous companion of the UK health and safety profession. Its prosecution reports, in-depth features and practical guidance have shaped how a generation of practitioners does its job.

As the official magazine of IOSH and the number one source for health and safety content, Safety & Health Practitioner remains what it has always been: the journal of the people whose work keeps Britain's workplaces safe — in print, online at shponline.co.uk, and in every format the profession needs.

The Official Magazine of IOSH

SHP is the official magazine of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), the UK's largest organisation for individual health and safety professionals — and the chartered body for the profession. Published monthly, the magazine was received by all of the institution's members, numbering around 35,000, with readers ranging from board directors and health and safety managers to trades union safety reps. Its publisher was UBM Built Environment.

The magazine offered the most comprehensive health and safety coverage in the UK: news, in-depth features, in-court prosecution stories, the latest industry products and hundreds of appointments every month. Every issue carried up to eight in-depth features — against an average of three in each of its two closest rivals — from high-level theoretical articles to practical "how-to" pieces for newcomers to the profession, plus an average of three pages of health and safety prosecution reports usable as examples of worst practice. An interactive app edition allowed readers to bookmark, search and view embedded video, with back issues searchable to August 2010.

The Safety & Health Podcast and Legislation Hub

In July 2020 SHP — described as the number one source for health and safety content — launched the Safety & Health Podcast, dedicated to supporting everyone involved in the profession. Hosted by SHP editor Ian Hart, the first episode, released on 23 July, featured an exclusive interview with Karl Simons, Thames Water's chief health, safety and security officer and SHP readers' Most Influential Person in Health & Safety, discussing his lobbying of government on mental ill health in the workplace and how Thames Water reduced work-related illness by 78%. The second episode tackled perfectionism and burnout with business owner and mental health trainer Heather Beach and award-winning mental health nurse Stacy Thomson. The brand's sister title is IFSEC Global, and SHP publishes free legislation ebooks covering everything from coronavirus measures to the Fire Safety Bill and the post-Grenfell building safety regime. Its website is shponline.co.uk.