The role of environmental health in protecting us, with Julie Barratt

In this episode of the Safety And Risk Success Podcast, Christian interviews Julie Barratt, the President of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH). The interview is split into two parts: firstly, Julie reflects on her legal career as a barrister. Julie discusses her experience as a barrister and the challenges that come with representing clients in court. Next, they discuss the basics of environmental health, the importance of the profession, and how CIEH supports environmental health practitioners.

Guest: Julie Barratt, CIEH President (https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-barratt-a7b29a59/)

Host: Christian Harris (https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-harris-slip-safety/)

Key talking points:

• The importance of having difficult conversations with clients and learning how to gently tell them when they are wrong or have misled themselves.
• The importance of selling the story and persuading clients to buy into the concept of health and safety measures rather than simply enforcing them.
• Why education is a powerful tool in getting people to learn and remember important lessons.
• The effect of the changes to Sentencing Guidelines in 2016
• Risk aversion of local authorities and how this plays into decision-making on both sides What TV legal shows have in common with the law in real life (spoiler: not much!)
• How environmental health is involved in everything related to preventing communicable diseases, ensuring food safety, and keeping people safe and healthy.
• What the CIEH does as the professional body that represents environmental health practitioners
• The effect of Covid-19 on the profession
• The challenge of being invisible is that the good that environmental health practitioners do cannot be seen, but it is also good because it means that they are preventing issues from happening.
• Should there be a Chief Environmental Health Officer?
• An overview of the CIEH Health & Safety Conference, taking place on Friday 17th March 2023

Resources:

CIEH website: https://www.cieh.org/

CIEH health & safety conference: https://www.cieh.org/events/2023/conferences/17032023-cieh-health-and-safety-conference/

#safety #environmentalhealth #cieh #insurance #riskmanagement