Our Story

  • 2012

    Van Schaik Health and Safety Solutions was founded in 2012 by Margaret van Schaik following many years of health and safety advisory, management and regulatory experience in public and private sectors. Margaret had a vision to enable businesses to achieve better health and safety outcomes focused on people-centred solutions. Consulting and training services were delivered to small and medium sized businesses in the public and private sectors by Margaret as Principal Consultant across New Zealand.

  • 2015

    The VS Consulting Team expanded to 4 Senior Consultants based in Wellington and began working with large businesses in the public and private sectors delivering consulting and training services across New Zealand becoming a trusted advisor for many organisations.

  • 2017-2019

    The VS Consulting Team expanded to 12 Senior Consultants across New Zealand and began delivering large scale complex projects and services across public and private sectors and forming strategic relationships.

    VS became an approved provider on the All of Government Consulting Panel and began delivering significant complex technical projects spanning 6-18 months for clients and delivering independent governance and leadership services and SafePlus Assessment and Advisory Services. A Business Manager was appointed and the team opened a new office in Plimmerton, Wellington.

  • 2020-2021

    The VS Consulting Team expanded to 17 and achieved 30% growth in revenue. The VS Team were approved to deliver essential H&S services across the New Zealand Government and worked hard through the Covid pandemic in 2020-2021 to support existing and new clients and delivering Covid leadership services across the public sector. The Team began delivering projects to support the capability growth in the H&S Profession in New Zealand. A General Manager was appointed along with a Design Lead and two additional Principal Consultants.

  • 2023

    VS celebrated 11 years in business and continue to work as trusted advisors in partnership with long term clients in the public and private sectors. Formed strategic partnerships with other leading service providers to enable better health and safety outcomes in New Zealand workplaces.

Make it stand out.

  • This month we celebrate twelve years in business. VS was founded in 2012 with a clear vision of providing quality consulting health and safety services to enable better health and safety outcomes for business.

    Over the years our team has grown and we have moved from working on small projects to delivering complex large scale projects across both the private and public sectors.

    A big thank you to all our fabulous clients, associates and partners and friends.

    #safetyitsaboutpeople

Safety it's about people slogan
 

People are at the heart of what we do
We provide effective solutions to ensure better health and safety outcomes for business

We have a team of experienced health and safety professionals and technical specialists who work together to provide you with tailored solutions for your business.

  • Governance

    We work with Boards and Executive
    Leaders to build knowledge and
    capability and develop strategic assurance frameworks to drive health, safety and wellbeing performance and manage health and safety obligations.

    Learn more

  • Leadership

    We support business leaders in the development of health, safety and wellbeing strategies and programs, recruitment and development of health and safety teams, short-term resourcing and assisting towards better achieving better safety outcomes.

    Learn more

  • Technical

    Our Consultants offer a broad range of technical expertise that allows them to work with a diverse range of clients. We can assist businesses in a number of technical services from helping develop risk management frameworks and health and safety management systems, to reviewing current documentation and assisting in accident investigation.

    Learn more

  • Education

    At Van Schaik we believe that health, safety and wellbeing education is the key to better health, safety and wellbeing management in the workplace. We offer our clients tailored training, mentoring and coaching services to guide their team towards a better understanding of health, safety and wellbeing in their workplace.

    Learn more
 
New Zealand Government Logo
 

 Van Schaik Health and Safety Solutions is an approved provider for health and safety consultancy services under the All of Government (AoG) Consultancy Services Panel and the AoG Construction Consultancy Services Panel.

ACC Workplace Prevention Subsidies

ACC provide subsidies to help small and medium-sized businesses access specialist health and safety advice from HASANZ registered health and safety professionals.

The Health and Safety Association of New Zealand (HASANZ) and ACC collaborated to develop a series of promotional videos to promote ACC Subsidies that are available to New Zealand businesses, in the manufacturing or residential construction sectors, to subsidise health and safety advice from HASANZ registered professionals.

Van Schaik Health and Safety Solutions partnered with Key Commercial Interiors to provide Peace of Mind by providing health and safety support and services.

You can view the Case Study below

Testimonials

 What our clients say

  • “Van Schaik H&S Solutions has been instrumental in supporting, establishing and shaping the H&S systems for NZ Police since 2018. Margaret, Barry and her team have provided strategic support by developing a H&S governance framework, delivery of H&S governance workshops, advisory support to the critical risk programme and ongoing H&S leadership support across the organisation. NZ Police aligns with Van Schaiks values and principles, fundamentally putting our peoples’ safety at the centre of decision making to ensure we can go home safe to our whanau at the end of every shift.”

    Mel Aikten, Superintendent, Director, Safer People, NZ Police 2021

  • "Margaret was engaged to undertake a health & safety review of residential support homes in NMH DSS after a number of incidents. From these findings we were able to create and implement an action plan to ensure greater health & safety consciousness and proactive response to reduce accidents and incidents in the workplace. Margaret developed Health & Safety Leadership & bow-tie risk management training that resonated with our staff. Margaret was able to tailor the training to the work we do and in the language we speak. We are now working on how we can ensure this valuable work is ongoing and give support to deliver it across all our teams."

    Liz Matthews, Group Manager, Nelson Marlborough Health

  • “At Napier Port, the safety, health and wellbeing of our people is paramount. Three years ago we embarked upon a journey of change to transform the way we manage health and safety - striving towards an approach of best practice management. Margaret and her team have played an integral part in our journey - leading, guiding and advising on the development of our Health and Safety Road Map - setting a robust foundation, providing a clear strategic direction, improving our understanding of our operational critical risk, and assisting in the overall maturity of our health and safety culture. Margaret and her team offer a robust, competent and pragmatic approach with practical health and safety management solutions. Their Consultants experience, skills and professional approach are second to none.”

    Andrew Morton, Health & Safety Manager, Napier Port 2021

  • “I called on Margaret and her team to provide support to the Ministry in getting “audit” ready for the ACC AEP audit while our Principal Advisor was away on extended leave. Robyn Ross and Susan Edwards came on board for a few weeks ahead of the audit and did an amazing job of identifying and tidying up a few critical issues. The Ministry achieved Tertiary status and this was in no small part due to the great work that Robyn and Susan did. Robyn agreed to stay on for a few months after the audit to follow through on some of the recommendations arising from the audit and to progress our work programme. She has done a superb job of focusing attention on a programme of deliverables to ensure the Ministry’s Health & Safety framework meets our needs. She has been a real asset and has quickly become a valued member of the team and someone who always gives robust and trusted advice.”

    Svea Cunliffe-Steel, Group Manager, Operations Corporate Services, Ministry of Health

  • “We engaged Margaret from van Schaik Health and Safety Solutions to develop a Health and Safety Leadership Programme for our managers. Margaret’s ability to tailor the programme to fit our industry needs and incorporate our internal systems and processes was key to a successful programme for our managers. Margaret facilitated training workshops across New Zealand that created an environment for open and honest discussion and high levels of engagement. As a result of attending these workshops our managers now have better understanding and knowledge of modern health and safety concepts and understand their role in developing a positive safety culture within our business.”

    Sarah Field, Health & Safety Manager, Norwood

  • “We worked with Margaret from van Schaik Health and Safety Solutions to assist the Council develop, pilot and implement health and safety training to our people managers and health and safety representatives. This piece of work was part of a key programme of work for the Council as we transitioned to the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. We found Margaret’s experience and pragmatic approach to putting together a comprehensive health and safety training programme invaluable.”

    Deborah Hammond, Manager, Health Safety & Wellness, Wellington City Council

  • “Margaret from Van Schaik Health and Safety Solutions has been working as a trusted advisor to Key Commercial Interiors since late 2014. Margaret has helped us to integrate health and safety into our business practices and help make it real by providing H&S systems development, training, coaching and mentoring, specialist project advice, contractor management and assisting us to implement operational safety solutions using technology.”

    Kevan Brown, Director, Key Commercial Interiors

  • “We asked Van Schaik Health and Safety solutions to undertake a specific piece of work for us as we were down staff members. Fiona and Jacqui were able to quickly navigate our unique operating environment to deliver exactly what we needed, which has proved problematic in the past. The approach Van Schaik take, along with their back-office support, they were able to deliver a quality outcome that has helped us manage our supply chain risk. Their focus on building and maintaining strong relationships has been a point of difference.”

    Robert Mackie, Health & Safety Manager, Wellington Water

Our Partners

 We work with a wide range of other health and safety specialists and refer our clients through our network of professionals to ensure effective health and safety outcomes.