Drugs and Alcohol

Drug and alcohol abuse in the workplace is an increasing problem, which has detrimental effects to businesses both from a human resources perspective and also as a commercial risk. Legislation and good corporate governance dictates that the level of exposure from drug and alcohol abuse must be addressed appropriately – we can help by providing an in-depth drug and alcohol awareness training program.

BP Associates offer a complete drug and alcohol service from initial discussions and draft proposals through the consultation period on to implementation of the company policy and procedures. Our team will work closely with you to project manage the whole process from start to finish, within agreed deadlines and provide unbiased advice on current screening methodologies.

BP Associates can also offer an independent 24/7 365 day a year national drug and alcohol collection service.

Drug and Alcohol Training

Drug and Alcohol Policy Communication

1 or 2 hour employee and manager briefings delivering key areas of your policy and procedures documents.

Drug and Alcohol Screening Procedures

A 2 – 4 hour workshop training your in-house drug and alcohol collection team on your selected methodology for legally defensible workplace testing. This incorporates calibration training on the Lion 500 where this particular breathalyser is used.

Drug and Alcohol Awareness Incorporating Policy Development and Implementation

One day training session for managers to receive essential educational material on drugs and alcohol and to consider all of the key areas relating to the development of their drugs and alcohol policy. A free sample policy will be incorporated into this session.

Drug and Alcohol Awareness

These training courses provide company managers and supervisors with all the background information to assess the risks posed by drugs and alcohol in the workplace.

The courses can also be tailored to provide advice on developing and introducing a suitable drug and alcohol policy in line with current legislation and best practices. A template document will also be included.

Drug and Alcohol Testing

BP Associates provide management solutions for risks associated with drugs and alcohol in the working environment.  Our services are totally independent and we can, therefore, offer our clients a full range of methodologies and laboratory services.  Furthermore, we can source the right quality approved collection device, whether this be for urine, saliva or hair suited for your business operations.  This will almost certainly mean that we can obtain the best price and offer the most cost effective national collection service throughout the UK.

Methodologies

• Hair
• Urine (Laboratory)
• Urine (Point of Care)
• Oral fluid/Saliva (Laboratory)
• Oral fluid/saliva (Point of Care)
• Breath (Alcohol)

Test Types

Urine drug tests are widely used and work by detecting the presence or absence of drugs or drug metabolites in a sample of human urine.  Clearly the sample collection needs to be strictly controlled for privacy reasons and as such can present the donor an opportunity to adulterate their sample.

Oral testing is a more dignified and non invasive sample collection methodology. Samples are collected in the presence of the donor thereby making it extremely difficult to adulterate.

National Drug and Alcohol Collection Service

BP Associates can offer a National Collection Service consisting of collection technicians who are trained in Chain of Custody procedures and all protocols used for sample collection, as recommended as best practice by the UK Laboratory Guidelines for Legally Defensible Workplace Drug Testing.

This service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Types of testing requested are typically:

• Random
• For Cause
• Post Incident
• Monitoring
• Pre-employment

In the case of ‘for cause’ and ‘post incident’ call outs, we will aim to be with you within 2 hours, 24/7 365 days a year.  Collection Technicians will always be trained in close proximity to your premises in order to provide a speedy response for those urgent occasions.

We can even offer our clients a hybrid solution whereby we train on-site staff to the requisite standard for the methodology being used, enabling them to undertake their own pre-employment and/or for cause collections where a more immediate response is required.

Laboratory Services

All the laboratories that are used by BP Associates for the clients are UKAS accredited.  This is effectively the Gold standard for UK laboratories.  We also look for our laboratories to have LinkUp accreditation (used by the Rail Industry) and to participate in UK NEQAS.

A UK NEQAS participant means that an external body sends through “blind” samples for the Laboratory to analyse and match the results with what they should be.  Continually scrutinising the laboratory processes ensures accuracy of their results for our clients.

Policy and Procedures

An effective drug & alcohol policy is fundamental to tackling drug and alcohol misuse in the workplace. BP Associates can either review your existing policy and make appropriate recommendations or they can assist developing a policy that fits your particular business requirements.

An effective drug & alcohol policy will ensure your company is taking all possible steps to minimise the risks to Health and Safety.

Please contact us for more information →