Safety Training: What The Law Says

Training matters.  The law says that as an employer, you should have access to competent health and safety advice. This will include advice on your health and safety training requirements and options for meeting your obligations.  In this blog we will discuss what this means for you and your workers and discuss some points that can be overlooked. We will also look at the advantages of having a workforce that are trained to keep them safe and free from harm.

Training can be done in house if someone is competent to do so, but in our experience, your needs will be outsourced. This allows managers and supervisors to carry out their roles productively.  Training is not a one off event, it should be part of your ongoing business management strategy.

Workplace Health and Safety instructions are intrinsically linked to assessing risks in the workplace.

Health and Safety Legislation

There are several items of Health and Safety Legislation that directly require employers to educate your employees: Control of Asbestos, Diving (as a profession), First Aid Provision, Noise and Vibration, Transporting Dangerous Goods, Working in Confined Spaces, Using Computers and other forms of Display Screen Equipment, Flammable Materials, Lifting Operations involving cranes, the Use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Using or Producing Hazardous Substances, Construction, Electricity, Fire in the Workplace (as well as Emergency Procedures, Manual Handling, the Use of Work Equipment and Working with Ionising Radiation).  Each of these will have legislation that will have a clause that uses words like “employer”, “ensure”, “suitable and sufficient information, instruction and training”, “adequate training” “additional training” “valid certificate” “ensure compliance”, “necessary skills, knowledge, training and experience” or “competence”.

When a risk assessment is carried out, if it is suitable and sufficient, it will identify the training and information required to carry out the job safely and without risk to health.  This is essential to workers so they understand the dangers that they face doing their job and how to avoid or react to these dangers.  Workers should understand their role in health and safety for any given situation.  It is important to emphasise the importance of having workers trained to a specific standard to make sure that the demands you as an employer place on them do not exceed their capability.  The knee jerk reaction could be to blame the worker when something goes wrong. While each individual can display different behaviours, training provision that is recorded and regularly monitored can ensure that they can work without risk to themselves or others.

Training should be a two way process of consultation. As well as getting “the know how”, workers should be permitted to discuss company safety arrangements, including a critique of the training, as well as encouraging the workforce to consider their own role in improving health and safety at work.

Induction training that covers Safe Working Practices, First Aid Provision and Fire & Evacuation Procedures should be given to all new starters. It’s no bad thing to reiterate these key factors periodically with seasoned workers too. Bad habits can form, people can forget over time or during busy work times or they may even learn something extra following any kind of refresher training or training in safer operating procedures.  Toolbox talks can be used regularly to keep the key points of any training fresh in workers minds.

Who should be trained?

If you have self employed workers who for Tax and National Insurance purposes are deemed non employees, and you are directing their work on a regular basis, for the purposes of health and safety these people are looked on by the law as your employees. They should be offered the same level of information and training as someone who is cards in. If you are using self employed workers or contractors work for you or on your premises, you must ensure the competence of such workers at tender stage. This can be done by asking for evidence of relevant training or as part of a health and safety passport scheme.  The same applies to part time or temporary workers. These people may not be aware of the dangers at your premises, there may have been changes to working practices or new equipment could have been brought in without their knowledge; you have a duty to ensure their safety at work as much as you do a full time employee.  Workers who change roles, are given additional responsibilities that have health and safety implications or those who regularly change site as one job ends and another one starts should be in receipt of regular training.  There is special emphasis placed on young workers and as such should be given priority on training and should be supervised by competent persons to limit the possibility of an undesirable event due to their developing maturity.

How should training be carried out?

When planning any training, a commitment from the top to a competent workforce is essential.  Senior managers should consult with staff regarding the training and why it is occurring, explaining the legal, moral and financial aspects of training and information.  At this point, if you require professional help to assist you with your training, get that assistance in to discuss the options.  You should have a training policy that reflects your commitment to competency and develop this for your employees with key roles and responsibilities; complicity for health and safety should be embedded in job descriptions.  Adopt a programme of training and develop a training matrix to identify when individuals were trained, to what level and when retraining or refresher training may be required.  Decide on the type of learning to be provided:

E-learning courses are available that put the minimum amount of disruption to your workforce, classroom teaching can provide for individuals or several learners at once, distance learning can produce results over a period of time.  Training providers can then be approached depending on the type of training that is required.  Training can then be delivered and progress tracked. The effectiveness of the training can be evaluated and reviewed: Are people working more safely?  Have accidents been reduced?

Training can be delivered in a number of ways, each with their own merits.  Training where a test is taken at the end to measure the learners understanding of  a topic is favourable. This can result in a certificate for your records if the required benchmark is passed, answers can be analysed to see if alternative training methods would work, or to see where additional training may be required on a specific subject or element.  Training can be given without a test being taken, although with this type of training, it is good practice for the training provider to provide a summary of the essential points of the training for the individual learner to keep for reference.  Other options would be to provide key bullet points that should be remembered or a Safe System of Work provided for the job.

What should the training include?

All health and safety related training should follow a formula where learners are made aware of the risks involved and any precautions that should be taken following a Hierarchy of Controls.  Any cleaning, storage or disposal of articles and substances should be identified. Examples of this may be how to clean equipment, storage of materials or the disposal of hazardous substances once used.  Any emergency arrangements that are necessary should be covered. Some training will have more emphasis on emergency than others, but emergencies can occur and workers should have the training, information and instructions to deal with any emergency that occurs in their work area.  The risk assessment will identify the need for PPE and if applicable training on why PPE is necessary should be given.  Defects in work equipment, tools, systems or other articles provided for a safe job can occur and workers should know, via training, what to do in such an event.  As mentioned earlier every worker should know their role in health and safety at work and the importance of complying with the training given, which if followed can mean that you and your company is complying with the law.

There is one more point to be made and that is that the reporting of incidents to supervisors and line managers or a company health and safety representative should be actively encouraged as a way of preventing incidents occurring, or a repeat of an accident that has already happened.

If an accident has occurred to an employee, they may be in a position to claim in a civil court for damages for the injury sustained. They may claim negligence on the part of you the employer.  Having records as part of an investigative audit trail can show that the company had taken reasonably practicable steps to prevent the incident by giving the worker suitable training.  A lack of records will be noted as a failure to meet regulations when deciding to award damages or clear the company on the balance of probabilities.  Keeping records, usually in a matrix, is also important as it provides any potential stakeholders with credible evidence that developing the workforce is being undertaken regularly.  Certificates, records of any syllabus, signatures of those who attended an any session material provided are all examples of good record keeping.

Those records will be indispensable if an inspector from the HSE or Local Authority attends your site or premises. Roles and responsibilities can be scrutinised.  They can request to see that directors and senior managers are up to date with the law and understand their responsibilities, how employees are being consulted regarding health and safety issues (including how they are trained) and the training that is given to managers and supervisors in relation to health and safety.  You should be able to provide them with evidence that hazards have been identified, risks have been assessed and controls put into place.  Records of induction training and any health and safety skills development that deals with a specific hazard should be up to date and relevant to your workers.