Health and safety foundations

What the course covers

1. Why health and safety matters

   The three reasons every organisation manages health and safety, moral, legal and financial, and how UK safety law is enforced.

   • The human cost of work
   • Criminal law and civil law
   • The financial cost of getting it wrong
   • Who enforces the law, and how

2. Managing health and safety: the plan

   How organisations manage safety as a system: Plan, Do, Check, Act, the written policy, who is responsible for what, and setting objectives.

   • Safety as a management system
   • The health and safety policy
   • Roles and responsibilities
   • Setting objectives and planning

3. Risk assessment and control

   The heart of health and safety: spotting hazards, judging risk, choosing the right controls, and turning them into safe ways of working.

   • Hazard, risk and harm
   • Carrying out a risk assessment
   • Worked example: a warehouse loading bay
   • Specific risk assessments
   • Choosing controls: the hierarchy
   • Safe systems of work and permits

4. People, culture and emergencies

   Putting the plan into action: safety culture and human factors, training and consultation, contractors, and being ready for emergencies.

   • Safety culture and human factors
   • Training, communication and consultation
   • Managing contractors and visitors
   • Emergency procedures and first aid

5. Accidents, incidents and RIDDOR

   What counts as an accident, near miss or dangerous occurrence; exactly what must be reported under RIDDOR, by whom and when; and how to investigate so it doesn't happen again.

   • Accidents, near misses and dangerous occurrences
   • RIDDOR: what must be reported
   • RIDDOR: who reports, how and when
   • RIDDOR worked examples
   • Accident records, first aid records and data
   • Investigating accidents and incidents
   • Finding root causes

6. Checking and improving

   How to know whether safety is working: inspections and monitoring, measuring performance, audits, and reviews that drive improvement.

   • Active monitoring: checking before things go wrong
   • Measuring performance
   • Audits and management review

7. Physical and psychological health

   Noise, vibration, radiation, work-related stress, violence, and drugs and alcohol: how they harm people and how to control them.

   • Noise
   • Vibration
   • Radiation
   • Work-related stress and mental health
   • Violence at work, drugs and alcohol

8. Musculoskeletal health and handling loads

   Back pain and upper limb disorders, display screen work, manual handling, and the equipment used to lift and move loads safely.

   • Musculoskeletal disorders and ergonomics
   • Display screen equipment
   • Manual handling
   • Lifting and moving equipment

9. Hazardous substances

   How chemicals, dusts, fumes and biological agents get into the body, how to read labels and exposure limits, how COSHH controls work, and specific agents like asbestos and legionella.

   • Forms, routes into the body and health effects
   • Labels, safety data sheets and exposure limits
   • COSHH: assessing and controlling exposure
   • Worked example: oven cleaner in a commercial kitchen
   • Respiratory protection and health surveillance in depth
   • Specific agents: asbestos, silica, legionella and more

10. General workplace issues

    Welfare and the working environment, working at height, workplace transport and driving for work, slips and trips, confined spaces and lone working.

    • Welfare and the working environment
    • Working at height
    • Ladders and stepladders in detail
    • Scaffolds, tower scaffolds and MEWPs
    • Fragile roofs, falling objects and rescue
    • Workplace transport and driving for work
    • Slips and trips, confined spaces and lone working

11. Work equipment and machinery

    The general rules for work equipment, the hazards of machinery, how guards and safety devices protect people, and safe use of hand and power tools.

    • Work equipment: the general rules
    • Machinery hazards
    • Guards and protective devices
    • Hand tools and power tools

12. Fire

    How fires start and spread, how to prevent them, the fire risk assessment, and detection, escape, extinguishers and evacuation.

    • How fire starts and spreads
    • Preventing fire
    • Fire safety law and fire risk assessment
    • Detection, escape, extinguishers and evacuation

13. Electricity

    How electricity injures and kills, the controls that make it safe, and how electrical equipment and installations are inspected and maintained.

    • Electrical hazards
    • Electrical safety controls
    • Inspecting and maintaining electrical equipment

Assessment and certificate

• A short quiz after each unit, with the reason for every answer.
• A final assessment of 30 questions; the pass mark is 70%.
• Pass it on a paid plan for a certificate of completion with a QR code anyone can check.

This is online awareness training, not an accredited qualification. It doesn't on its own show someone is competent for a task.