Steve McClean
Safety Management Consultancy
Ask the Expert: Safety qualifications and competence of H&S personnel
Steve McClean, managing director of Safety Management Consultancy, provides some information on competency requirements.
Q: What qualification does the Health & Safety Executive accept as the minimum for a company’s internal health & safety adviser?
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require employers to appoint ‘one or more competent persons' to help them to meet their duty to control risks at work. Many employers may be able to use or develop in-house personnel to provide this resource, as this is the Health and Safety Executive’s preferred option. (If such resource is not available internally the employer is obliged to seek the assistance of external resource, such as consultants).
Competent assistance is fundamental in helping an employer tomanage risks sensibly, and although competence is not legally defined, the Approved Code of Practice to the Regulations outlines a competent person as having:
• relevant knowledge, skills and experience;
• the ability to recognise the limits of one’s competence; and
• the necessary training to help them acquire and maintain their competence.
The Regulations do not outline how to achieve competence, or require internal employees to have a particular set of skills or qualifications. The level of competence required by an internal health and safety adviser will depend on the complexity of the business and risks faced.
There are many different providers of training and qualifications. Two of the more popular courses are the;
Institution of Occupational Safety & Health’s (IOSH) Managing Safely, a four day course aimed at providing managers with the knowledge (coupled with their experience) to be able to manage health and safety in their own areas of responsibility. This course may be appropriate for small-to-medium sized organisations with general risks.
And, the;
National Examination Board in Occupational Safety & Health’s (NEBOSH) National General Certificate in Occupational Health & Safety. This is a ten day, Level 3 qualification, and would be more appropriate for larger organisations with more complex risks.
However, as noted above, there is no definitive health and safety qualification for internal H&S advisers, organisations should analyse their requirements internally and discuss them with the relevant enforcing authority, their insurance company, training providers and other specialists to determine which training or qualifications may be relevant to their needs.
All answers are for general guidance only. Each case must be handled on the individual facts
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About Steve
Steve McClean is the managing director of Safety Management Consultancy Ltd, based in the North West, with clients throughout the UK. Services range from Consultancy, such as development of H&S systems and auditing through to health and safety training including accredited courses from IOSH and NEBOSH
Contact Details
Steve McClean
Managing Director,
Safety Management Consultancy
0800 112 3425
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