Level 3 Risk Assessment Group Course

Description

Why the assignment is the point

Most health and safety courses end with a multiple choice paper. This one ends with you assessing your own workplace and sending the result to be marked by someone who does not work there.

That is a meaningfully different thing. It means the output of the course is a real assessment of a real site, with the gaps in it identified by an external marker. People routinely find that the process surfaces something they had walked past for years.

Budget the time honestly. Roughly three to six hours on top of the seven-hour course, done properly rather than the night before.

Who should do it

The person who actually writes your assessments, which in a smaller business is usually the owner or an operations manager, and in a larger one is a supervisor, facilities manager or nominated safety lead.

It is also the right course for someone who has inherited a folder of assessments written by a predecessor or a consultant and has no confidence in them, which is a more common situation than anyone admits.

If the need is broader responsibility for a team rather than the assessments specifically, Level 3 Health and Safety is the fuller three-day course.

What the law actually asks

Employers and the self-employed have a legal duty to make suitable and sufficient assessments of risk, under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, and to record them in writing once five or more people are employed.

The regulations also require that assessments are carried out by a competent person. Competence is a combination of knowledge, experience, skill and personal qualities, together with a proper understanding of how a sufficient assessment system should work. It is not conferred by a certificate, but it is very difficult to demonstrate without evidence of training, and this course is that evidence plus the underlying method.

Two things worth knowing before you book. There is no legal template, and HSE publishes free examples and a template that many small businesses can use directly. And a good assessment is short. The failure mode is rarely too little paperwork; it is a long document nobody reads that does not match what happens on the floor. We go through all of it in workplace risk assessment.

What the course covers

• Why contributing to risk assessment matters, and what it prevents
• The way assessments should be conducted, step by step
• How to organise and implement an assessment programme, or contribute to one
• Identifying the specific training needs that an assessment surfaces
• The legal requirements around risk assessment

The fourth point is the one that pays for the course. A properly conducted assessment tells you what training your people actually need, which is a considerably better basis for a training budget than guessing or buying what you bought last year.

The specialised assessments underneath it

The general risk assessment is the parent document. Several specific duties sit beneath it, and businesses are regularly surprised to find they need more than one.

Assessment	Triggered by
COSHH assessment	Using or creating hazardous substances
Manual handling assessment	Handling that cannot be avoided
Display screen equipment	Regular screen users
Fire risk assessment	Virtually all premises, under a separate regime
First aid needs assessment	Being an employer. It asks what happens when the controls fail

They are not duplicates. The general assessment identifies that a hazard exists; the specialised one works through it in the detail its own regulations demand.

How the group course works

Delivered at your premises, up to 16 learners with a minimum of 12 places chargeable. In practice most businesses need one or two people trained rather than a room of sixteen, so tell us your numbers before assuming the group route is the sensible purchase. We would rather price it honestly than sell you twelve places you do not need.

Running it on your own site has a specific advantage here: the assignment is about your workplace, so the trainer can see what people are assessing.

Your certificate

Valid for three years, awarded on successful completion of both the course and the marked assignment. The awarding organisation is named on the certificate, and it is worth asking us which body that is before you book. How to check a qualification is accredited explains what separates a regulated qualification from a printed one.

Frequently asked questions

How long is the risk assessment course?

A minimum of seven hours of training, plus an assignment based on your own workplace that takes roughly three to six hours and is marked externally.

Is there an exam?

Not a multiple choice paper. You complete a self-evaluation and assessment of your own workplace, which is sent away to be marked.

How long does the certificate last?

Three years.

Is risk assessment training a legal requirement?

Training is not named in law. What is required is a suitable and sufficient assessment carried out by a competent person, written down once you employ five or more people. Training is how most people acquire and evidence that competence.

Does this make someone our competent person?

It contributes, substantially, but competence also requires experience, skill and judgement about the specific work being assessed. A certificate on its own does not make someone competent to assess a specialist process.

Do we have to write our assessments down?

Once you employ five or more people, yes. Below that the duty to assess still applies, and writing it down is sensible anyway because it is the only way to show what you decided and why.

We only need one person trained. Is this still worth it?

Often yes, and it is the commonest situation. Tell us and we will price it against the alternatives rather than pushing you towards a twelve-place minimum you do not need.

What is the difference between this and Level 3 Health and Safety?

This one is seven hours plus an assignment and is aimed squarely at writing and reviewing assessments. Level 3 Health and Safety is three days and covers a supervisor’s wider responsibility for how a team works.

Will we end up with usable risk assessments at the end?

You will end up with one real assessment of your own workplace, marked by someone independent, and the method to write the rest. That is usually the more valuable outcome.

If you have inherited a folder of assessments you do not trust, that is a good reason to do this course. Call 0845 838 4643 or use the enquiry form.