Health & Safety Training – the 5 key benefits

Legislation requires every employer to provide whatever information, instruction, training and supervision is necessary to ensure the avoidance of accidents or long-term effects to employee health.

In addition to the most obvious benefits, training your staff in health and safety also gives you reduced insurance premiums, a boost to your reputation, an increase in productivity, reduced downtime due to absence and also protects you from being taken to court for negligence, or even worse, facing imprisonment..

So, this week I thought that I would look at the benefits to your company of providing good health and safety training.

All businesses have a legal duty to provide information, training and supervision to employees to enable them to carry out their work safely, not just to front-line staff but also to directors, managers and those in other key roles.

Here at The Wilkins Safety Group Limited, we offer a range of health and safety training courses that will help you to protect your workforce and your business from the many dangers that exist in any workplace. So let us take a look at those health and safety training benefits in more detail.

1. A Reduction in Your Insurance Premiums

If you can prove to your insurance company that you employ managers trained in a range of health and safety issues you can expect reduced premiums on your public or employee liability insurance.

A company or organisation with trained health and safety managers and supervisors is less likely to face claims due to accident, illness or injury.

2. Good Health and Safety Training Could Give A Boost to Your Business Reputation

An accident in your workplace could be the downfall of your business if you are found to have been negligent. Negligence comes in many forms from failure to provide adequate training on machinery and equipment to asking an employee to work too many hours or not training them in such matters as fire evacuation procedures.
You have a duty of care towards your employees to ensure they are safe and healthy during their time in your employment whether they are out on the road, working on various sites or working in an office.
A company that recognises good health and safety training is essential will often have an excellent safety record and a reputation to match.

3. An Increase in Productivity

When employees are fit and well they are able to work at a faster pace and fully focus on the job at hand. A staff member with a bad back on the other hand will be less able to carry out certain tasks and will be focused more on the pain they are experiencing.
A well trained health and safety manager will recognise problems when they occur and prevent accidents and injuries occurring and make arrangements for staff experiencing health problems to get the assistance they need.

4. Reduced Rates of Absence

One of the aims of health and safety training is to help staff and managers to reduce the amount of employee illness and absence. Having received the appropriate training, your managers will be aware of potential problems and the steps required to reduce the risks.
This could involve anything from ensuring proper ventilation is available in enclosed areas or supplying adequate hand washing stations to prevent the spread of viruses.

5. Legal Protection Against Damages

It is a legal requirement for all companies to take reasonable steps to protect their employees from accidents and illness. If a business owner is found to be negligent, they could be held responsible and face heavy fines and even imprisonment. The right level of health and safety training helps to ensure that you are meeting your legal duties and that you are less likely to be prosecuted for negligence.
So what training should you give and what is available?

To ensure that you invest your resources appropriately you will need to analyse your requirement for health and safety training. Consider the roles listed below. Are you sure you are equipping key staff with the necessary skills and knowledge to play their role in preventing accidents and ill health?

• Board directors (executive and non-executive)
• Senior managers (and not just operations managers) These people should attend Health & Safety for Directors and Senior Managers. A one-day course which raises awareness of the importance of health, safety and welfare among directors and senior managers.
• Middle managers
• Team leaders
• Key functional roles (not just health and safety staff but fleet, HR, facilities, IT, procurement and finance staff)
• Supervisors (especially of young workers) These people should attend a Level 2 Award in Supervising Staff Safely. A two-day exercise which is aimed at managers, supervisors, team leaders, department heads requiring gaining practical understanding of health and safety, and equipping them to undertake a realistic, workplace related assessment that leads to a level 2 qualification.
• Key skill groups (designers, craftsmen, maintenance staff, drivers, admin staff etc.)
• Trainees
• Safety representatives
• All new starters. These people require a Level 1 course in General Health & Safety Awareness as a minimum. This course should cover the main areas of risk for the works they are involved in whether that is on a construction site or in an office.

Now the three courses mentioned above are generally best delivered by attending a classroom-based course.

The Wilkins Safety Group are a British Safety Council approved Training Centre.

• This allows us to run Ofqual accredited qualifications. These Qualifications sit on the Regulated Qualifications Framework and include such courses as
  the CSCS Green Card which was developed in partnership with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) for people wishing to apply for a CSCS card.
• Level 2 & 3 Supervising Staff Safely mixed with Risk Assessment which is comparable to IOSH Managing Safely

We are also an Association for Project Safety accredited Trainer for construction-based training.

Other courses are approved by The Highfield awarding body for compliance

We have also form relationships with other trainers providing City and Guilds, Lantra Awards, CITB CSkills Awards and NPORS. So we can provide you with Asbestos Awareness, First Aid, 2 Day SSSTS training and 5 Day SMSTS training.

In addition to the courses mentioned above there are a number of sets of regulations under the HASAWA which include general or specific health and safety training requirements. Examples include regulations covering:

• Asbestos – The Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations
• First aid – The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations
• Noise and vibration – Noise at Work Regulations (NAW Regs) and The Control of Vibration at Work Regulations
• Transport of dangerous goods – The Transport of Dangerous Goods (Safety Advisers) Regulations
• Confined spaces – The Confined Spaces Regulations
• Display screen equipment – The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations (DSE Regs)
• Flammable materials – Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations
• Lifting operations – Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations
• Personal protective equipment – Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations (PPE Regs)
• Substances hazardous to health – Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regs (COSHH)
• Construction – The Construction (Design and Management) Regulation
• Electricity – Electricity at Work Regs
• Fire precautions – The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
• Manual handling – Manual Handling Operations Regulations (MHO Regs)
• Work equipment – Provision and Use of Work Equipment (PUWE) Regs

There are many other topics where the HSE has issued key pieces of guidance and on which training should be provided. Some examples include:

• Accident Investigation
• Driving at work
• Lone Working
• Risk Assessment
• Stress

These training courses can be delivered in the classroom setting or, as is becoming more popular, by E Training.

The Wilkins Safety Group have now launched our much-anticipated health and safety e-learning

There are many e-learning benefits: You can drastically cut your risks and improve effectiveness. Staff retention and productivity will increase and safety will improve. It’s that simple.

The health and safety e-learning training courses are dynamic, engaging and very interesting. As the content is interactive your staff will learn quickly, retain more knowledge and enjoy the training.

The self test section means that they get to see how much they have learnt and if necessary, revisit any areas that they have failed. There is an option to print a certificate for each user who has passed which is personalised with their details.

By providing high quality accurate health and safety information to your staff you will build a culture of safety and help increase staff retention, productivity as well as protecting yourself from damaging and expensive legal action.

One of the major e-learning benefits is the fact that the system provides an audit trail which tracks your staff progress and you can make an accurate assessment of their understanding.

How is the training delivered?

The Wilkins Safety Group e-learning system is delivered over the Internet, all you need to access your system is a PC with Internet browser (you will also need your username and password).

The system is hosted on our secure server. The server carries an SSL certificate and all data is encrypted for maximum security. We manage the server that means that you have no IT worries.

What is the cost of these courses?

Companies will be able to buy credits. Each of these credits will allow 1 allocated person access to 1 course. The cost of these credits will reduce based on the number of credits purchased. See pricing chart below:

Below is the list of the first 17 e-courses that are now available

• Asbestos Awareness Interactive
• COSHH Interactive
• DSE Equipment
• DSE Workstation Assessment
• Electrical Safety
• Environmental Awareness
• Fire Extinguishers
• Fire Safety Interactive
• Fire warden Interactive
• First Aid
• Food Hygiene
• Food Hygiene Level 2
• Health and Safety Induction Interaction
• Manual Handling
• Protection against effects of Noise
• Risk Assessment
• Stress in the Workplace

We would love to hear any expressions of interest or of any other courses that you would like us to develop.

We are looking at Permits to Work; Slips, Trips and Falls and Working at Height to follow soon after

If you would like any further help or support, please please contact us by phone 01458 253682, email or via our Facebook page or by Twitter.

Taunton & Somerset CPD Group at The Exchange House Taunton

Please remember that we now run these CPD events at the Exchange House, 12 – 14 The Crescent, Taunton TA1 4EB on a fortnightly basis

The next of the CPD events is listed below.

As previously requested, if you could let us know whether or not you can attend it would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you would like to give a talk, or know of somebody who would, please contact Jon at [email protected]

Our next Seminar will be on Wednesday 29^th May 2019. Could you please arrive by 12:30pm prompt.

Our speaker for this one is Reinhardt Kirton of Thermorend Limited will talk about Specialist render and external wall insulation systems.

 If you haven’t already booked your place, or if you are not on the CPD Seminar mailing list but would like to be please drop Jon an email and he will deal with your request.

As per our last one if you could let Jon know whether or not you can attend within 7 days of receipt of his email, it would be greatly appreciated.

Contact Details [email protected]  07831 714199 or 01458 253682.

Then we have Sam Hagley of Venesta who will talk about Designing Washrooms for different applications

 This talk will be on Wednesday 12^th June and will be the last one until 11^th September