What is in the IOSH Managing Safely Course

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If you're about to embark on an IOSH Managing Safely course you may be feeling a little anxious about what lies ahead. Of course there's no reason that you should be but many of us have been away from the learning environment for some time so here's a little 'heads up' for you.

Module 1

Why is it important to manage safely?

In module one delegates are introduced to what happens when things go wrong at work, the effect that an accident can have on the family of the injured person, what might happen in the courts and what happens as a result of bad press. In other words, what are the moral, legal and financial impacts of accidents at work.

The moral importance of managing safely is reinforced in a video featuring Ken Woodward, who was blinded as a result of an accident at work. The accident had an impact on many people.

What are your responsibilities as a manager?

Many managers don’t really know what their health and safety responsibilities are. We discuss responsibility and accountability so that managers can understand what they need to do. They will also have a better understanding of what they should expect from their subordinates.

There is a great IOSH game, which enables learners to measure their own perception whilst at the same time delivering a range of safety data such as the rate at which people are injured at work, the cost of accidents to British industry, insurance costs and what would not be covered by insurance in the event of an accident.

Module 2

What is risk?

Risk assessment is essential to successful health and safety management. It’s understandable then that we spend some time discovering what the processes involve.

In this section delegates are introduced to the definition of risk assessment words and phrases.

What is a risk assessment?

We then move on to identify what a risk assessment consists of and what its intention is, who and what it protects and how it achieves this.

How are risk assessments carried out?

There are many types of risk assessment and it can be quite daunting to the uninitiated. The IOSH Managing Safely course concentrates on the IOSH 6 step approach to risk assessment. 

The process is taught stage by stage, including tips for improving risk assessments. The whole thing is put into practice with a board game. 

Module 3

How do you reduce risks?

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations tell us that risk controls are to be implemented in accordance with the principles laid down in schedule 1 to those Regulations – all a bit eyebrow eh?

IOSH have produced a hierarchy of risk controls based on this schedule, making it easier for managers to understand how they should control risks at work.

Explanation is given to each component of the hierarchy along with justification for its position in the hierarchy, their strengths and their weaknesses. Managers can now understand the principles of risk prevention and we apply this in an interactive way, using a couple of examples.

How do you decide which risk controls to use?

We don’t always select the highest level of control from the hierarchy of risk control; it would likely be too expensive. It may even prevent us from doing some of our work activities but that doesn’t mean that we can accept certain risks because controlling them is expensive.

In this part of the course we discover what principles should be applied in selecting risk controls. There’s another board game to practice understanding too. 

Module 4

It can be difficult to understand what we need to do in terms of managing our health and safety. Just as well that there a re a few things out there to help us.

What does the law require you to do?

The law is often seen as a tool used by the authorities to punish people but if we use it correctly it is a tool to help managers with their responsibilities. Managers will discover how to use the law to their (and their employers) benefit.

How does the law work?

Criminal law, civil law, how does it all work, who applies it and what does it mean to workplaces in the UK? Just some of the questions answered in this section.

The main parts of the law are covered with some specific Regulatory information. 

What are the key parts of a health and safety management system?

Just like anything else in the workplace, if health and safety isn’t managed things will inevitably go wrong. So we ensure that managers know how to manage health and safety and what sort of system could be used.

Module 5

What are common hazards?

It’s impossible to cover every conceivable health and safety eventuality in your workplace, especially in just 4 days, but we give it a good shot. We talk about what could go wrong, how it goes wrong and how to recognise the problem. Topics include:
Aggression
Violence
Bullying
Chemicals
Computer workstations
Electricity
Fire
Getting in and out
Heights
Housekeeping
Lighting
Manual handling
Noise
Slips and trips
Stress
Temperature
Vehicles and transport
Vibration

What can you do about common hazards?

Having discussed what can go wrong we take a look at how we can fix the problems.

Module 6

Why investigate accidents and incidents?

Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, accidents will happen. It is important that managers know what to do in the event of an accident so that we can prevent it from happening again.

How do accidents and incidents happen?

Accidents rarely happen as a result of a single root cause, which is why managers need to know how to identify all of the root causes. 

How do you carry out an investigation?

The accident investigation process is broken down into 6 easy to understand steps. Each of these are covered in some detail and then applied during a practical DVD based exercise.

Module 7

What’s performance measurement about?

In this part we discuss why we need to measure performance and what type of indicators we should use.

How do you measure health and safety performance?

There are many ways to measure performance, to collect and to analyse data. At the end of this part managers will understand the processes involved in measuring health and safety performance so that you can identify how well your organisation is doing in terms of managing its health and safety.

What is auditing?

Auditing is a very important part of measuring health and safety performance but it is not commonly understood. All of that changes here. 

Module 8

What is the impact of industry on the environment?

The need to manage how we impact on the environment is becoming more a more important to us, our customers and to the public. We start out by defining what is meant by the environment, what are our aspects and what are our impacts. We also look at how industry affects our surroundings.

How can you control pollution and waste?

We control our environmental impacts through a risk assessment process and the application of the hierarchy of waste control. So, here we cover the environmental risk assessment process and the constituent parts of the hierarchy of waste control.

What are the main elements of an environmental management system?

Just as with the health and safety (and any other aspect of our undertakings) we need a system by which to manage the way that we affect our environment. Managers will understand what such a system would comprise of and how it benefits us all. 

IOSH Managing Safely – end of course assessment

There are two types of assessment for this course. One is a one hour multiformat paper and the other is a risk assessment based project.

The multiformat assessment paper comprises multi choice questions and questions requiring a listed answer. We prepare our learners by practicing mock papers and open question rounds at the end of each module.

The risk assessment based project is undertaken after course end. Before they leave our training centre learners are fully briefed on how to complete the project stage by stage and what the expectations of IOSH are.

Your training provider should give full support to all learners, either by email, telephone or face to face, until they have completed their project successfully. 

There’s quite a bit in there eh? It may seem a little daunting at first but there’s no reason that anyone should fail this course but please remember that IOSH set this course at Level 2, which is like a GCSE (or an ‘O’ Level if you’re as old as me) so it shouldn’t be too easy.

I hope that you enjoy your IOSH Managing Safely training and I wish you every success, no matter who you are doing your training with.