The Role of a competent person

Health and safety practitioners, also known as health and safety officers, managers, advisers or consultants, seek to minimise the risk of injury and ill health at work. The role of a health and safety practitioner is to provide advice on planning, implementing, monitoring and reviewing protective and preventative health, safety and welfare measures.

How do you know your advisor is competent?

If you are seeking to contract with an external consultancy or employ an internal advisor, how do you know what role and function the competent person should take and what capabilities, knowledge and skills they would require to be effective.

How competent is your health and safety advisor?

Organisations have a legal duty to ensure arrangements for a competent person are in place, that the competent person is able to conduct their duties and has sufficient training and experience to perform their role.

Farm worker suffers serious injury due to faulty machinery

The agricultural industry is one of the most dangerous environments to work in from a health and safety perspective. With high rates of injury and fatalities employers need to be more vigilant than ever when it comes to the safety of their workers.

Breach of Health & Safety at Work Act leads to £600k fine for Textile Company

Handling large machinery always comes with associated risks and it can be impossible to pinpoint the injury rate for a particular type of machine.

When using heavy equipment, like a packaging machine, it is imperative to put a formalised safe system of work in place and to train workers appropriately. Daily safety checks and routine hygienic cleaning ensure that staff are not at risk of injury.

Failure to carry out correct Risk Assessments leads to two workers sustaining serious injury

Risk assessments can seem to be an endless task but if you fail to have them in place there can be serious consequences.

Businesses have a responsibility to ensure all staff are aware of and understand the risks associated with their work as well as the environment they work in. A failure to do this can result in large fines and opens up the possibility of accidents in the work place.

Devon Contractors fined for breach of Health & Safety at Work Regulations

When it comes to health and safety on a construction site, making sure workers have the correct training and undertake the required procedures is imperative.

Working with heavy machinery, construction equipment and vehicles comes with a number of risks meaning you could injure yourself, someone else or cause a fatality.

NEBOSH Open Book Exam (OBE) - What they are, how they work and what you need to do

The new NEBOSH open book exams (OBE) came into force in July 2020, with the first of its kind taking place on 6^th August 2020.

Due to Covid-19, students were unable to visit classrooms for either their studies or examinations. In turn, NEBOSH created the OBE to replace traditional classroom-based exams, allowing students to participate from anywhere in the world.

The open book exam format only applies to the following NEBOSH courses:

• National General Certificate (NG1 and NGC1)
• International General Certificate (IG1 and IGC1)
• National Certificate in Construction (NG1)
• International Certificate in Construction (IG1)

Fancy answering some sample questions? We have created an interactive e-learning platform, specifically for the NEBOSH open book exam that contains a mock interview.

Go to interactive e-learning

NVQ Level 5 or NVQ Level 6, which one should you choose?

If you’re a health and safety professional ready to take your career to the next level, there’s a wide range of qualifications to consider. For instance, we have some of the industry’s most knowledgeable tutors teaching IOSH and NEBOSH courses across the UK.

But we also offer other ways to progress your career in health and safety, one of which is by taking an NVQ Diploma. These courses provide a practical, work-based, exam-free approach to gaining those all-important qualifications.

Let’s take a more in-depth look at what an NVQ Diploma in health and safety could do for your career.

Track and Trace App – Have you downloaded it?

The NHS Track and Trace app is now available and has already had millions of downloads. Here’s a summary of what the app does and where you can access it.

Phoenix is committed to returning to classroom training whilst ensuring the safety of our students and trainers. If you choose to download the Track and Trace app, it can provide you with useful alerts if you’ve unwittingly come into close contact with someone who later tests positive for Covid. It doesn’t do anything to reduce the risk of you getting Covid however, and that’s why we’re working closely with our venues to ensure the highest levels of cleanliness and appropriate social distancing.

Back to the app and the information - The app gives you some valuable information: the first thing that you see is the risk level for the area you’re in.  It then gives you more information about what this means, detailing the risk level in your local and neighbouring authority area and whether the level of infection is rising.

The app then has five areas to explore:

Venue Check in – This allows you to scan in the QR code when you check into a venue

Check Symptoms – Where you select any symptoms you may have and then you get the corresponding advice on what to do

Read the latest advice – This takes you to the Gov.uk website where you can get all the up to date advice on how to protect yourself and others; testing, local restrictions etc.

About this app – tells you about how the app works and the technology behind it and how your data is used

Enter test results – here you enter a test code, which you will receive from the testing service by e-mail or SMS with your test result.  Although, if you booked the test from the app then the results will appear automatically.

Then at the bottom there is a button where you can turn off the tracing and you can choose for it to remind you when you want it turning back on 4, 8 or 12 hours.  Or not to remind you at all.

And, of course, this is voluntary so you can delete the app.

For more information about the Covid-19 App, visit the NHS website.

NEBOSH or IOSH - Which is right for me?

Are you trying to decide between a NEBOSH or IOSH course? Want to find out more about the difference between these qualification providers? Here we will answer some of the most common questions.

NEBOSH and IOSH provide widely recognised qualifications in health and safety. They both offer a selection of courses, tailored to different industries and job roles. Similarly, they are both members of the OSHCR, a public register of UK-based health and safety advice consultants.

There are, however, several differences between the two. The main distinction is that NEBOSH is an awarding body, whereas IOSH is a member organisation, as well as an awarding body.

Let’s look at a few more differences between the two qualification providers.

What jobs can a NEBOSH certificate get you?

The NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety can be the gateway to a variety of not just jobs, but careers. It is widely recognised as an ideal first step towards becoming a health and safety professional, often taken by people who have had health and safety as part of their duties and now wish to it to become their specialist field.

Who is responsible for H&S in workplace?

If you run or manage any kind of business or organisation you already know it, the health and safety buck stops with the boss.

Under UK law there's no doubt. It's every employer’s responsibility to protect the health and safety of their employees, and of anyone else who might be affected by the business, including customers, visitors and passers-by.

Health and safety law, what you need to know

What every employer needs to know about health and safety law

One of the best known legal maxims is that ignorance of the law is no defence. When it comes to health and safety, "I didn't know we couldn't do that" simply won't cut it in court. And not knowing the law makes you much more likely to end up there.