How often should health and safety training be refreshed?

Business owners and managers ask us “how often should health and safety training for my employees be refreshed?”

This is a big question and as with all things relevant to the health and safety of emis, “How often should I refresh health and safety training for my employees or staff?”

In the UK the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 requires you to provide whatever is, “How often should I refresh health and safety training for my employees or staff?””acticable, the health and safety at work of your employees.

In addition, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 identify situations where health and safety training is especially important.

Why is health and safety training important? 

Examples include when people first start working, when they are exposed to new or increased risks, and when their existing skills need to be updated or are rusty

 Depending on the job role or the risk involved, there may be other reasons for maintaining refresher training. Examples include:

• Fire safety refresher training should be provided to all staff at least once a year.
• Staff at hotels, for instance, would be trained twice a year.
• In most businesses, First Aiders can go 3 years without refresher training; however, if you haven’t been practicing first aid regularly, 3 years is a long time, so online training can be completed every 12 months to ensure that the basic skills and knowledge are maintained in case they’re needed in an emergency.

In addition to this, correctly assessing the risk an employee faces in their job is also important.

• Any job which involves risk of ill health or safety to an employee, such as the frequent use of computers and display screen equipment (DSE) or tasks requiring manual handling should also include a risk assessment in order to record and address any changes to both environment and also individual workload.
• By completing risk assessments alongside training periodically and addressing the changes noted, the health and safety of the employee is put at the forefront and solutions can be put into place before adverse consequences take hold.
• The old adage that prevention is better than cure rings true here. Preventing issues before they happen is far better for all than trying to cure issues after the event.

You will never know when your health and safety training will come in handy, and some may even wonder why health and safety training is important at all, but we will not be the only ones to tell you that having proper training is imperative, in the case that something happens and your help is required. It is important to think about refreshing your memory more often to make sure that you know exactly how to help someone if they are in need, and to make sure that you know which materials are hazardous if you find yourself in a strange situation. 

After completing your training in health and safety by selecting your favourite health and safety training courses, you will be fully equipped to being able to help others in the time of need. 

We offer expert health and safety training at PGL Midlands, we have a multitude of courses such as:

Citb Health and safety awareness course

Online health and safety awareness

Level 1 health and safety in a construction environment 

Level 1 Health and safety in a construction environment accredited exam 

If you have any questions about any of our courses, or would just like to ask our team some questions, we would be happy to hear from you! We are easily reachable by both email at info@pglmidlands.com and by phone at 0121 240 0375!