Introduction to Risk Assessment

Risk assessment is the engine of UK health and safety law: the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require every employer to assess the risks their work creates, and every method statement, permit and safe system of work traces back to one. Yet most people asked to write a risk assessment have never been taught how, and it shows in the paperwork: generic hazards, copied controls and assessments that describe a job nobody actually does.

This course teaches the craft properly, built on the HSE five-step approach: identify the hazards by looking at the real task rather than the job title; decide who could be harmed and how; evaluate the risk and choose controls using the hierarchy, elimination first, PPE last; record the findings in a form workers can actually follow; and review when anything changes. Delegates write and critique real assessments during the course, leaving with a method rather than a template.

The skill deepens with the role: supervisors formalise it on SSSTS, managers on SMSTS and IOSH Managing Safely, and specialist assessments have their own courses, from COSHH to DSE. Browse the set under health and safety training.

• Anyone asked to write or review risk assessments
• Supervisors and team leaders producing RAMS
• Office, workshop and site staff taking on safety duties
• Small business owners doing their own assessments
• Administrators who manage assessment paperwork

• No formal entry requirements
• Knowledge of your own workplace tasks helps the practical work
• A reasonable level of written English

• A risk assessment training certificate
• The HSE five-step method, practised on real tasks
• The ability to write suitable and sufficient assessments
• Command of the hierarchy of control
• The judgement to know when a task needs specialist assessment