Employers are duty-bound under health and safety legislation to provide it for employees. Self-employed people must be competent to conduct their activities without exposing themselves or others to health and safety risks. Committing to structured training benefits organisation performance and reduces the chance and impact of disruptive incidents.
Informal or unstructured training can overlook proper health and safety procedures and precautions, allowing incorrect practices that haven’t been formally assessed to emerge.
Training is important to establish competency, and should be linked to key responsibilities, activities and tasks identified in risk assessments.
The overarching objective of an employer, with respects to health and safety, should be to:
- provide information, instruction and training to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, employees spot and control hazards and risks; and
- develop safe systems of work (SSOW) and risk control measures for health and safety and include them in formal work instructions and procedures.
The requirements for effective completion of these actions can be determined, primarily, from the health and safety policy and from up-to-date and comprehensive risk assessments.