Health and safety training and supervision

Health and safety law says:

• employees must be trained and clearly instructed in their duties;
• employers and host companies must ensure contractors are properly trained to work safely.

Everyone who works for you, including self-employed people, needs to know how to work safely and without risks to health. So you need to train them to be sure they know what hazards and risks they may face, how to deal with them and any emergency procedures. Health and safety training should take place during working hours and must not be paid for by employees.

Some employees may have particular training needs, for example:

• new recruits;
• people changing jobs or taking on extra responsibilities;
• young employees who are particularly vulnerable to accidents;
• health and safety representatives.

You need to make sure that new, inexperienced or young employees are adequately supervised.

It is important that you keep records of all training to show that it is being carried out and so you can see when it might need to be repeated. You should consult workers or their representatives to make sure training is relevant and effective.

Training should be repeated from time to time if the work it relates to is only done occasionally. For example, if someone fills in for someone else when they are away; a process is not often done; or emergency procedures.

Relevant HSE free leaflets:

• Health and safety training: What you need to know INDG345 [175kb]
• Passport schemes for health, safety and environment: a good practice guide INDG381 [25kb]
• The right start: Work experience for young people [96kb]