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If you’re responsible for health and safety, training or workforce competence, you may have come across HSG65 – Managing for health and safety.
Published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), HSG65 provides practical guidance for organisations looking to manage health and safety effectively. It is particularly aimed at leaders, owners, line managers and those responsible for overseeing health and safety arrangements.
One of its central principles is that health and safety shouldn’t be treated as a separate exercise. It should form part of how an organisation is managed day to day.
HSG65 uses a Plan, Do, Check, Act approach:
PLAN – understand where you are now, identify what needs to be achieved and decide how you are going to get there.
DO – put those arrangements into practice, including managing risks and ensuring people have the right responsibilities, resources and competence.
CHECK – monitor performance and check whether the arrangements you have put in place are actually working.
ACT – review performance, address weaknesses and make improvements.
Crucially, this is a cycle rather than a one-off exercise. As your workforce, projects, equipment and risks change, your arrangements may need to change too.
Competence is an important part of effective health and safety management.
HSE describes competence as a combination of training, skills, experience and knowledge, together with someone’s ability to apply them to perform a task safely.
This distinction matters.
Completing a training course or holding a card or certificate doesn’t automatically demonstrate every aspect of someone’s competence for the work they are undertaking.
HSG65 asks employers and managers to consider whether workers have the necessary training, knowledge and experience to carry out their jobs safely, and whether their individual capabilities are appropriate for the work being allocated.
It also makes an important point:
Training alone does not achieve competence.
Practical experience, supervision and the opportunity to consolidate knowledge and skills all play a part.
Why reviewing competence matters
Construction workforces rarely remain static.
You may have:
This is why competence management shouldn’t simply be a case of booking training when something expires.
Regularly reviewing your workforce can help you understand what people are actually doing, what competence they can already demonstrate and where genuine gaps exist.
A training matrix can be extremely useful, but only if the information within it reflects your current workforce and the work they actually undertake.
For example, a useful workforce review might consider:
What roles and activities are employees currently undertaking?
Do their existing qualifications and competence cards reflect those activities?
Have people changed roles or taken on additional responsibilities?
Are there experienced workers who could formally demonstrate occupational competence through an NVQ?
Are any CSCS, CPCS or NPORS cards approaching expiry or requiring progression?
Is additional training actually required, or is another competence route more appropriate?
What future projects or contracts are coming up, and what requirements will they create?
This changes the conversation from:
“What training do we need to book?”
to:
“What does our workforce need to remain competent for the work we’re asking them to do?”
The same HSG65 principles can therefore be applied when thinking about workforce development.
PLAN – understand roles, responsibilities, risks and future requirements. Identify where competence gaps may exist.
DO – put appropriate measures in place. Depending on the individual and their role, this could include training, qualifications, assessment, supervision or practical experience.
CHECK – review whether people continue to have the appropriate competence for the work they undertake. Monitor qualifications, cards, training and changes within the workforce.
ACT – address gaps, update workforce plans and respond to changes in roles, projects, legislation or industry requirements.
Then repeat the process as the organisation and workforce change.
If your organisation mainly reviews training when a certificate or card is about to expire, there may be opportunities to take a more proactive approach.
Workforce Skills Support helps construction employers review existing workforce competence, identify potential gaps and plan appropriate qualifications and training.
A Workforce Competence Review can look at your workforce as a whole – including current roles, qualifications, competence cards, upcoming requirements and potential funding or CITB grant support.
The aim isn’t to recommend training where it isn’t needed.
It’s to help establish what your workforce already has, what it actually needs and what should be planned next.
Book a Workforce Competence Review to review your current position and identify the next priorities for your workforce.