New supervisor training standard announced

The UK Contractors Group (UKCG), which represents 29 leading construction contractors in the UK, says it will tighten rules on health and safety performance by introducing a new supervisor training standard, to come into effect on 1st January 2010.

The new standard will set a minimum level of knowledge and skill that supervisors working on their sites must demonstrate before supervising workers.

Stephen Ratcliffe, Director of UKCG, said the Group had recognised the need to tighten up the competence of supervisors to improve health and safety performance.  The new training standard will require supervisors to demonstrate:

• Sufficient knowledge of health and safety gained at a construction specific course of at least two days duration.
• Sufficient skills to be an effective supervisor of their workers. They will need to demonstrate having attended training which includes an understanding of behavioral issues, leadership and effective intervention skills. This training must include delivering effective presentations (e.g. tool box talks), role-play, have a form of testing, and successful candidates must be issued with a certificate to demonstrate a suitable standard has been achieved.

Although UKGC will not formally accredit training courses there are a number of training providers who already run courses that meet the required standard which can be selected by their members.