Health and Safety Awareness

Health and safety awareness training delivered at your workplace or live online. Half day or full day. A genuine shift in how your team thinks about health and safety, not just another compliance exercise.

Course Overview

Health and safety is one of the most consistently misunderstood areas of working life. Not because it is complicated. Because somewhere along the way, it stopped being about protecting people and started feeling like paperwork. The attitude surfaces in delivery with striking regularity: staff who see it as a tick-box exercise, teams who do not follow processes because they feel like red tape, individuals who have never understood that the rules they find inconvenient exist because someone, somewhere, was seriously hurt without them. And organisations who discover during an incident investigation, a near miss review, or an HSE inspection that the culture they assumed was in place was not there at all.

The consequences of that attitude are not abstract. Poor health and safety practice leads to workplace injuries, occupational illness, enforcement action, civil liability, reputational damage, and, in the most serious cases, death. The legal and financial implications for organisations that cannot demonstrate adequate health and safety arrangements are significant. The personal implications for the individuals involved are worse.

This course changes how staff think about health and safety, not just what they know about it. It gives every member of a team a clear and practical understanding of why health and safety matters, what their legal responsibilities are, and what good practice looks like in their actual working environment. The course reflects the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, and RIDDOR 2013, alongside current guidance from the Health and Safety Executive.

Course Details

  • Duration: Half day (3 to 4 hours) or full day (6 hours)
  • Delivery: Face-to-face in-house or live online via Zoom or Microsoft Teams
  • Certificate: CPD-Accredited Certificate of Achievement in Health and Safety Awareness
  • Awarding organisations: CPD-Accredited
  • Validity: No formal expiry. Refresher recommended every 2 to 3 years, or sooner following significant changes to workplace risks, new equipment or procedures, incidents or near misses, or significant staff turnover.
  • Group size: Maximum 15 learners per trainer

Who This Course Is For

This course is right for all employees across any sector who need a clear, practical understanding of health and safety responsibilities in their working environment.

  • All staff requiring induction-level health and safety training
  • New starters across any sector
  • Office, retail, hospitality, care, education, and industrial staff
  • Supervisors and team leaders with day-to-day responsibility for safe working
  • Organisations wanting to strengthen health and safety culture across their workforce, not just among designated health and safety leads

It is particularly valuable for teams where health and safety has become a compliance exercise rather than an embedded working practice, and where staff have never been given a genuine explanation of why the requirements that frustrate them exist. For teams with specific responsibility for carrying out and documenting risk assessments, or where a regulated qualification is required, our Level 2 Health and Safety course goes further. Not sure which is right for your team? Get in touch, and we’ll help you work it out before you commit.

The Legal Requirement

Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, employers have a legal duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety, and welfare of their employees and others affected by their work. That duty includes providing adequate information, instruction, training, and supervision. It applies to every employer in the UK regardless of size or sector.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require employers to carry out suitable and sufficient risk assessments, implement appropriate control measures, and ensure employees are aware of the risks relevant to their work and how those risks are controlled. Where employers have five or more employees, risk assessments must be documented.

RIDDOR 2013 requires employers to report certain workplace injuries, occupational diseases, and dangerous occurrences to the HSE. A team that does not report near misses or injuries because they see it as unnecessary paperwork is failing a legal obligation, losing the data that would prevent the next incident, and exposing their organisation to significant regulatory risk. The HSE is clear that effective health and safety management is not about generating paperwork. It is about leading and managing risk in a way that protects people.

What the Day Covers

All content reflects the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, RIDDOR 2013, and current HSE guidance throughout. Content is adapted to your sector and the specific hazards most relevant to your team. Topics covered include:

  • Health and safety law: the legal framework, employer and employee duties, and what the obligations actually require
  • Why health and safety matters: the real consequences of poor practice for individuals, teams, and organisations
  • Hazard identification: recognising common workplace hazards across a range of environments and understanding how hazards become risks
  • Risk assessment in practice: the five-step process, suitable and sufficient assessment, and the hierarchy of control measures
  • Control measures and safe systems of work: what they are and why they must be followed consistently
  • Accident and incident reporting: RIDDOR 2013 obligations, what must be reported, to whom, and within what timeframe
  • Near miss reporting: why near miss data prevents serious incidents and why failing to report is a regulatory risk
  • Workplace policies and procedures: understanding how they connect to legal obligations
  • Health and safety culture: the difference between compliance and genuine safety practice
  • Escalating concerns: when and how to raise health and safety issues through the correct channels

Every course is also built to include your specific working environment, your internal policies, and your incident reporting systems as standard.

How the Course Is Delivered

This course is available face-to-face at your workplace or chosen venue, or live online via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Both formats are fully interactive. Online delivery is a live session with the same discussion, scenario work, and trainer engagement as the room-based version, not a pre-recorded module.

Groups are capped at 15 to ensure every learner has sufficient space for the honest discussion this topic generates. Every session is built around your specific working environment, your industry sector, and the hazards most likely to affect your staff. For teams where health and safety culture has become disengaged, we can discuss how to frame the session to address that directly during the enquiry process.

Delivery includes:

  • Direct and honest discussion of why health and safety is treated as an annoyance by many staff, and what that attitude actually costs
  • Scenario-based work covering the hazards and decisions most relevant to your sector and working environment
  • Practical exploration of risk assessment, incident reporting, and safe systems of work in the context of your organisation
  • Discussion of your own policies, reporting systems, and any specific incidents or near misses relevant to your team

Health and Safety Awareness or Level 2 Health and Safety?

Both courses address health and safety knowledge and legal obligations. The right choice depends on the role and the level of responsibility.

Health and Safety Awareness (this course) is right for all employees who need a clear, practical grounding in health and safety responsibilities in their working environment. It covers the legal framework, hazard identification, risk assessment principles, and incident reporting at an awareness level appropriate to all staff, regardless of role or sector.

Level 2 Health and Safety is right for staff with specific health and safety responsibilities, those in supervisory or management roles, and settings where a regulated qualification is required. It covers the same framework in greater depth and includes a formal assessment. It is the appropriate level for anyone whose role includes documented responsibility for health and safety management.

We don’t make that determination for employers; the responsibility sits with you. But we do provide guidance throughout the enquiry process.

Certification and Validity

On completion, learners receive a CPD-Accredited Certificate of Achievement in Health and Safety Awareness.

A refresher is recommended every 2 to 3 years, or sooner following significant changes to workplace risks, the introduction of new equipment or procedures, following any workplace incident or near miss, or where significant staff turnover means a substantial portion of the team has not completed training. Many organisations align health and safety awareness refreshers with their annual or biennial compliance training cycle.

Our Level 2 Health and Safety course is the natural next step for staff moving into roles with specific health and safety management responsibilities.

Why Organisations Book With Prima Cura

Most training providers arrive with a course. We arrive with yours.

Before the day, we gather information about your workplace: your incident reporting forms, your internal procedures, and the specific hazards your team actually faces. On the day, your trainer works that into every scenario, every discussion, every practical exercise. If your staff work in a care home, they’re not practising on hypothetical office workers. If your team are lone workers, that context shapes how the session runs.

It means the training lands. Not because it was well-delivered in a generic sense, but because it was relevant to the people in the room and the situations they’ll actually encounter.

A few other things that matter to the organisations that book with us:

  • 98.9% learner satisfaction across all Prima Cura courses
  • All trainers hold Enhanced DBS certificates and maintain ongoing CPD
  • We advise honestly on the qualification level at the enquiry stage. If a different course is a better fit for your workforce, we’ll say so before you book, not after

We respond to all enquiries within one working day.

Where We Deliver

We deliver in-house training at your workplace or chosen venue across Manchester, Greater Manchester, and the wider North West. We also deliver nationally across England, including North England, South England, London, and Surrey.

All sessions are led by experienced Prima Cura Training instructors. Groups are capped at 15 per trainer to protect the quality of hands-on learning.

Our associate network means we can deliver across England. You can meet the team on our Associates page.

FAQs

Is health and safety awareness training a legal requirement?

Yes, in practice. Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, employers must provide employees with adequate health and safety information, instruction, and training appropriate to their role and the risks they face. The law does not prescribe a specific course title, but it does require that the training be sufficient for the task. An organisation that cannot demonstrate its staff have received appropriate health and safety training is non-compliant.

Why do so many staff see health and safety as red tape?

Because they have never been given a genuine explanation of why the requirements exist. When health and safety training focuses on rules rather than reasoning, compliance becomes grudging at best. This course addresses that directly. Once staff understand the actual consequences of poor practice, including injury, illness, enforcement action, and personal liability, their attitude changes. That shift in understanding is the whole point of this course, and it is the difference between a team that follows procedures only when someone is watching and one that follows them because they understand why it matters. We see it happen consistently across Greater Manchester, the wider North West, and nationally.

Does this include risk assessment training?

It includes a practical introduction to risk assessment, covering the five-step process, suitable and sufficient assessment, and the hierarchy of control measures. For teams with specific responsibility for carrying out and documenting risk assessments, our Risk Assessing course covers this in greater depth.

Can this training be tailored to recent incidents in our organisation?

Yes. If your organisation has experienced a specific incident, near miss, or HSE finding that you want to address through training, we can incorporate that directly into delivery. Training that connects to real events your staff have experienced or are aware of is significantly more effective than generic content. This is one of the most consistent pieces of feedback we receive across health and safety training delivered across Greater Manchester, the wider North West, and nationally.

Related Courses

Book or Enquire

Book your training or request a quote

Tell us your team size and your sector. We’ll come back with a quote, the right advice on qualification level, and a straight answer on whether this is the best course for your team.

We respond to all enquiries within one working day.

Our Commitment to Quality and Compliance

At Prima Cura Training, all courses reflect current UK guidance and best practice. All trainers are experienced professionals with relevant qualifications and ongoing CPD. Because many of the organisations we support work with vulnerable individuals, all trainers hold Enhanced DBS checks.

This course is reviewed against updates from the Health and Safety Executive and current UK health and safety legislation, including the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, and the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013.

You can read more on our Quality Assurance and Compliance page.

Reviewed by Stephanie Austin, Owner and Lead Trainer, Prima Cura Training | 25+ years in health and social care | 15+ years as a trainer | Last reviewed: June 2026 | Next review: June 2027

This page is for general guidance only and reflects current UK health and safety legislation and HSE guidance as of the date of review. It does not constitute legal advice. Health and Safety Awareness Training is an awareness-level course and does not replace organisation-specific risk assessments, safe systems of work, or the legal responsibilities placed on employers and employees under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, and the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013. Employers remain responsible for ensuring their health and safety arrangements, risk assessments, reporting procedures, and staff training comply with all applicable legislation and HSE guidance.

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