Health and safety training helps people gain the skills, knowledge and competence to carry out their work safely and without risk to their own health and others. How we do this is described in our health and safety training policy (HSP 6.0) (DOCX, 818KB).
Health and safety training programme
Our health and safety training courses are designed to meet the general needs of the council. The Corporate Health and Safety Board agrees the annual programme and receives regular reports on attendance.
All courses on this programme are paid for centrally. Services are expected to fund any service-specific training and may also be charged for late cancelations.
Book on My Learning for training courses on:
- managing challenging behaviour and personal safety
- safety for line managers
- short safety sessions
You can contact the Health and Safety team (PDF, 110 KB) if you have any questions.
Fire marshal training
Mitie, our facilities and property management partner, provide free fire marshal training.
To book an online session, complete the fire marshal training form.
First aid training
These courses are centrally funded as part of the corporate health and safety training programme.
First aid courses will be conducted at either the Adult Community Learning (ACL) centre in Brentwood or Colchester, both of which offer free car parking facilities.
To book, fill in the first aid training form.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) strongly recommends that first aiders take annual refresher training during the 3-year certification period, but this is not mandatory.
How we chose a first aid provider
All first aid training providers need to be able to demonstrate how they satisfy certain criteria, including:
- the qualifications expected of trainers and assessors
- monitoring and quality assurance systems
- teaching and standards of first aid practice in line with current guidance
- course content
- certification
Satisfying these criteria will demonstrate that the training provider is competent to deliver first aid training. This helps us to comply with the law, as the Health and Safety at Work Act places a duty on us to select a competent training provider.
Find out more about first aider duties.